Page 105 of Ella Gets the D
I flex my fingers to keep them from tightening into a fist. “The child support youoweme, for taking care of our children, goes toward them.”
His brows shoot up in surprise, and my slip-up tips his lips into a smile.Shoot.
I’ve gracefully dodged this conversation. He never asked, and I never told. It’s not his business how much I pay in rent. The answer is zero, but that’s for me to know and him to neverfind out. As long as I provide our children with stable housing, clothe them, and keep food in their bellies, my finances are my finances.
“Your luck just doesn’t run out, does it?” Charles’s expression is heavy on the resentment. It’s not like I was his wife for over a decade or the mother of his kids.
My chin lifts to meet his icy stare. “Don’t mask your hope that I’ll fall on my face on my account.”
“I want you home where you belong. Enough with this independence bullshit. You think you can cut it in a city like this on an educator’s pay? Be real, El. Your annual salary is my quarterly bonus after tax.”
The sting of his insult stuns me to silence. Charles never saw me as his equal. Only a vessel to birth his heirs, a nanny, and a maid to maintain the illusion of his picturesque family.
Everything I fought for over the last nine months has been cut down in nine seconds.
Charles’s smile widens. He is just like his father, down to the glower and flared nostrils. I have always been a thorn in his side for daring to be seen and heard. It’s a miracle Jackson and Haile didn’t inherit his spitefulness, but I’d be damned if they did.
I draw a deep breath and release it. I added yoga to my newfound free time on the weekends, and namaste in my peace for the sake of my babies.
“She looks good from where I’m standing.” Charles straightens to his full height and swivels slowly to face Julian.
The muscles in Julian’s shoulders coil, and his stance widens. He assesses me with concern before his eyes move to my ex. Two deep lines take residence between his brows above hardened hickory eyes.
Julian is always upbeat, whether he’s stressed at work or running through an opponent on the rugby pitch. His temperflaring draws my lip between my teeth. It’s a rare sight, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make my pulse race for other reasons.
“Julian Brooke.” Charles slips a hand into his pocket. “Trading in the single life for cake and ice cream?” The sarcastic quip doesn’t reach its mark.
Julian’s eyebrow lifts. His eyes never leave my face when he says, “I show up for family.” He steps around Charles to stand next to me. I can hold my own, but him by my side is a calming presence. “Did you come all this way to disrupt your son’s party and disrespect his mother? Or does the ire you still hold for Ella leaving you only flare when she reminds you she can live without you?”
“This is none of your business.”
“It is now.” Julian steps in front of Charles to block his view of me. “What would the board think of its CFO terrorizing a wife he cheated on and belittled? Not even Daddy could save you from that PR nightmare.”
“Son.” Katharine’s clipped tone takes us all by surprise. She stands at the edge of the kitchen in a cream couture dress and with her last nerve plucked. “I think it’s best we go.”
Charles steals one last glance at me. “This isn’t over.”
“It is for today. Here”—Julian nods toward the kitchen—“I’ll see you out.”
My eyes dart to his. “The front door—”
“I got it.” Julian’s face splits into a grin. “Would you get me another cup of hot chocolate please? Thanks, El.”
I join the ladies at the kitchen island, unsure how we got from the showdown in the living room to me fetching Julian a drink. He was ready to rip Charles’s head off a minute ago, but now he wants cocoa?
Movement catches my eye out the window. Julian is in step with Charles one minute and ducking behind the house the next. It’s too quiet. I step closer to the window. “Where are the kids?”
As if he hears me, Julian jumps to his feet and yells in Japanese. Charles’s steps falter as he peers over his shoulder, trying to figure out what’s going on, when Duke and Jackson respond in Japanese from the side of the garage. Their matching Joker grins are in 3D as they unleash an assault of snowballs Julian’s way. Only Julian ducked behind the patio, which means—
“Make it rain!” Joseph stands with Haile, Divine, and Noah across from the garage with their own arsenal of snowballs they release into the air. Charles will have to go through them to get to back to the front of the house, unless he hops the fence.
Phaedra rushes to the window at the sound of our children’s screams. Javen, Tyrell, Xavier, and Elijah roll out from their hiding places. “Leah! Get over here and look at these kids assembling!”
Laughter drowns out Charles’s muffled screams as he runs in circles to get to safety. “For Wakanda!” a child yells. It comes with a direct hit to the face. “And the Southeast!” another adds with a snowball zipping by.
Charles grabs the lid of the trash can to shield himself from the snowball fight he’s now in the middle of, but not before tripping over the hose. An Italian shoe launches in the air as his ass hits the pavement.
“I hope he gets a hole in the big toe,” Leah snickers as Charles army crawls in a sock, one shoe, and a ruined suit and coat. There’s so much chaos around him with the kids ducking and diving shots, Haile and Jackson miss his departure.
