Page 69 of Tangled Trust

I know she’s been in here before me because I can smell her perfume. I hope I don’t catch some infectious English disease. I wipe down the toilet seat just in case. I’d use another toilet, but my bladder is too full to turn back now.

I wash my hands after I relieve myself and rub my itchy ear. These new earrings are very uncomfortable. They’re expensive, but for some unknown reason, they make my ears itch. The butterfly on the back of the diamond stud pops off while I’m scratching and falls into the wastepaper basket.

Damn it! If the damn things weren’t so expensive, I’d leave them there. I have no option but to start digging around. I’m grateful that the basket is empty except for a small wad of paper. My fingers are wet, so the toilet paper sticks to my hand as I pull out the gold butterfly.

An object catches my eye as it falls to the floor. What the hell? Is that what I think it is? I bend down to pick it up, and it confirms my worst fears. It’s a pregnancy test. A positive pregnancy test! Is this hussy pregnant? My legs go lame. My face is hot.

An array of expletives flood my mind, and a few spill out as I’m staring at the two lines in the little window, willing one to disappear.

I knew it! That social climbing bitch! I’m finding it hard to breathe now. I have to get out of here. She’s not going to get away with this. Ella Jones is now officially on the sharp end of my boot, and soon she’ll be sorry she ever wormed her way into this family.

I throw the test down and wash my hands again. Ella is nowhere to be found when I leave the bathroom. This is it. War!

20

CARTER

I’m all sweaty after my run when my cell phone rings. It’s Amanda. I must have been a pretty despicable human being in my previous life to warrant such consistent torture.

"Hello," I answer, still out of breath.

"How could you do this to your son?"

"What?" I ask, trying to hear what she’s yelling at me across the crackling call.

Amanda’s voice breaks off a few times.

"Amanda? I can’t hear you. Where are you?"

"Son of a bitch…scandalous…you’re a selfish…." the war of words rains down intermittently.

"What? Amanda. I can’t hear you."

I move around the trail so I can get a better signal. Perhaps the cell tower is too far away from where I like to run. Honestly, I’m too hot and sweaty right now for this.

"Carter! Can you hear me now?"

"Yeah, that’s better. What’s going on? And, for shit’s sake, talk slower."

"I’m talking about your Au Pair whore!"

"Amanda, stop talking like that about Ella. What’s the problem?"

"How could you, Carter?"

"How could I do what? What the hell are you talking about?"

I take it that somehow my ex-wife has found out about my relationship with Ella. That’s the only reason she’d be going off at me like this. I don’t know how she found out, but, honestly, I’m glad. It’s a good thing. Now I don’t have to sneak around anymore and feel like a bloody asshole. I hate how this has been so unfair and, frankly, disrespectful to Ella.

"I’m talking about how you could knock up our son’s nanny, you commoner!"

What? Did I hear that correctly? How would my ex come up with such an outlandish idea?

"What are you talking about?"

Amanda is silent for a while, as if she wasn’t expecting that reaction.

"Oh, I see," she laughs hysterically, "you don’t know, do you? Ha! You idiot! I warned you, didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you to stay away from that English piece of ass? She’s pulled a fast one on you, hasn’t she? I knew this would happen. You're a horny moron!"

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