Page 61 of Belle Amour

“Sure, Bunny.” He returned her smile happily. Bastian had been hoping she would feel that way. He picked up his phone, felt it vibrate, opened it to check for missed notifications, and saw a text from Victor thanking him for the proof. He sent a quick “You're very welcome” back, then grabbed his wallet from the dresser and followed Mirabelle out of the room.

They were almost to the door when raised voices reached them, and they looked over to see Victor and Eddie coming out of the restaurant; Eddie’s face was red and angry, while Victor looked vaguely embarrassed. “This is ridiculous. It's my kid; we were trying!” Eddie shouted as he stormed away from his father.

“If you’re so sure it's yours, you'd think you'd be more than happy to prove it to me,” Victor responded, his voice much lower but still carrying in the nearly empty lobby. “Given howyour relationship with her started, I want to make sure the child is yours before I put our family's money toward them.” The firmness in Victor’s voice seemed to penetrate Eddie’s indignation, and he turned to look at his father, his face pleading with him to understand.

“Dad, if you make me do this, she won't let you have anything to do with the kid,” He said desperately.

“That's fine.” Victor shrugged, looking unimpressed with his argument. “I have a feeling she'll withhold the child whenever she wants money or something from us anyway, so your mother and I would rather not build a relationship with them.” He walked past Eddie and hit the button for the elevator. “As a matter of fact, after the wedding, we will not reach out or respond to any requests for money. I will turn the trust and all the paperwork over to you on Sunday, and when you provide the paternity test, I will start the trust, not before. You and Casey will have absolutely no access to the trust. If something happens to your mother and me, it will be handled by a lawyer until they come of age.”

“So that's it.” Eddie folded his arms defensively. “You're just cutting me off?”

“Yes. You're thirty-eight years old. I shouldn't have to fund your life anymore.” Victor turned away from him, and Bastian could see barely repressed anger in the set of shoulders.

“The whole reason you have to fund my life is because you’re newly adopted son and daughter fucked it up,” Eddie muttered, sounding like a petulant child.

“NO!” Victor cried out, finally reaching his limit. “No! You do not get to blame them for your choices! You cheated for a year! You caused this! Start taking some goddamn responsibility for your actions! You can't get a job in New York? Move.Start behaving like an adult; for God's sake, you're about to be parents!”

Bastian and Mirabelle stood frozen by the doors, neither wanting to draw Eddie or Victor’s attention to them. When the elevator doors slid open, Bastian finally snapped out of it. “Come on, Bunny, let's go.” He murmured as he took her hand and led her outside.

“I feel so bad for Victor and Francesca, but damn if it isn't nice to see Eddie getting put in his place.” Mirabelle slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow as they walked across the parking lot.

“I don't know if it sank in or even had any impact on him besides realizing his handouts are about to stop.” Bastian opened the door to their rental for her and shut it when she was in and settled away. He got in on the driver's side, and after a quick stop at a coffee shop for breakfast sandwiches, a coffee for Bastian and tea for Mirabelle, Bastian put White Lotus Farms into the GPS, and they headed west out of town. As they passed a diner called Uptown Coney Island Restaurant, Mirabelle sat up straight.

“Hey! I think those answered one of our clues for the scavenger hunt!” Mirabelle shook her head. “You know Casey and her team drove around and made everyone else walk it? The other two teams actually took it seriously, too.”

“Did they walk all the way out here? It's like a twenty-minute drive from downtown.” Bastian glanced down at the GPS, which instructed him to take the next right.

“I have no idea, but both of the other teams thought we had the right idea with going to the bars.” She held up her phone and snapped a picture of some cows in a field.

“This wedding is gonna be one hell of a mess. I'm waiting for our invitations to be rescinded, to be honest.” Bastian shook his head. “Especially after last night.”

“I don't think that will be an issue; they're both too afraid to piss off Victor and Francesca,” Mirabelle smirked. “They can’t afford to pay for everything themselves.”

“You still want to go?” He looked at her in surprise. He kind of wanted to book the next ticket back to New York and forget Eddie and Casey existed.

“You don't?”

“I'm of two minds right now,” Bastian sighed. “On the one hand, I really want to watch them crash and burn, and if she sends that email, I'm curious about how everyone will react. On the other... I think seeing all the evidence may break Francesca, and I know they keep saying they'll have our backs, and they understand, but I don't want to have any part of hurting them.”

Mirabelle smiled at him reassuringly. “Bast, I love that your protective side is coming out for Francesca, but all we're doing is making sure they can't hide what they did wrong. They shouldn't have done it if they didn't want their bad behaviour exposed. Trust me; Victor and Francesca have no disillusionment regarding Eddie. They've even pointed out that I overlooked things, and he wasn't the man I thought he was.”

“I guess.” Bastian fell quiet for a few minutes, lost in his thoughts. “I keep hoping he takes a swing at me so I can retaliate.” He confessed, suddenly needing Mirabelle to know where his head was at.

“Just make sure it's retaliation. I don't want to have to bail you out because you know they would claim assault.” Mirabelle warned him teasingly. “You know, it crossed my mindto have Casey arrested, and if no one could pay the bail, pay it myself so she could walk down the aisle.”

Bastian burst into laughter. “That would be a ridiculous level of petty smugness that I kinda wish would happen.”

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When they got to White Lotus Farms, they spent a small fortune on plant-based skincare and food that would keep until they got back to New York. Then, they wandered around and checked out the farm animals in the small petting zoo.

“Have you ever thought about getting a pet?” Mirabelle asked as she put a coin in a food dispenser for the goats.

“No.” Bastian shook his head. He was standing a little bit away from the fence, unable to stop his lip from curing in disgust as he watched the goats eat from her hand and then let her rub their necks. He was not cut out to be a pet owner, and she knew it. “I don't want to clean up after anything. Can we leave? It smells funny here.” Mirabelle chuckled and went to take his arm, but he quickly stepped away from her. “You need to wash your hands; you've pet every animal here that would let you.” Rolling her eyes, she dug in the bags until she found the hand sanitizer they'd bought and cleaned her hands.

“Happy now?” She asked, holding her hands up to him as they headed back to the car. “This was your idea.”

“Happier, yes.” He nodded, letting her take his arm this time. “I wanted to come because of what they sell, not because of the animals.”

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