Page 93 of Wild For You
No, she couldn’t have the—
“Dissolution of Paternal Rights, it said when I took a peek. Seems like a pretty-important stack of papers. It would be terrible if they got lost somehow,” she said with put-on innocence.
“You fucking bitch!” I screeched, looking over at Andrew, but he had his phone glued to his ear, his hands clenched so hard and his face and neck so red I feared his whole body might explode. I hadn’t even seen him pick it up or make a call. And I certainly hadn’t heard it ring, since the ringing in my ear on the side she slapped me was making it hard to hear anything besides the loud-mouth across from me.
“You said it yourself—I get what I want.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, my hands gripping my sweater to keep from reaching out and strangling the woman.
“I want…,” she started, and then glanced over at Andrew, licking her lips as she watched him end his call. My stomach flipped, and I pinched my lips between my teeth to keep the vomit from rising. “I want a hundred thousand dollars.”
“I don’t have that kind of money!” I shouted.
Her shoulders lifted, then she set the envelope on the table. She was closer to it and probably knew I’d never risk hurting my baby by trying to make a grab for it.
“Seems to me you have no choice. Either you can have the baby daddy you want by giving me the money, or you’re stuck with the baby daddy who doesn’t want you.”
“That’s blackmail.” My nerves were firing off across my body, and I felt woozy. If I’d been thinking more clearly instead of letting this woman get to me, I would’ve thought of the fact that I could’ve always had my lawyer resend the paperwork to Caleb to have them signed again. But alas, this whole situation had short-circuited my brain. And since my hormones were already out of whack before all this started, it made any clear, rational decisions nearly impossible.
“Actually, that’s extortion,” Andrew pointed out as he moved toward the door.
“I don’t care what the fuck it is,” Tasha barked. “If I can’t have Wyatt, I want the money.” She said the last part as if talking to herself, and to see it made me realize how truly unstable she was.
“You’re not making any sense. You keep saying Wyatt, when you know this man is Andrew.Wyattdoesn’t exist,” I pointed out, but she just shook her head like she was denying the truth. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I can.”
From the corner of my eye, I watched Andrew open the door slightly. He focused his gaze on Tasha, and his entire attitude changed as he stalked toward her.
“Tasha, why don’t you and I go talk somewhere more private? The… bedroom, perhaps. Maybe you and I can come to an agreement.”
I dry-heaved, watching my boyfriend hit on my mother, even knowing it had to be some sort of ploy to get her away from me, and I slapped my hand over my mouth. She turned toward him, and her posture shifted. Her back arched, exposing the V between her breasts, and her skirt rose up on her legs an inch.
“I knew you’d come around,” she purred and touched his chest with a single finger, trailing it down toward his navel. “I’ve got some new tricks to show you.”
His jaw ticked as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to follow him. It was an intimate gesture that Tasha ate up, smirking in defiance as she glanced over at me.
Then, suddenly, I watched as that smile slipped from her face as Andrew twisted her around and held both her wrists in his hand. Not five seconds later, two sheriff's deputies walked into the house with cuffs at the ready.
“Actually, Tasha, did you know extortion is a crime?” he prompted as he took a step back so the officers could restrain her.
Her eyes jumped around the room as she looked for an escape, but we knew she wouldn’t find one.
“And coupled with assaulting Kelsey, you could be spending quite a few years behind bars,” he added, holding his phone up for her to see a video he’d taken. I couldn’t see it from my angle, but I heard the exchange of words and the loud smack that followed.
She screamed, wailed, and kicked around as the large man holding her handcuffs pushed her toward the door.
“I didn’t do anything! I was visiting my daughter!” she shouted, clearly delusional if she thought they’d believe her after the video they just witnessed.
“Officer Ramirez, I’ll send the video over to you. The assault is clearly visible, since they stood above where I had it lying on the coffee table while it recorded.”
“Thanks,” the man said as he walked over to me and asked if he could photograph my cheek, which was throbbing now that the confrontation was over. The adrenaline pumping through me during the argument must have masked most of the pain. He took a few pictures of my face and then of the envelope containing the legal paperwork she was holding hostage.
“I need to turn them into my lawyer, but they’ll be available through him if you need them,” I added after agreeing whole-heartedly and without hesitation to press charges against Tasha McKinnley, formally known as Mom.
“I’ll also write up a no-contact restraining order. I’m certain the judge will push it through quickly while she awaits trial.”
“Thank you,” Andrew and I said at the same time.
