Page 30 of His Vengeful Tradwife

Then I turned my eyes to my own parents. Their faces had gone white with horror, my mother mouthing a particularly vile French curse.

And then my 72-year-old father stalked toward me, pulling off his elegant leather gloves, and slapped me firmly in the face with one.

CHAPTER 9

Tallulah

My father-in-law didn't stop at one slap either, but rained blows with his glove down on Maverick's face, slapping him ferociously across both cheeks.

"Le bâtard!" he cursed at him in French. "You bastard! I did not raise you to be a bastard!"

My mother-in-law, Dr. Laurent, was white with fury, every inch of her expensively-clad body vibrating with anger.

"Really, Maverick? A mistress? Howtacky!"

She began to throw things at him and Amanda, everything that wasn't nailed down in their room.

"Nooo, stop!" Amanda complained as a well-thrown pineapple hit her painfully in the shins.

"I don't want to divorce Tallulah!" Maverick protested, holding his hands up to try to blunt his father's attacks, dodging a decorative plate his mother sent crashing past his head.

"I am doing everything I can to beg her to take me back!" he roared.

"Then why is yourmistresshere?" his mother spat.

"Tallulah made me bring her!" Maverick protested. "I don't want her here at all!"

"Are youfucking kidding me?" Amanda shrieked in a high-pitched, grating wail. "You want to break up with me? After all I've given up for you! When your wife literallyruinedmy career I’ve worked so hard for!"

She ran her hands through her short brown hair, her eyes looking maddened. "I hate you! I hate you! You're the worst! Your kids are brats--"

Here she was interrupted by the audible gasps of my in-laws and even my sweet-tempered parents.

"Ma'am, that is going too far," Dad said sternly, while Dr. Laurent pointed her perfectly-manicured hand accusingly at Amanda.

"Maverick,thisis the kind of woman you have abandoned your loving wife and delightful family for?" she snapped. "This is beyond everything. We are going to need an emergency psychoanalysis session to figure out what is going on with you."

My ex was already yelling at Amanda, in a tone I'd never heard him use withme.

"Just shut your mouth about my kids and get out of here, you bitch!"

I had to intervene. Amanda was certainly a pain in the ass, and I could not listen to her melodramatic wailing theentiretrip, but I wasn't quite ready for her to leave yet.

She was going to get off the ship whenIwas ready for her to go. Not on Maverick's timeline.

So I walked over to Amanda and hugged her comfortingly while propelling her out.

"Maybe you should go back to your room or something. I'm sure he doesn'tmeanit. I'll get him to apologize later, honey. No worries. Just go do some golf or tennis or something."

I shoved her firmly out the door and shut it in her face, then turned around to a very pissed-off Maverick, his big chest heaving up and down with emotion.

"Tallulah, you know damn well I do mean it! I want to get you back. I want my happy family back."

"This is the behavior of a simpleton," Dr. Laurent said, raising his glove again, but his wife stopped him.

"Maverick, I insist on emergency psychoanalysis. Tallulah, you are welcome to attend, too, although of course we would understand it if you want nothing further to do with him and prefer to only communicate about the children."

"No!" Maverick choked, looking at me with raw eyes as he clutched at my hand. I noticed there were dark circles under his eyes and his handsome face looked drawn and miserable. "Tallulah, please!"

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