Page 20 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“Thanks for kicking me in the ego,” Brax teased.

“I think you have enough that I didn’t wound it irreparably.”

“Wound what?” He asked while feigning ignorance.

“As I thought. Your already over-burgeoning ego hasn’t suffered a bit,” Mel teased him.

“She’s not wrong, though. We’re not compatible as a couple. We were always meant to be friends. Nothing more than that, though.”

“My mom always told me to marry my best friend one day and I’d never know an ounce of heartache.”

Mel and Brax looked at one another thoughtfully for all of two seconds before they burst out laughing. “Yeah, that’s a no,” Brax stated as he sobered up.

“Now, you two on the other hand,” Mel tittered out as she moved her hand to indicate Brax and me.

My eyes practically bugged out of my head as I scoffed at her. Brax held a hand over his heart as if I’d just wounded his pride or ego again. “In case you’ve forgotten over the course of our lunch, I’m pregnant.”

“And?”

“With your husband’s child.” I pointed at her belly. “And you might be pregnant with his," I reiterated as I pointed back at Brax.

“And?” Mel asked again, eyes twinkling with mirth.

“And?” I questioned back. “Don’t you think our situation is messy enough already?”

She waved that notion away with a quick swat of her hand. “Are you kidding? It would be perfect. Then, we could be one big happy family, minus my idiot husband of course.”

“So, we’re meant to be sister wives, helping to raise one another’s children and sharing a husband?”

“Holy shit!” A man’s voice – that did not belong to Brax – exclaimed. We all looked up to see Rich standing there in the doorway to the kitchen. It was clear the only part of the conversation he’d heard was the last statement, because the hope in his eyes at hearing it made my skin crawl.

“You’re sick!” I growled at him just as Mel scoffed and said, “You wish, asshole. She was talking about Brax being the shared man between us, not the philandering husband who neither of us want to reward for being a disloyal, cheating bastard!”

It was only then that Rich noticed Brax on the other side of the kitchen island, where he’d been scrubbing up the mess he made of the stove. “You!” Rich glared at the man. “You already knocked up my wife. You will stay the fuck away from Avi. She’s mine!”

“And your wife wasn’t?” Brax asked as if he wasn’t bothered in the least by Rich’s outburst.

Rich spluttered a bit, realizing he’d just trapped himself into having to choose between his wife and me. “I-I… You know what I mean. You can’t have them both.”

“Well, you certainly tried, and look how that worked out for you,” Brax added with a smirk. “Looks like you weren’t man enough to hang onto either of them. Meanwhile, they’re talking about a polygamist relationship with me as the man-meat in the middle.” Brax goaded him and I couldn’t hold back my laughter at him calling himself man-meat. Mel joined me and Rich made an angry sound.

“Stop humoring that idiot!” He shouted. “You need to leave so I can talk to my wife and my…”

“Yeah, go ahead and finish that sentence, buddy,” Brax snapped at him. “Your girlfriend,” he finished for Rich. “Only, I think you’re forgetting the “ex” part in both of those equations.”

“While this is all really entertaining, there are two innocent children in this house who have been through enough. They don’t need to walk in and hear any of this by accident,” I suggested.

Rich’s eyes grew soft as he looked at me. “I always knew you could love them, if you knew.”

“Don’t make me murder you in front of your kids,” I threatened.

“I’ll go get the shovel,” Mel added. Brax just sat back and laughed until Mel finally gathered her wits about her again. “What in the hell are you doing here?”

“Our son texted me this morning about family brunch. He wanted me here and I assumed the invite was passed along by you.”

“No, I think that invite came because the kids knew Aviva would be here and they wanted to see what you would do and who you would pick. Your family or the other woman they hated until things were explained to them.”

“Until things were explained to them? Exactly what did you tell my kids?” Rich asked. The accusatory way he questioned Mel rankled something fierce.

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