I kneel down in front of her and stare into her eyes with a gaze sharp enough to cut through steel. “From now on...you are dead to me.”
She releases a choked sob as I push to my feet and turn slowly on my heel.
“No, please!” Lucia cries, reaching for me again, and narrowly missing my leg. She shakes her head frantically as she lifts herself from the floor. “We can still make this work. You can still raise her as your own. She doesn’t ever have to know about her real dad.”
“What?!” I spin around to face her. “You want us to lie to her for the rest of her life, is that what you’re saying?”
“No, I just mean—”
“I know exactly what you mean! You want to keep Arianna in the dark about who her real father is, like he doesn’t exist. And then expect me to shoulder the weight, and take on the responsibilities of raising another man’s child, someone who, by the way, has a fucking family of his own.” I let out a dry, humourless laugh. “No. You don’t get to do what you did and then expect me to save you like I’m some knight in shining armour.”
“I’m not. I just don’t know how to do this on my own.”
“Then call her fucking dad!”
“He can’t know, Kaden! He has a wife, a son—”
“Well it didn’t stop you from fucking him and getting yourself knocked up, did it? I don’t care if you’re too much of a coward to call him, but either way, he deserves to know about his child.”
She shakes her head, sobbing hysterically with her hands covering her face. For a fleeting moment, I actually feel pity for her. That perhaps I’m being a little too harsh. Too cold.
But it’s gone almost as quickly as it comes, replaced by the memory of everything she’s ever done. The marriages she’s destroyed. The homes she’s torn apart. And I’m snapped right back to feeling nothing but anger and disdain towards her.
“You don’t understand,” she chokes out, her voice breaking under the strain. “Adrian’s going to deny everything. He’s not going to want to know about Ari.”
“How would you know that? You haven’t even tried to reach out to him.”
The very mention of her lover’s name only makes my blood boil. I’ve never met the man, but I know enough that if we ever come face to face, he’ll wish he hadn’t.
From the little information my private investigator dug up about Adrian Turner, I quickly learned that he married his high school sweetheart, has an eight-year-old son named Zac, and works as a primary school teacher at the same school Lucia works at.
He was the new teacher when they first met, the one who, ironically, replaced my ex-wife after she left over my affair with Lucia.
I swear, the universe’s twisted sense of karma couldn’t have been more cruel—or more perfect, depending on how you look at it.
Lucia eventually confessed that their affair began shortly after I moved in with her, right around the time the cracks in our relationship were starting to show. What should have been a fresh start for us, quickly became one of the worst times of my life.
Every little thing with her became an argument—suspicion, frustration, jealousy, all replacing the closeness we once shared. And no matter what I tried, nothing seemed to bridge the growing distance between us.
But still, I stayed. I told myself I had to. I destroyed my marriage because of her—because of us. I couldn’t let that sacrifice mean nothing.
“Please… don’t do this.” She sniffs, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “Our daughter loves you.” Her voice trembles, barely audible through her cries. “I understand you don’t want to be with me anymore, but please, don’t punish her for my mistakes.”
“Just stop! Stop trying to guilt-trip me, Lucia! You know I’d never do that. I’ll always be available to her wheneversheneeds me, but at the end of the day, she someone else’s child, not mine. You made sure of that.”
She lets out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t believe this is happening. This is a fucking disaster!”
“Well maybe you should’ve thought about that before you went and spread your legs for another man like some cheap whore!”
Even after the words are spoken, I don’t feel an ounce of remorse. If anything, it just brings me back to that night I found all those text messages between her and Adrian on her phone. That was only a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like it was only yesterday when I discovered she’d been cheating on me for five whole months.
The minute I found out, I hired a private investigator to follow her, and not even a week later, he delivered all the proof I needed right at my doorstep. Lucia was barely through the front door when I confronted her and demanded a DNA test.
“You’re such a fucking pig!” She spits, her anger quickly replacing the fake tears. “It was all your fault I cheated in the first place you know that.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Okay, Lucia. Go on. I’d love to hear how this was all my fault
“You were still in love with her!” she shouts, and for a moment, I worry she’s woken up Ari.Thankfully, she only stirs, but doesn’t wake.
