Page 100 of His Gentle Omega
“That’s never going to happen.” My voice was icy with barely concealed rage. How dare these people just show up, out of the blue.
Russell indicated my living room area with a hand. “May I sit?”
Shrugging, I watched as he looked around, then finally picked a spot he decided was good enough for him to sit. My furniture might have been hand offs from Asher and Gabe, but it was all high-quality furniture, so he could take his snobbish attitude and fuck off.
Holding my hand out to Bennett, he hesitated a brief second before taking it, and we walked over and sat on the oppositesofa. Russell’s eyes were glued to Bennett, and he nodded his head towards his belly. “You’re expecting.”
Bennett smiled softly, his hand coming to rest on the slight curve of his belly, which I swear had popped out in the last week. Like the baby knew Bennett wasn’t trying to hide his pregnancy anymore and had decided to make his presence known to the world. “I am.”
Turning a cold eye to me, Russell sneered, “You didn’t waste any time after leaving my son, did you?”
Bennett’s other hand smoothed over my tense thigh, squeezing lightly. “Your son was never faithful to me. Not even from the first. I’m not going to apologize or explain myself to you.”
Graham and Lucas returned then, and he took a seat next to his husband. “What’s going on?”
“Shay knocked this…omega up,” Russell growled, “and by the looks of him he did it fairly soon after leaving Edward.”
Bennett gasped, ducking his head, and I pursed my lips together in a tight line.
“First of all, Bennett and I are fated mates. You should know what that means.” He and Graham were fated, according to Edward. “While the timing wasn’t ideal, I don’t regret anything that has happened between Bennett and me. I especially don’t regret this baby. At least I know this one is mine.”
Russell looked like he’d been slapped, and Graham’s hand covered his mouth in shock.
“Lucas,” Bennett said quietly, “why don’t you go to your room for a little bit. We’ll go to the party after your grandparents leave.”
“Bennett, are you having a baby?” Lucas asked, staring wide-eyed at Bennett’s stomach. “Is that why your tummy isgetting…bigger.”
Goddess bless my son for not calling him fat. Because he wasn’t by any means, but his belly was definitely growing round.
“Yes,” Bennett smiled softly, “now go to your room, please. We need to talk about grown up things, and then you can ask all the questions I see floating around that brain of yours.”
Lucas nodded, giving his grandparents a funny look, before retreating to his room. Where I had no doubt he was probably going to use his shifter ears to eavesdrop.
Pulling out my phone, I shot off a quick text to Asher to let him know we were running late and why, with a simple,Edward’s parents here.
Now that Lucas was out of earshot, I couldn’t seem to hold myself back.
“Do you think I don’t know the first one wasn’t mine? I didn’t for a long time. I thought that baby was mine and Edward’s, and I was so happy. Because I loved him. And I was wrapped up in the fairy tale he spun. Of us living this enchanted life, with our little family. And I grieved when he lost that baby.”
Russell started to say something, but I wouldn’t let him get the words out. “But Edward let me know later, in one of his drunken, drug fueled tantrums, that baby hadn’t been mine. And that he hadn’t miscarried.” At Graham’s strangled cry, I arched a brow at him.
“Did you not know that? Your son got rid of it. Just like the next three. Which given the timing, and his disappearing acts, probably weren’t mine either. But I know Lucas is mine; I made sure, because I honestly wasn’t sure at first. But then Edward told me he had to carry that pregnancy to term because you had demanded he produce an heir. Meaning you were going to cut him off. He had been gone for a month before showing back up,and then he…” Closing my eyes tightly, I pushed the ghost of the memory away. I wasn’t going to share certain things with them.
“He did everything in his power to get pregnant, before he pulled another vanishing act. Only this time, I didn’t go out of my mind with worry, searching for him in all his usual haunts. Because I was done. I didn’t care if he ever came back. I was leaving him. But I had to…heal first, from what he did.”
His parents had the good grace to look away and not meet my gaze. They may not have known what Edward had done to me that specific time–and I wasn’t going to share it with them–but they knew enough things to know something bad had happened.
“Then he showed back up, announcing he was pregnant. And I stayed, just in case that baby was mine. And to make sure he actually carried this one to term. He didn’t try to get rid of it.”
“If it was so bad, why didn’t you leave after Edward had the baby?” Russell sneered. “I saw the date of the paternity report. It wasn’t done until two years ago.”
“Because I had to protect that baby from your son! It didn’t matter if he was biologically mine or not.”
Graham gasped, clutching at invisible pearls, but Russell had the audacity to roll his eyes at me. Bennett squeezed my thigh, and I grasped his hand in mine tightly. A lifeline that gave me courage.
“Do you know what your son did? Of course you don’t. He tossed that four-week-old baby, carrier and all, into his crib because he was crying. He was halfway across the nursery, and he threw him! Right in front of me. It’s only by the grace of the Goddess that somehow his carrier landed upright in his crib, and he wasn’t hurt. There was no way I was going to leave without that baby, and Edward refused to let me take him. Heconstantly told me he wasn’t mine, and if I left with him, he would have me brought up on kidnapping charges. Someone had to protect Lucas from your son.”
“So don’t you dare come into my house and act indignant about anything I have done since leaving Edward. You have no right. You turned a blind eye to how he was. You threw money at the problems he made until they disappeared. You tried to control him with threats and ultimatums. And you knew what he was like, and you did nothing.”
