Page 2 of A Little Discovery

Pretty much the only way she gets anything is if she canproveinfidelity on my part. Considering I am on hundred percent certain that I am still a virgin with no intention of changing that fact, she’s trapped in this marriage just as much as I am if she wants the money.

It didn’t escape my notice that she, a longtime friend of my roommate, suddenly shows up “pregnant” after James figured out that I was part ofthatHolloway family. He saw a news article online with a photo from the last family gathering. It was the company’s seventy-five-year anniversary, so I had to be there with my parents. I hate events like that. But for my father’s sake, I attend them with the fakest smile possible and make a game out of avoiding the cameras. I guess luck wasn’t on my side that night and I just so happened to be in the background getting some food in the picture posted with the article.

Thanks to that one photo, I am stuck in a marriage with a shrew of a woman and someone else’s kid on the way. I always wanted to be a dad, but figured it would be difficult to get a kid when I can’t get it up with another person. So getting the kid without the sex is a huge plus for me. That is honestly the only highlight of this entire fiasco. There’s something to be said about wanting to give someone else what you never got to have yourself. This kid will get all the affection in the world from me. He or she won’t ever have to question whether or not their dad loves them.

“Of course, you will have to give up school and start working,” my mother’s voice snaps me back to the conversation at hand. “You cannot stay in the dorms now that you are a married man, and although your father and I will gift you a house, you will need to earn the money to support your family yourself. Youarean adult now, Lucas. You’ll just have to withdraw from going back in the fall.”

I know my mouth is gaping open due to the surprise. What is she going on about? What kind of job could I possibly manage to get with a high school diploma that would support me and the gold-digger in a house that she picks out as adequate? Anything less than twelve rooms is unacceptable in her eyes…

“Mother,” my new wife croons. “A house would be absolutely lovely! I’m sure Lucas wants to start right away. My father even offered him an executive position at our family’s business, but he was worried about it interfering with school. We didn’t want to abandon something you all worked so hard for.”

Am I living in an alternate universe? They want me to not only quit school, but to work for my father-in-law, whom I’ve never met, doing God only knows what. I look to my father in horror, but he has just buried his head in whatever is on his tablet. I know he cares in his own way, but it has always been more important to keep the peace than to do what is right when itcomes to him. He doesn’t even try to offer me a position at Holloway Industries to counter what the women are deciding for my life.

“That sounds wonderful, dear,” Mother says sweetly to Sabrina. “Carlisle Construction is such a good up and coming company. I just know that with my son as an executive, it will become the elite contracting choice in the city in no time.”

There it is. My future is resting on making a construction company owned by my new in-laws into a success… A company that last I saw was on the brink of bankruptcy and had so many consumer complaints against it that the only way they managed to stay afloat was random influxes of cash over the years.

At least I’ll have the kid to give me a bright spot in my life because my future just got bleak as fuck.

CHAPTER 2

LUCKY

September

She lost the baby… Sure, she did. My mother and Sabrina are bawling their eyes out over a kid that I am quite positive at this point never even existed.

I’m not stupid. A lot of the people in my life think I am, but they mistake non-confrontational and quiet as a lack of intelligence. I am fully aware of all of the times people are trying to manipulate me or use me to get money. There is no hiding the fact that every single one of my so-called friends disappeared the second I stopped paying for things. My new wife is just as bad as Mother when it comes to sharing wealth.

Initially, I was surprised that the alleged miscarriage didn’t happen right after we were married. Then I took a closer look at the pre-nup which says that we had to be married and cohabitating for at least ninety days to fulfill the requirements of the annulment clause. She really did a good job of reading the fine print. She also had to sign documents agreeing to a paternity test in order to fulfill another one of the clauses my father put in. If the baby turned out to be someone else’s, the marriage would be terminated and she would face fraud charges.

After the last three months of working for my father-in-law, nothing Sabrina does surprises me. There is a very valid reasonCarlisle Construction hasn’t been overly successful… My in-laws are con artists. They consistently swap out materials for cheaper options, while charging for the more expensive ones. Their laborers are all third-party contractors, some of whom aren’t even licensed or trained properly to do the work they are asked to do. It’s a total shit show.

And I am responsible for customer satisfaction… I would turn them in if I could afford to pay the breach of the NDA I had to sign. I can’t even get a call through to my father’s attorney to check on its legality because Mother told them to cut me off completely.

I spend every waking moment fielding calls and emails, complaining about the company and the shoddy work. It has become my responsibility to offer rebates and refunds to compensate out of my own pocket, because although my parents have cut me off, they released my trust fund early. My trust fund was released by my mother, but with a stipulation that I had to invest in Carlisle Construction. The money that was supposed to keep me comfortable until retirement, over twenty million dollars, is almost all spent to support the lying bitch and her criminal family.

I managed to squirrel away about two hundred thousand dollars before Sabrina and my in-laws got their hands on my trust account. It’s not much, but it should be more than enough that I can start over when she inevitably drops my ass.

Please, God, let it be soon…

May

Pulling into the parking lot of the motel, I’m glad that James is at the house with Sabrina. The two of them are fucking likebunnies, but I still don’t give a shit. I have tried to set things up to where I can catch her in the act of infidelity just so I can get a quickie divorce, but either she somehow pays off the investigator, or they can’t get legal access to the house security systems for observation. There’s something about how they need all of the owners’ permission or something.

So, when they stopped hiding what they were doing from me, I started to come here. It’s a bit seedy looking on the outside, but the rooms are clean and the guy at the desk is nice. Plus, they offer cartoon and anime streaming services in the rooms included with your room fee. Sabrina thinks that childish things like that aren’t appropriate for a grown man, so she cancelled all of my subscriptions, not that I could afford them anymore with what she leaves me from my paychecks.

Between the money, activities ban, and the diet, I need this break. I hadn’t had pizza or chocolate in over six months before I found this place. I can afford one night every other week without Sabrina noticing, so I take full advantage of her trysts with James. A few hours twice a month to not feel like a doormat or ATM card… that’s all I need. My rainy day account still has enough to start over.

Eventually she will get sick of me and the lack of fresh money. Eventually, I’ll be free of her. But for now, I pick up my usual room key from the guy at the desk and hand him his small pizza. I need some cartoon therapy pretty desperately.

SPENCER

My side hustle email address is showing another new message. I already know who it is from. Sabrina Carlisle has been on my case for months to follow her husband around so that she can divorce him. Shesayshe is cheating and she needs proof.Honestly, if the guy is cheating, good on him. I would, too, if I was married to her. Usually, I can’t wait to catch the adulterous asswipes, but I’ve known Sabrina since kindergarten… I pity the man who married her.

I mark the email as read without even opening it just so that the alert goes away. I have zero intention of taking the job. I may be one of the newer private investigators in the county, but that doesn’t mean I will abandon my morals, or subject myself to verbal harassment from a client…

My school email alerts that I’ve got a new message from Professor Michaels. This could be something infinitely better, and my mood starts to improve drastically. I hurry to open the message and begin to read:

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