Page 21 of The Princess & the Prospect

“You work?” Ever asked her sister. “When did you get a job? Why? Is there something you needed?” Ever directed the question to her sister, but then turned accusatory eyes back on me. Great. I was the bad guy again. Never mind the fact that she didn’t even know her own sister had a job. Hell, I didn’t even know my own wife had a fucking job, a doctor’s appointment, or anything else at this point. Tomorrow I’d probably wake to find I’d already been divorced and missed it happening somehow.

Gretchen glanced around the room warily, guilt obvious in her features, as she realized she had just let the cat out of the bag. Anna didn’t look bothered one bit though.

“I got the job a couple weeks ago after I moved in.”

“Why?” I asked, speaking for the first time since the women had walked through my door.

She sighed and then sat down and took her shoes off while frowning. Anna started to rub her obviously sore feet. “I needed to be able to save some money. Baby stuff is expensive,” she told us, mirroring my excuse for working more hours. “Besides, apartment aren’t cheap and I needed to be able to get a head start on saving for one so that if anything happens and I’m out of work too long, I can still afford to pay my bills.”

“Apartment? What the hell? You’re moving out?” I felt like I’d just started watching a movie at the mid-way point. I was so confused about what was happening in my own life, and now I had frustrated, hurt, and angry to add to the mix with all the revelations coming my way.

“I told you I didn’t want to be a burden. You’re displaced on the couch and you can’t be comfortable bringing women home with a pregnant wife living here,” she added at the end, sending a spear of pain to lance through my heart. My hand immediately lifted to try to massage away the ache in my chest and it took everything for me not to double over the hit she had just given me.

“What?” Ever yelled at the same time Gretchen turned her steely eyes on me and demanded, “What the fuck?”

I ignored them both and stared at Anna. “You’re my wife,” I told her slowly so she could comprehend. “You’re my responsibility along with the baby you’re carrying. I have the bills covered and no woman, beyond you, Ever, and now Gretchen has ever even been to my house before. I wouldn’t bring one here anyway. I wouldn’t even be with anyone else because you. Are. My. Wife!”

She swished her hand in the air as if to bat my words away. “Everyone know our marriage wasn’t real,” she stated.

“It’s so real that it’s legally binding, sweetheart,” I spat at her, unable to control myself any longer.

She looked like she was about to say something. I saw the lively spark in her eye, a flash of something – fury maybe – that I’d never seen before. Instead she shook it off. “We don’t even share a bedroom, let alone have sex, and you’re not exactly faithful, so let’s not play pretend here – that’s what made you mad at me in the first place, right?”

This was not the same Anna sitting before me. She wasn’t pulling any punches. What was I supposed to say to any of that? It was all true, even if it didn’t feel right. “Anna, this freeze out has to stop,” I demanded. “What if something happened to you? No one would know. What if something happened to the baby? You didn’t even tell me about the appointment you had. That’s my baby in there. I should at least know that you saw a doctor, or get an update if you don’t want me there. Instead, I have to worry and use my imagination because you don’t tell me shit!”

“When am I supposed to tell you? You’re gone all the time.”

“No, I’m not. You just decided to hide from me when I am around.”

“Well,” she started to argue but her sister cut her off.

“Put the shoe on the other foot, little sister. If he was carrying the baby wouldn’t you want to know? This is part of growing up and realizing that the things concerning your child aren’t just about you. Don’t do to your baby what my parents did to me.”

“What do you mean?” Anna asked Ever.

“My biological mother turned my father into a ghost in my life, never talking about him, and look what happened when I lost her. I was sent to live with strangers. Then I was hated by my own father and his club brothers because of who my mom was. I had no control over who my parents were or what they did or didn’t feel for one another, but they all could have done me a favor and not punished me for their own bullshit decisions. Make no mistake – if you use that baby as a means to hurt him, you’re ultimately hurting your child too. They’ll feel that.”

I watched as Anna’s lip began to quiver and her hand moved protectively over her stomach. She only met my eyes for a brief moment before mumbling the word sorry and running from the room.

“Shit!” Ever started to go after her, but Gretchen grabbed hold of her arm to keep her back.

“She’ll be fine. She’s just hormonal right now,” the woman assured her. Then she turned to me. “I understand your situation isn’t ideal but you could try harder too. Pull her out of hiding and make her talk to you.”

“I won’t ever make her do anything,” I told her through gritted teeth.

“Well, then you’ll probably lose them both.”

“Why can’t she just grow the fuck up? I admitted to being an asshole. I apologized. And still she can’t even tell me about an appointment to see the baby?”

“Maybe you should also grow the fuck up and try asking her about it.”

“She’s already got a foot out the door, a thousand reasons plucked from whatever fantasy is in her head, and it’s all on my shoulders to get her to talk?”

Gretchen shrugged. “You both need to grow up and realize you have more to worry about than just yourselves.”

“Get out!” I finally yelled, losing it. Part of the fucking problem with Anna and me seemed to be with everyone else inserting themselves in our lives and giving advice when they didn’t even understand what the hell was actually going on. Hell, other people’s opinions are why she felt she had to lie to me to begin with.

“Get the fuck out if you think that’s what’s going on. I’m half-assed sleeping on a couch to appease her. I have a bed at the clubhouse but I can’t use it because God forbid she think I’m fucking someone in it. Why should I care though? Apparently, she thinks that anyway. I’m working doubles to make sure we can afford baby shit, so being gone all those hours gets translated to I’m sleeping around too.

---