He laughs while shrugging. “What? I’m just being honest.”
“No, you’re being an asshole. Same way you are when you’re around AJ.”
This knocks the smug smile off his face. He sits up straighter in his seat. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, be a fucking man and stop talking down on the mother of your children to your son. It’s his gotdamn mother, Drew. And you putting her down doesn’t make her look bad. It makes you look like a degenerate asshole.”
“Oh, so now you’re giving parenting advice?” He shoots to his feet. “You were in the house with Jacob for seven years before you ran Val off. Talk to me again when you’ve been a father for more than ten damn years.”
I stood from my desk, folding my arms over my chest. “Now I know you must be delusional. I’ve been a surrogate father to your boys since AJ was three days old. Remember, I drove him and El from the hospital because you couldn’t leave a meeting. I’ve shown up for those boys when you weren’t there, and that was long before you called off your marriage.”
The truth is, Drew was never really father of the year. Although he did the right thing at the time and married Ella when she was pregnant, he never really took to fatherhood. He supported his boys financially and was in the house with them. But Drew’s idea of parenting was much like his own father's. He supplied the roof over their heads, and their mother took care of everything else.
“Here we go again,” he tosses his hands up in the air. “Now you’re going to throw up in my face every time you chose to step in? I was out building wealth for my family.”
“Oh yeah,” my tone matches his. “And where the hell has that gotten you?”
He steps back as if my words actually shoved him. Drew can pretend all he wants that he is happy, but I’ve known this man since I was a child and all that glitters isn’t gold. If it were, he wouldn’t be in my office trying to keep me away from El.
His face goes from pissed off to neutral. He takes a step back, and that smug smile spreads across his features.
“I didn’t come to argue. Just a warning, stay away from my family.”
“And if I don’t?” I spread my legs shoulder-width apart. I wanted him to challenge me. I wanted him to make the first move so I could be justified in kicking his ass.
However, the chuckle that slips from his lips tells me he isn’t going to fight. Not that I ever thought he would. It never ends well for him.
Drew tosses his arms in the air. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come here.”
“You're damn right.”
He continues to laugh. “Maybe I should have gone to Ella first. I’m sure if I told her how you knew about the affair before the divorce she’d dead this shit before I could.”
My restraint snaps. I shove my desk to the side and in three steps I have Drew by the collar of his shirt and shoved into the wall.
“You mutherfucker.”
He chuckles. “Is this really what you want to do, Mitch? You want to physically attack a lawyer?”
I didn’t give a shit about him being a lawyer or catching a charge for kicking his ass. However, I did worry about what would happen if I went to jail. I’d have to explain to Ella why I beat her exes’ ass and why he’s pressing charges. That alone caused me to let him go, but not without shoving him against the wall again.
“If I’d known that was why you wanted me to lie that night, I’d have never fucking done it.”
Drew knew I was telling the truth. He and I have ever only come to blows twice. Once, when he cheated on Ella in college. That was because he tried to accuse me of sabotaging him because I let Ella into the dorm room. As if I would’ve ever intentionally caused her that type of pain.
The second time was when he told me he had slept with Kiely. The night before, he called me and asked me to lie to Ella, saying that he was with me that night. I assumed he worked late and forgot to come home, as he’d promised. At the time, I never would have thought he was cheating on his wife. When Ella called me the next morning, I lied easily for him.
When he came to my house to thank me, he admitted to me what had happened. It was the first time he had slept with the paralegal. I was fucking pissed. Pissed that he got me caught up in his bullshit by lying to his wife, and pissed that he would jeopardize his family for some young ass.
After knocking him into my coffee table, I told him he needed to end that bullshit with Kiely or I’d tell Ella. He promised he would and told me it was a one-time thing. The next thing I knew, six months later he was standing at the head of that table telling Ella he wanted a divorce.
Drew fixes his shirt where I’d wrinkled it up. “You and I both know Ella isn’t going to care about that. She’s too emotional to even listen to you explain it. The moment she finds out you knew my secret, she’s going to be done with you, and your little white knight in shining armor act is dead.”
I run a hand down my face as I fist my other at my side. The last thing I wanted was to believe him. I wish I could have called his bluff, but I know El. She would be heartbroken to know that I knew about the affair. Drew knew he had me by the balls.
“Now,” he snidely says, messing with his watch. “I don’t want to have to tell you again. Stay the fuck away from my ex-wife.”
I watch him as he opens my office door and storms out. Walking back over to my desk, I straighten it out and then take a seat in my chair. The thought of staying away from El had my chest tightening. Seeing her every day, and just being in her presence, improved my day. But I couldn’t risk her hating me.
