Page 9 of The Regrettable Mistake

“My son?”

“Your wife is only Den’s stepmom. She has no legal rights to him in a divorce, since you stupidly never took your ex’s parental rights away, so that your wife could adopt your boy. I know Steph and Den have a close relationship, man. Normally, I wouldn’t tell you to cash in on that fact, but it might be your only bargaining chip with her, all things considered.”

“Thanks.”

“Ollie?”

“Yeah?”

“You picked a fine time to realize you have feelings for your wife.”

“Don’t I fucking know it.”

I hung up on him and got ready to go try to put a Band-aid over the bleeding wound I was about to open up in my family.

CHAPTER 5

Steph

I heard Ollie’s car pull into the driveway nearly twenty minutes earlier, but he was still sitting out there. For all I knew, he might have been on the phone with the man-stealing bitch monster who had no problem abandoning her son and ex-boyfriend all those years ago.

The thing I didn’t understand was why?

Actually, there seemed to be a perpetual list of whys.

Why would he even give that woman the time of day?

Why would he do this to us? To me?

Why would he do this to his son?

Ollie had to know that woman was no good for Denmark. His son didn’t even know who his biological mother was. At least, he only knew of her through stories his dad told him. Even that had taken a back seat to the time Ollie had been spending with the other woman over the past few months. He hadn’t spent much quality time with his son since Jia – as she was called professionally now – had come back into his life.

The ache in my chest wouldn’t subside and the constant train of ‘what-ifs’ that would most likely never be answered weren’t doing me any good. I patted my belly and cried, because in helping Ollie create a family for his son, the outcome would mean that my child never got to know what that was like. There was no coming back from what Ollie had done or how he had used me, even with a child on the way.

I didn’t trust myself to not fall back into another horrible situation. My too-trusting-self had officially been shelved. Stevie swore to me that he would make sure whoever I dated next was vetted properly, but that just made me feel sick all over again. No woman wanted to run background checks on a potential love interest. Besides, as I’d pointed out to my well-meaning brother, Ollie would have passed a background check with flying colors. Just because someone wasn’t a criminal didn’t mean that they were a good person. Hadn’t I just learned that the hard way?

I peeked out the window again just in time to see my wayward husband grab his travel bag from the back seat. Part of me wanted to yell down that he should leave it in the trunk because he wouldn’t be staying long.

I went to sit down at the top of our stairs and wait for what happened next.

“Steph? Den?” Ollie called out for me and his son. “Hey guys, I’m back. Where is everyone?” Ollie tossed his bags down beside the couch and headed toward the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here…” There was a slight hesitation before he tacked on, “And with your little buddy.”

I could almost hear Hutch, my brother’s best friend, and my divorce lawyer, roll his eyes at that insult.

“Ollie!” Stevie gave a false cheerful greeting. “Good of you to finally come home to your family.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ollie was quick to fly to his own defense. “I’ve been away on business.”

“Yeah, except you failed to mention to my sister that it was personal business and also nowhere near Vancouver as she was led to believe.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid, Ollie. It’s not a good look on you.” I heard what sounded like an envelope full of pictures being tossed onto the table. My brother had them printed out because he refused to hand over his phone to my ex the way he had shown them to me.

“You had me followed?” Ollie asked in an angry tone.

---