“I hope like hell you don’t want anything from me!” Grey tried to get his bearing.
Ivy replied with a nasty snarl.
Grey ignored her. “And then the other question is if it’s mine what am I to do? Allow you to walk around with a bastard child and child support check. Is that supposed to be enough?” Where would this put him during election time? The polls would be against him. He couldn’t allow that to happen.
“That would be enough. I am more than capable of raising this child on my own,” she said grinding her teeth.
“Could you please act your age for two seconds. Of course it is not enough.” His voice raised slightly, but not enough to be heard for fear that it might bring to much attention from the guests in the house. He thought carefully for a moment weighing every option and occasionally thanking God that the shoe was not on the other foot. Then in a deep solemn voice he spoke glaring into her wide eyes with new control.
“Is it really over with this guy?”
“Yes.” Ivy looked up from her headache and stared him in his eyes.
“Do you still have feelings for him?” For Grey, it was the million-dollar question.
“I never had feelings for him.” Ivy lied but she saw no reason for telling him the truth about something that didn’t matter. “I was lonely and desperate…a feeling I hope that you never experience.”
There was some comfort in Grey’s mind now. He could believe that her cop friend meant nothing as long as she believed that he had never been unfaithful. It still gave him the upper hand, a better one in fact. And he planned to use it for as long as possible.
“As much as I would like to deny that I have any feelings for you, I still love you very much. And I wish that all of this had never happened. But this does change things dramatically. There is so much to clean up behind a scandal like this. I don’t know where to begin.” But he did. He would start with his own dirty conscious.
“We should just call off the wedding,” Ivy said wiping the tears from her tired eyes.
“Why? Are you finished with me?” Grey didn’t want her to begin to fight back. He wanted her to submit fully to his entire plan. It was the only way he was sure that it would work.
“No, I’m not finished with you. But this is just too much.”
“You let me worry about the specifics. Just focus on finishing school and maintaining your sanity around town. Unless we find out for certain that this child is his, we will act as though this never happened. I mean, there is no since of making me look like a fool for no reason.”
“Damn it, Grey. No one is trying to make you look like a fool! Everything isn’t about you!” She forgot herself in the middle of her emotions.
“Like it or not, when you took me back, you made it about me. And lower you damned voice in this house. Do not disrespect my family.”
“I’m sorry,” she said sobbing lightly. “But don’t you disrespect me either.”
“If the child is mine then we have nothing more to worry about. We will write it off as simple but very stupid mistake. And if it is his, whoever he is, I will accept his child as my own only if he steps back completely. I won’t go into my marriage with my wife bound to another man by a child or anything else. He will have to cut all his ties.” Now Grey could prove to everyone that Ivy wasn’t perfect and shift some the guilt of infidelity off of his shoulders.
“What if he doesn’t want to?” Ivy asked appalled at his demands.
“Some how, I don’t think that he’ll mind,” Grey said rolling his eyes.
“I didn’t go out and sleep with the first asshole that would have me. He’s not the type to just shove his responsibilities off on you. Besides, you speak as though I am asking or begging even for you to marry me.” There was little if any room for misinterpretation. “Well, I’m not.”
“Oh, I know that you are not. You’re as stubborn as I am, but I still am laying down my side of the agreement. Take it or leave Ivy, because like it or not you were dead wrong.” His thoughts drifted back to his recent affairs.
“Yes, I was wrong. I will admit that, but the truth of the matter is that so were you for dropping me like a bad habit. I didn’t cheat. We weren’t together, or did you forget. I just failed to inform you as to what I had done during our break up…”
“Which,” Grey interrupted, “could have killed me if the man had had HIV or some other God forsaken disease.” There was a silence in the room. “Thank God he only left you with his possible seed and a stained name,” he stood up from his chair and walked briskly passed her. “Get your things we’re leaving. You don’t deserve to be here.”
“I am not stained,” Ivy said shaking her head emphatically.
“Aren’t you?” he turned around to meet her face to face. “You were as pure as any man could hope for, and then like a fool you let him touch you. Unprotected! What in the hell were you thinking?”
“I didn’t let him. We used protection. It must have slipped or something.” She turned away from him in shame.
“Protection? If you were really interested in protecting yourself you wouldn’t have thrown your legs open and invited him in. Don’t try to justify this bullshit, and don’t ever bring up how you may have gotten pregnant by him again. I’m quite sure that I know how these things happen. Now, grab your things. I want you out of my family’s house.” Turning away,
