Page 136
“There it is.”
“You decide everything about my life.”
“Yes.”
She blinked. The certainty of my answer seemed to throw her. She still expected shame from me. An apology. Some sudden realization that perhaps I’d gone too far. She was never going to get one.
“You decide where I live,” she continued. “You decide when I see you. You decide whether I work. You decide who drives me around. You decide everything!”
She gestured around the room as she spoke, toward the house, the furniture, the windows overlooking the dark stretch of ocean beyond them.
“I gave you a house you never could’ve afforded, clothes you couldn’t buy, money you didn’t have, and got you out of that filthy club.”
Maggie’s face tightened at the mention of the club.
“I didn’t ask you to own me.”
“You certainly didn’t complain while you were spending my money.”
“I hate you.”
Her fingers curled around the pregnancy test hard enough that I thought she might snap it. Then I noticed her other hand. It had drifted toward her stomach. She was happy.
That realization somehow irritated me more than the test itself.
“You want to keep it?”
“Yes.”
Her hand remained against her stomach as though she already imagined there was something there worth protecting.
“That’s fucking embarrassing.”
“I’m keeping the baby. I hoped you’d be happy.”
“Why?”
She stared at me.
“Because it’s your child.”
“You aren’t giving me something I don’t already have. You did this because you thought this put you on Samantha’s level.”
“Fuck you!”
I watched her chest rise beneath the red dress.
“You live in a house I pay for. You spend the money I provide. You haven’t had to worry about rent, food, work, or anything resembling an adult responsibility since I put you here. In exchange, I expect you to stay out of the parts of my life that have nothing to do with you.”
“This baby has something to do with you.”
I immediately added, “That doesn’t mean I suddenly care about your little fantasy.”
She stared at me.
“This baby changes everything between us Richie.”
“Yes. It makes you more inconvenient.”
