Page 202 of Unhinged

“Yeah. My wife and best friend shouldn’t do this shit to me! You, the one person who I trusted more than anyone, just fucking blew it up in my face from every direction!” I shake my head. “How stupid of me to marry a damn college kid.”

“Oh. I’m not the stupid one this time?”

“No. You pulled off the scam of a lifetime. Well played.” I glance at her before looking back to the cabinets, having the ball in my court. Stupid sports.

Simone sniffs but doesn’t wipe her tears. “I’m the kid, yet this is all a game to you.”

“Sure. A game that I just won since you didn’t successfully deceive me. I made a promise for a year. That’s all. If the paternity test states I’m the father, I’ll own up to that and seek joint custody. I won’t only be a child support ATM.”

I can’t look at her for long, but Simone’s face goes blank, with tears falling as she blinks. “How can you say that? I’d never… You’re breaking up with me?”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Be an adult! My husband! How can you accuse me of cheating on you when I helped you with Kleo? And I made a mistake with the fucking tea, but you used me to get off, so I used you right back! It got me pregnant! I don’t know how many times I’m supposed to say I’m sorry!”

I laugh but want to throw things or hide forever. “Maybe I’m not the only stupid one, then.” I don’t know who I hate more right now. Her, me, or this kid for fucking up everything. No, it’s not the kid’s fault.

It’s quiet between us until she says, “I don’t want you in my baby’s life.”

“You can’t keep my kid from me, Garrison!”

Simone’s pitiful frown almost tears through my heart. “I fell in love with a different Greg Rodwell. He trusted me, loved me, and respected me.”

“Give me—”

She shoots me a glare that could break glass. “It’s my fucking turn to talk, so shut your goddamn mouth. Maybe this baby was an accident, and his parents were fighting, but I thought you at least cared about me on some deep level. I worked that first night with you clinging to me. I loved being close to you. So much that I was wiping a table when I orgasmed again from your creampie. It was loud in the bar, and I was facing a wall, so I moaned, hoping you’d hear me and know.”

Glaring at her, I swallow as my dick hardens painfully and my resolve splinters fast. I can’t let either happen. Simone was my everything, and I trusted her with my heart, my life, my ordeal, and my fucked-up gene. She just erased all of it. She sobs, “You were my prince. I thought our love was magical. I thought you felt it too. If so, you wouldn’t have accused me of getting pregnant on purpose, cheating on you, or violating you. You just pulverized my heart and blew away the dust. Are you satisfied?”

My voice is rough, but I strive for sarcasm, my usual weapon of choice. “You told me to shut my goddamn mouth, so no.” Fuck, Simone. I’ll always love you. I just want to hate you right now. I swallow again to argue, “Do you think this shit is easy for me? You going behind my back to get pregnant? My kid or not? Now I may have to watch my kid die of this disease or keep passing it on! How fucking selfish is that of you?” My eyes water. Another traitor.

Simone growls, “I’ll speak slowly, so you understand! It was an accident, but I guess I learned my selfish lesson! We could’ve done genetic counseling, talked about adoption, or even handled our pregnancy better! But no! You had to be a dick to me and tear apart our marriage! With the ugly tantrum you just threw, you’re the real baby in this room. You betrayed me by reciting bullshit vows and pretending to be my soulmate. This wasn’t a real marriage. Now I wish I never met you, Rod.” That motherfucking hurts. Yeah, I called her Garrison. We know each other’s weak spots.

She goes to leave the kitchen but has to pass me. Without thinking, I block Simone. Gritting my teeth so I don’t sob and beg her to forget everything I said, I angle my head to look at her face, but she turns to the wall. “Look at me,” I demand. When she doesn’t, I jerk her chin up. And when we make complete, no-hold-barred eye contact, what I see slams me ten times harder. As anger, pain, desperation, and confusion flood me, I see it clear as day in her makeup-smeared, red, teary eyes. Simone is the most genuine person I know. How could I ignore that fact before I destroyed her?

I gasp as she pushes my hand from her face. I can barely speak when the smoke clears, removing all doubt and maybe, for a second, all fear. My unsteady hand drops to her stomach, my fingers stroking the bottom two buttons on her dress shirt. My eyes burn with damn tears. “You’re telling me the truth, aren’t you, Simone? Is it truly possible I knocked you up from another room?”

Heavy black tears fall down her streaked cheeks. Simone’s mouth falls open as her eyes close, but then without warning, she punches me in the nuts. As the blinding, sharp pain shoots up my stomach, I grab onto the island and yell a bunch of shit, probably in a language from a different planet. Simone seethes, “I’m not telling you again when once should have been enough. Fuck you. You’re nobody’s father.”

Simone storms out of the kitchen and upstairs, where I hear her slamming things. I squat, panting, but then stand, only to find I can’t straighten. Unable to stay in one position, I move around and take deep breaths to rid the pain in my junk and my heart. As I struggle for my bearings, I hear stomping down the stairs, and then the door slam. I hobble to the front door to see Simone backing out of the driveway and then speed off. With my kid.

My phone dings. I pull it out of my ass pocket to see Amos’s impatience. I hurriedly respond that I can’t make it since Simone just left me.

Not waiting for his response, I get in my truck to find answers. Or, rather, validation of my idiocy.

Arriving, I barely shut off the engine before going to the front door, banging on it since they usually lock it and I don’t have a key with me. Sherry looks out the window with a scowl and then swings open the door. “Are you serious? You can just come in.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Me? What about? What’s wrong?”

I go into the house, and she looks at me closer, seeing the tears finally escaping. “Simone. I think… I think we broke up.”

“What?”

“Not here.” I look around since my sisters would probably murder me.

Sherry grabs my hand and tows me down the hall to her office, which was Eden’s room. Though I cry, I’m numb. “Greg, what the hell happened?”

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