Page 83 of The Bonus

“Hello, Miss Porter.” He smiles. “My name is Benson, I’m here…” He seems nervous. “Mr. Ferrara sent me, I have a doctor in the backseat accompanying me.”

I glance down and can’t see into the car through the blacked-out windows. “What are you doing here?”

“Mr. Ferrara has instructed us to carry out paternity tests.” He gives me an awkward smile.

What?

“No.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean no, what else could I possibly mean?”

“Miss Porter, I strongly advise that you go ahead with this.”

“And I strongly advise you to keep out of my business. My children have school today and will not be taking any such tests.”

“Just one moment.” He dials a number on his phone. “Hello.” He turns away from me so that I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I still can. “She said no.” He listens for a moment. “I’m not sure…”

“Is that Gabriel on the phone?” I ask.

He nods.

I walk over and snatch the phone from him. “Listen here, you self-centered son of a bitch.” I sneer. “You stay the hell away from me and my children. If you dare come to my property again without an appointment, I will call the police quicker than you can say the words restraining order.” I hang up the phone and pass it back to him. “Goodbye, Benson.” I get into my car and pull out of the driveway.

Fuck you.

12

Grace

I sit in my car for a moment as I try to will my heart rate to drop back down, it’s beating so hard in my chest that I feel like I’m about to have a heart attack.

I dropped the kids at school and grabbed a coffee on the way, all the while about to go into cardiac arrest.

It’s fine, he doesn’t know anything, and knowledge is power. While he doesn’t know anything we are safe.

He will, though…

One day soon I’m going to have to tell him, in fact I think I already kind of admitted it. I close my eyes, overwhelmed with fear. I know how postal he is going to be and…damn it. I can’t believe I’m living this lie; this was never who I was.

Maybe it’s better if he does find out…maybe then I can finally forgive myself for it and move on.

With one last look in my rearview mirror, I drag myself into work.

“Good morning, Ruth,” I say as I walk through the front doors.

“Good morning, Grace.” She looks up at me over the top of her glasses. “Everything all right? You look frazzled.”

“I’m great,” I lie with a smile as I walk through the office. “Everything is just great.”

I’m a disaster, Ruth, and my children are the spawn of the devil…literally.

Why wouldn’t I have just politely declined? What on earth was I thinking that I was going to achieve by screaming down the phone? All I’ve done is made him angry, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Gabriel Ferrara when angry is a catastrophic force.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I get a vision of Gabriel sitting at his desk in New York and I can feel his rage from here. Complete with the red sky, the lightning, the earth splitting in two and swallowing me whole in true horror movie fashion.

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