“You know what?” he says, shutting the door behind him almost too calmly. “It’s good that you’re here. I need to talk to you.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Because you’re going to be a father. Get the fuck out of my chair.”
I don’t move. I look at him with a certain kind of surprise, though I shouldn’t be surprised. I have been trying my very best to get her pregnant since the first time I took her. Still, these things can take a very long time, and sometimes never happen at all.
“That’s wonderful news,” I say.
“Yeah,” John grunts. “Get the fuck out of my chair.”
I let him play the big man just a little longer. It’s going to be much more satisfying when he finally realizes that I am not who he thinks I am. I am much more than a horny, smarmy TV star who happens to have fucked a co-ed.
“You’re going to marry her,” he says as I stand up and walk around the other side of the desk.
“Can’t marry her. I’m her teacher.”
“Then she’ll leave school and then you’ll get married. It’s the right thing to do.”
I am putting up something of a fight, without outright saying no, because I want John to think he’s winning. My plan, originally, was to end him in this meeting, but he’s inadvertently made himself useful, so perhaps his children will get to keep their father a little longer.
“You and me are going to go to the house and talk about this with Laura,” he says.
I have to keep myself from bursting out laughing with how well this is going.
He’s going to deliver her right to me.
And he’s going to demand she gives herself to me.
“You know where it is,” he says. “You’ve been there before, right?”
Neither one of us is going to mention how I knew where to find him, the fact that I obviously know his real identity, and the fact that I walked right into the very center of his empire. If he’s smart—and I think he is—he’s probably considering killing me as well.
I drive to the house, following John’s car. We both park outside and I have his escort into the home. The moment I step into the kitchen, Laura goes pale.
She was sitting at the kitchen table peeling potatoes with her sister. Her mom was stuffing a turkey. The small kids were trying to stab each other with common household items. All of that stops as we walk in.
“Daddy!” The little ones rush to John, while I stand respectfully to the side and wait for the greetings to be done.
Laura is staring at me like she’s just seen a ghost. I flick a wink at her just to let her know there’re no hard feelings. She might have run, and she will be punished for that, but I’m not angry at her. She had to give it a try. She was just outplayed by fate and by me.
She looks at John.
“Why is he here? You said I’d never see him again.”
Her mother chases the little kids out of the room and gets all the others down at the other end of the house. I’d say they’ll still be able to hear the conversations, though. This isn’t exactly a solidly built dwelling.
“He’s the father of your baby,” John says. “You two are going to get married.”
“No,” Laura says. “He’s a psycho. You don’t get it.”
“Does he hit you or something?”
“He wants to lock me away in his house,” she says. “He wants to make it so I’m… he kills people.”
“Hey. A man who kills people…” John gives a shrug.
“I’m not marrying him,” she says, standing up. “I’m not doing what either of you tell me to do, and if you keep trying to force me, I’ll make you both regret it!”
