Page 133 of Ella Gets the D
His sons are a different story.
Charles pled guilty to federal embezzlement charges after officials and an internal audit confirmed he’d misused Mt. Corbel funds and altered statements to cover his tracks. Financing a personal property in Florida was the last straw before a judge sentenced him to eight years in federal prison and six years of unsupervised release. He’s serving his time in a low-security correctional facility in Pennsylvania three hours away, and he paid restitution for the privacy intrusion and blackmail charges he caught trying to force Ella to call off the divorce.
Asher served a couple years behind bars for stalking, harassment, and complicity. Last we heard, he’s somewhere inVegas after his father cut off all financial support for him and his brother.
Ella doubled down on family therapy to build a wider network of support for Jackson and Haile. They meet with a new therapist now that Rose retired and is on her RV tour with Louise. She also hired a mental health specialist who helps children navigate having an incarcerated parent. The kids communicate with Charles through email. Ella now has sole custody, and she left the door open for in-person visits but won’t force them. Jackson struggled to forgive his father for the harm he caused his mother, but he did it for his own healing.
Amidst all the pain, my family lives life to the fullest. El and I kept our relationship under wraps after her divorce was final. We didn’t fool anyone, but with Charles heading off to prison, we didn’t want to add our love into the mix. That was until Haile and Jackson asked why I wasn’t taking their mother out on proper dates. I courted Ella for a year and a half. We married six months later, in a private ceremony at a small Virginia vineyard with the kids and ten of our closest family and friends.
Loving her and our children is a gift I’ll never take for granted. Even if it comes with her ready to square up on the side of my parents’ house.
My wife stands with a hip jutted out in a black pencil skirt I want to peel off, a striped blouse cuffed at the sleeves, and an attitude that’s seconds from knocking me on my ass. Her gold hoops chime at her head tilt, the spirals from her curly updo fluttering in the breeze. “What did I tell you?”
Her tone arouses me and Anite for two very different reasons. Our baby smacks at my chest at her mother’s voice. My dick hardens against my zipper at the promise of her fury. “Hi, sweetheart.” I keep my tone even and close the distance to kiss her cheek.
She softens but catches herself. “Don’t hi me. I had meetings with funders all day, and I missed my baby.”
That explains the outfit. Ella dresses casually most days, when she helps to wrangle kids or work on programming in the office.
I shower her with light kisses along her jaw and move to her neck. “You look beautiful today.” My hand cups her ass, which spills over, and I groan at the peek of toe cleavage from her pumps. “I promise to make it up to you tonight if you wear those shoes.”
She leans into my hug and kisses Anite, who all but slobbers on her. “What do you think?”
“She thinks it’s worth your while,” I supply.
“Mmm.” Her fingers trail down my thighs. “Tempting.”
A little to the right and you’ll get it.
The desire in her eyes sends tingles up my body—until she douses them with an eye roll and takes her daughter. Anite fiddles with the gold chains hanging from Ella’s neck with an animated giggle. “You’re in the doghouse.”
“Oh, come on! I do it every week.”
“And you can suffer every week.”
Her playful laugh screeches to a halt when Morgan swoops in to grab her niece. “Thank you,” she says without stopping.
Ella whines, “Get back here with my baby!”
“No! This one had her all day,” Morgan says to me, walking backward to the party. “You two have her all the time. You need to share.”
“Good luck keeping her from our mother, Mac!” That’s a showdown I’d pay to see.
“Who’s scared of her?”
Joseph sticks his head out from the corner of the house with a raised brow. “You’re on your own if she comes for Anite. I love you, but I would rather fight a bear than face off with Claire.”
Morgan huffs but turns the corner while chatting to my baby about husbands and their lack of loyalty.
Joseph moved back in with Morgan after they remarried months after Ella's divorce, only to help pack up and move his family to DC. With his studio and our law office in the city, it made sense to cut down the commute. When they told us we’d be neighbors, they meant it literally—they purchased the house next door. The kids go to the same charter school and shuffle between houses on any given day.
Ella reaches for me and wraps her arms around my waist. “So you forgive me now, Madam Hold-a-Grudge?”
Her lips press into the skin above my collar. “You know I can’t stay mad at you. You’re an amazing father, Julian.”
“Thank you, baby.” I lean against the brick wall and brush my lips against one of her nipples. She arches her back, exposing a pathway up the column of her neck, one I follow with my tongue. “Let’s make another.”
Her head falls back with closed eyes and a tormented groan when my hands fall to the swell of her hips. “We just had a baby. That’s three kids, Julie.”
