“You were, weren’t you?” I growl, having to press my hands to the desk to stop myself charging across the room and beating the shit out of him. “Fucking christ, Archie. Your cruelty really knows no fucking bounds, does it?”
“It was Mum’s idea,” Archie mumbles, and I can feel the veins in my temple popping out.
“Yourmother?She knew about you and Libby?” I don’t know why I’m surprised. Andrea has hated Mia from day one, she made that more than clear. But this is low, even for her.
“She knew about Libby, but she didn’t know about Spain and all that. She was more worried about me maintaining my name and my place in the club.” Archie actually kicks his shoe into the ground, scuffing it like a snot-nosed kid. “I know it wasn’t exactly honourable-”
“Not exactly honourable?” I storm towards him, and he flinches. “Not exactly fucking honourable? You wanted to try and justify your infidelity, Archie, by airing your wife’s private medical information. That’s disgusting. That’s twisted. What iswrongwith you?”
“It was all for nothing anyway!” Archie squares up to me, fury in his eyes. “Libby never finished up with her last boyfriend, and then in Spain she told me she was pregnant!”
I blink as I try to absorb what he’s saying through the veil of my own anger. “She… So she is pregnant?”
“Yes!” Archie turns away from me, hanging his head. “She got pregnant at the start of the season, while she was away filming.”
“But it’s not yours?”
He shakes his head. “It’s not possible. We didn’t see each other for over a month.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “And now the club’s thrown me, and Mia won’t talk to me, and…” Hecages his fingers around the back of his neck and exhales heavily. “I fucked it all up.”
I’m tempted to feel bad for him for a moment. He’s lost everything. He’s my son. I should pity him, shouldn’t I? But then I think of Mia shaking in that cab when she found out about her dad, of her being all alone, of the press subtly blaming her for Archie leaving, and I’m angry all over again.
Or maybe I’m just protective of the woman I’m fucking falling for and want to kill the man who made her feel like this, even if it’s my own son. That probably makes me a bad person. I know it does. But I can’t bear the thought of Mia suffering, not at Archie’s hands, not at Andrea’s, not at anyone’s.
“Mia won’t talk to you,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “And you shouldn’t try. You leave her alone. You’ve hurt her enough.”
“You’re my father!” Archie spins to face me, his face contorted with pain. “Myfather. You’re meant to care about me, not Mia. You’re meant to help me patch things up with her. You’re meant to help me get my life back. Don’t you want me to be happy?”
My own guilt and shame drive me from the room. I throw up a hand and retreat, the images of fucking my son’s wife on my couch burning on the backs of my eyelids.
“I’m done, Archie.” I stride from the office, past Sarah’s desk, Archie hot on my heels.
“Dad.Dad. I want her back, you have to-”
I turn on him, and he stops short. I jab a finger in his face, gritting my teeth. “I don’t have to do anything. You stay the fuck away from her. You have done enough.Enough, do you hear me? You don’t get to run out on your life, then waltz back in and expect everyone to just forget and take you back.”
He glances around us, at the watching eyes, and blinks rapidly. “Dad, please,” he mutters. “She’s my wife.”
“No, she’s not. Not anymore.” I turn on my heel and stride away. “Now, I have a game to go to.”
“Will she be there?”
I’m back in his face so fast he visibly cowers, and Sarah gasps, half-rising from her chair with her hand to her mouth.
“If you dare show your face at that stadium, I will knock your fucking block off, do you hear me?”
Archie’s face is the picture of disbelief, eyes wide, mouth hanging slack. He doesn’t respond, just stares at me as though he’s waiting for the punch.
“I said do you hear me?” I bellow, and the whole office has fallen silent.
“Y-yes, sir.” Archie backs away from me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“Shut up.”
I stare him down, all the inappropriate, possessive thoughts I’ve had over Mia for the past few weeks taking over. I won’t let him patch things up with her. Never. The shame is replaced by raging jealousy at the very idea that he’d dare to try and take backmy woman. The woman who trusted her past and her heart and her body to me is never going back to him.
I turn and leave before I say something I’ll regret.
It’s not the time for those thoughts to come out. That’s Mia’s call, not mine. And as much as I want to shout from the fucking rooftops that she’s been in my bed, that she’s glorious and wonderful and beautiful, I can’t. I’m not taking control away from her, that’s been done too many times in her life.
