Page 63 of His Secret Virgin
“You two have treated Emma like a child for a bit too long,” I let them know as I shoved my hand through my hair with frustration. “You may think you know her better than she knows herself, but I assure you that you hardly know her at all. You know the girl you want her to be. You don’t know Emma as she sees herself, as an independent, responsible woman.”
The look of disgust on Sebastien’s face unsettled me. “She’s only twenty. You can stop talking about her age as if she’s some old spinster that we’ve held back. Emma’s always been shy and introverted. That’s her normal behavior. If she’s anything else with you, then you had to have pulled it out of her. She’s not naturally promiscuous. It had to have been the pressure you put on her that made her give herself to you. Admit it already, so we can start fixing this shit pile you’ve created, man!”
“I won’t admit to something that’s not true.” The ground felt as if it was slipping out from under me. I wasn’t getting anywhere with them. “However it started doesn’t really matter now. We were both deeply attracted to one another. We both acted on that attraction. And as hard as this might be for you to believe, we both thought it best to hide our relationship from everyone because of how you two and my daughters would react. And I can see that we weren’t wrong to hide our relationship from all the ridicule the four of you have thrown our way.”
Celeste huffed as her hands flew up. “What did you expect?” Her eyes narrowed at me. “Did you think for one second that any of us would approve of this thing? You both knew it was wrong. But the thing is, Christopher, you are an adult and Emma is a kid. Even if she’s of age, you knew she wasn’t mature enough to handle a relationship like this. And now you’ve gotten her pregnant, another thing she’s not mature enough to handle. And it will be her father and I who’ll end up taking care of this baby because of that.”
Incensed, I said a little too loudly, “If you think you two are raising my child, you’re delirious!”
Sebastien jumped up immediately. “You will not raise your voice to us, you sick son-of-a-bitch!” he shouted at me.
Celeste took him by the arm, holding him as if she was afraid he’d storm over and beat me up or something. Not that I was afraid of a physical altercation, but I didn’t want to hurt him by accident. The fact I’d already hurt him emotionally didn’t sit well with me.
“Let’s all calm down,” Celeste said, trying to de-escalate the situation. “Sit down, Sebastien. I don’t want anything to get physical. We’ve already discussed that.”
As he retook his seat, he glared at me. “You can’t be there with Emma all the time. You work tons of hours each week. She’ll be alone with that baby, and she’ll have no idea what to do for it. It will be me and her mother who will end up being there for her and the baby, not you. You’re not thinking clearly. Your head is up your ass right now—you can’t see past your obsession with her. Once her pregnancy starts showing, once she has that baby and she’s not the innocent little thing you lusted after in the beginning, you will lose this so-called attraction you’ve got for her. And you will lose interest in her.”
Hearing him say such a thing rattled me.Could I ever lose interest in the one woman who’s able to touch me deeper than anyone else?
“Christopher, please,” Celeste implored me. “Do the right thing for Emma and the baby. If nothing else, you will leave her alone to raise a child she knows nothing about. And in the end, you will die long before her and your children, and she’ll be even more alone then.”
That thought had never occurred to me before, but it did make me think now.
