Page 78 of Her Inconvenient Groom (French Conquests 4)

“Not when you have a random baby and lied to me about it!”

“I’m aliar?”he repeated, incredulously.

“You said you wanted to be with me. You said you wanted this to be a real marriage. That you loved me.” Her voice caught in her throat. “But not one word or even awhisperabout your ex having a daughter that could be yours! I asked you about your relationship with her while we hiked and you could have said something then! You didn’t!” She was flushed in her anger. “That, to me, is lying!”

“I’m sorry—”

“I lived a lie for 30 years, told to me by my own parents. What made you think I’d be willing to live with one now?”

He began again, growing more desperate. “I—”

She held up her hand to shut him up. “Enough. I’m done.” She walked over to a table and grabbed a leather briefcase lying on top of it, flung open the lid and grasped a thin sheaf of papers. Then she whirled around.

“After what I’ve gone through with the poisoning, after the way I lost my baby—”

He began to correct her. “Our—”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear you!” She thrust the papers at him. “My womb is empty. My body may never recover. I’m no use to you. Why not go to the woman who can? Whohasprovided you with a prodigy?”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After all they’d been through together, she found it this easy to toss him aside? “Chantelle, sweetheart. You can’t be serious.”

She threw the papers at him in frustration. “For God’s sake! Just take them, sign them and get the hell out! My lawyer will contact yours and the second check will be sent to Kim.”

He bent down, slowly picking up each sheet of paper, and for some ridiculous reason, arranging them in order as he did so. As if his brain welcomed the diversion.

Then, once they were all neat and nice, he held them up before her and tore them right down the middle. “Here’s what I think of your damn divorce papers.”

Chapter 43

She wasn’t supposed to cry. She knew he’d eventually come looking for her, and had promised herself that when that time came, she was not going to cry.

But there he was, in her house as expected, and her eyes were stinging.Goddammit.

She watched as the strips of paper rained onto her floor, feeling both irritation and relief. How dare he?

It was bad enough knowing he hadn’t told her all that he should have, but if she was honest with herself, that was only part of the reason she was so upset. The knowledge that another woman gave Dustin a baby when she didn’t ate at her.

It reminded her of all she had lost. All she could no longer give him.

Dustin sighed her name, and as he approached her, she backed away. She wouldn’t be able to bear it if he touched her now. Her resolve would be broken, and she’d give in.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

She’d backed up against the table, so there was nowhere else to go. She slumped a little in defeat.

He took her hands, lightly, as if signaling her to pull away if she wanted. To her surprise, she didn’t. “I don’t believe her claims. She’s proven herself untrustworthy before.”

“The baby looks just like you!”

He smiled a little. “I’m a basic white dude. Fifty percent of the babies in the city look like me.”

Chantelle didn’t think he was basic at all. In fact, she thought he was amazing, but didn’t say a word of what she thought. If she let even something that minor slip, she’d lose the battle before—

“Chantelle?” It was Tom, her brother, standing in the doorway. His eyes quickly took in the mess on the floor, and the fact that Dustin was there, standing way too close. He examined Chantelle’s face with curious eyes. It was obvious something was amiss. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Dustin growled.

Tom ignored him with a snort, calling her by name again. “You okay, Sis?”

---