“Hey there, buddy,” I say, the knots in my chest easing when he reaches me. Bending down, I lift him up with one arm, holding both of them close to me.
“Mommy. Ben is here, and it’s not even the weekend.” Rowan grins, leaning across my chest to kiss Sierra on the lips, and it’s the sweetest thing ever. My heart swells, and I think I’m already a lost cause when it comes to these two.
“Oh my God,” Serena exclaims, and I look over at her. Her gaze bounces from me to Rowan, and I can tell she has made the connection. Her eyes are bugging out of her head, and shock is splayed across her face.
“Don’t say—” Sierra starts to speak, to warn Serena not to say anything in front of Rowan, I’m guessing, when she is rudely cut off by the bitch I once dated.
“No fucking way! You’re Rowan’s father?” Saskia yells, pushing her husband away and stalking toward us.
32
BEN
Sierra and I look at Rowan at the same time, and his adorable little face is scrunched in confusion.
Fuck Saskia.
I didn’t want to do this today. I was going to ask Sierra if we could tell him soon but only once they were settled in my home, their home, and Rowan was ready to hear the news.
But, of course, Saskia has to try to make this about her.
Sierra pulls away from me, straightening up to confront her sister, but I’m not letting her get far. I reposition us so we are standing side by side, holding Rowan on my hip on one side and circling my arm around Sierra on the other. We present a united front as a clearly angry Saskia storms right up to us. I watch our son carefully, holding him tighter while I press a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay, Rowan,” I whisper in his ear. “We will explain everything soon.”
He looks into my eyes, and I want to murder Saskia when I see the lost look on his face. He doesn’t know what is going on, and he is scared and confused.
“Yes, Ben is Rowan’s father,” Sierra says through gritted teeth as Saskia comes to a halt in front of her. If it wasn’t obvious before that Saskia is jealous of her little sister, it is painfully obvious now. “And that is something we wanted to tell Rowan together, privately, when the time is right. I can tolerate you being nasty to me, but you will not hurt Rowan. Why does everything always have to be about you?”
“Because this is about me!” she shouts, and I rub Rowan’s back as he flinches in my arms.
I want to get him out of here before he is even more traumatized. “This has nothing to do with you,” I coldly tell her. “And lower your voice. You’re upsetting our son.”
She waves one bony finger in my direction, and her nostrils flare as steam practically billows from her ears. The skin on her forehead and across her cheekbones is stretched so tight it looks like it might split. Anyone contemplating cosmetic surgery should take one look at Saskia Barretta’s face and reconsider. “Sierra has always wanted everything I had, and that includes you!” she screeches, ignoring my warning and shrieking like a banshee.
“You were never good enough for him,” Sierra says, and although her voice is calm, I can tell she’s angry and ready to explode. “And you couldn’t have been too heartbroken if you married Felix six months later.”
“That was—”
“That’s enough, Saskia,” Joseph Lawson cuts in, pinning his eldest daughter with a ferocious look, before he turns to her husband. “Control your wife before she says something she regrets.”
A loud slap rings out around the room, and my head whips back to Sierra. She’s cupping her injured cheek with her hand, and Saskia’s slap has reopened the cut. Blood trickles down her face, startling Rowan.
“Mommy!” he cries, stretching his arms out, reaching for her.
Quietly, I hand Rowan to Sierra and spin around, grabbing Saskia by the neck. Everything I have been keeping locked up inside ruptures as I tilt her head back and glare at her. My voice is low but deadly and dripping in menace because I want her to get the message loud and clear. “If you ever touch my fiancée again, I will kill you. The same thing goes for my son.” I tighten my grip around her neck as I notice Joseph Lawson restraining an enraged Felix Barretta, whispering something in his ear.
“Ben.” Sierra places her hand on my lower back. “Rowan is frightened,” she quietly adds, and I hear her underlying warning.
That is the only thing she could say to force me to back down. Reluctantly, I let Saskia go, shoving her back at her husband as Lawson releases him. I look down, and my heart hurts when I see Rowan with his face buried in Sierra’s shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. His small arms and legs are wrapped around her, and his little body heaves.
I’m glad he is facing away so he didn’t see me almost strangling his aunt. I need to rein in my anger for my son’s sake. I want to be the one to console him, but I’m not sure he wants me anywhere near him right now. He is scared and confused, and Sierra is his comfort blanket, so I need to let her look after him while I deal with everything else.
Fuck that bitch Saskia. This is all her fault. I swing bloodthirsty eyes in her direction, wishing I could teach her a lesson. She is lucky, because I’m pretty sure my son just saved her life.
I lower my voice so little ears can’t hear. “Just so we’re clear, Saskia, I never cared about you. I’d just lost my mom and my college dreams when we met. I was lost, and you plucked me up like I was some project. A fixer-upper. If I hadn’t been broken, I never would have lasted longer than one date because you remain, to this day, the most selfish self-absorbed cruel evil bitch to ever walk the planet.” I rake my gaze up and down her body in a deliberately derisory fashion. “I walked away from you that day, and I never gave you a second thought.” It’s the truth. She wasn’t in any way memorable, and I never wondered about her over the years like I wondered about Sierra.
“Sierra is worth a million of you,” I continue, sliding my arm around Sierra’s waist again. “And she is going to be my wife.” Technically, I haven’t asked Sierra yet, but—like she’d say—that’s only semantics. It’s going to happen and soon if I have my way. “That has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with her being the most amazing woman, the most incredible mother, and the woman I choose to be by my side.”
“She tricked you!” Saskia cries, swiping at the angry tears rolling down her face. “That’s the only explanation that makes sense,” she adds, proving she is clearly delusional and suffering from hearing loss. Everything I just said went in one ear and out the next. There is no speaking to the witch.
Felix eyes me coldly, as if this is my fault. What a pussy. Saskia must be walking rings around him if he can’t see what is staring him in the face. He needs to man up and put that stupid bitch in a muzzle where she belongs.
“Remove your wife from the room before she embarrasses herself further,” Lawson says, drilling Saskia with a look I can’t decipher. Felix throws a belligerent Saskia over his shoulder, and she’s crying and screaming abuse as they exit the room.
“I apologize,” Lawson says to me, sidling up to his wife and wrapping his arm around her so they are almost mirroring our position. “Saskia has a dramatic side we could never quite stamp out.”