Page 46 of Now & Forever
“What you really want is for me to dump James.”
“Don’t act like you haven’t been thinking about it.”
“What in the world makes you say that?”
Albert merely grinned.
Damnit.Ophelia. She must have said something. Or perhaps Sarah had overheard Gwen and Kathryn talking at the restaurant a few weeks ago. The woman had supersonic bitchiness on her side. Why not supersonic hearing?
“James and I may have hit a rough patch since…” Gwen spared a glare for the woman beside her. “But we’re on the mend. Why, by this Christmas we’ll be our usual selves.”
“Even so, I must ask you to please leave.”
“Why?”
“Don’t play dumb, Ms. Mitchell.” Albert wasn’t going to play along with Gwen’s casual niceties, after all. “You’ve had your fun with my son. Seven years is more than long enough. It’s time for James to grow up and become a family man.”
Although these words came from Albert, Gwen couldn’t help but continue to glare at the woman beside her. Sarah filed her nails with a bejeweled stick that was tackier than the peacock pin on her blouse. “Let me guess – his destiny is to marry your daughter and raisetheirchild together.”
Sarah didn’t bother to look at her. “Told you she was smarter than you took her for, Albert. Also a right bitch.”
“Does that mean he doesn’t take you for being as smart as you are, too?” Gwen flashed Sarah her most dazzling smile.James paid for these veneers.When they met, Gwen was still self-conscious about the crooked teeth braces had only made worse as a child. James had paid for everything she wanted at the dentist. Gwen had stopped at straightening and some whitening, however. That was back when she still wasn’t used to having so much money at her disposal.
Sarah acted as if she didn’t know what Gwen implied.
“Since we’re both bitches, after all,” she said.
“Ms. Mitchell,” Albert said with a growl, “you have no place in my family. That’s a fact, and I truly hope I can make you see that.”
“Well,” Gwen said with a sigh so heavy that she almost spat out her mint, “how blunt.”
“I haven’t lied. Seven years, and you still don’t understand the responsibilities foisted upon my son. He’s destined to take overeverythingone day. Do you know what that means for him on a personal level?”
Gwen couldn’t wait to hear this.
“He needs heirs.Ineed heirs before I can die in peace!”
So much easier to direct her anger toward Sarah instead of the idiot in front of her. “Is that why you conspired to knock up your daughter with James’s frozen seed? Long game. I have to give you props for that.”
Sarah slammed her nail file into her lap. “Cassandra is willing to do whatever it takes for this family! Canyousay the same thing, Ms. Barren Womb?”
The half-melted mint lodged itself in Gwen’s throat. Nobody got up to help her when she choked. She wondered if they would have let her die, if it weren’t for her saliva exacerbating the melting process and freeing up her airways before she turned blue.
“Where did you hear that?” Gwen asked, her words peppered with haggard coughs.
“What?” Sarah reveled in the panic welling in Gwen’s chest. “That you’re incapable of having children? Everyone knows about it, dear. The moment you turn your back on any group of socialites having a chat, they’re gossiping about you. Haven’t you noticed? Or do you not have any friends beyond Kathryn Alison and Charlotte Williams?”
Of course everyone talks shit about everyone else. Welcome to humanity!Gwen knew better than these two adulterous nimrods that people talked. But how in the world did anyone know about her condition? She had only ever told James that her gyno informed her she would probably never have children, due to several reproductive issues since puberty. All of them had treatable symptoms, but she would have to go to extremes to combat her infertility – and there was no guarantee any of them would work.
He hadn’t told some blabbermouth, had he? Why in the world would James tellanyonethat his partner would need surgeries to get by one day, let alone that she was effectively infertile without considerable intervention?I never really wanted the whole pregnancy, childbirth, young motherhood thing… it didn’t bother me enough to treat it.She was more worried about chronic pain and metabolic issues.
Now she was worried that half the town knew she was an infertile she-demon. Did that make what Cassandra did evenmorescandalous? A giant fuck-you to the woman who couldn’t give James his own children… even if they wanted them?
“Quite unfortunate,” Albert muttered. “Yet let me assure you that I heaved a sigh of relief when I discovered you were unlikely to trap my son with one of your own.”
“At least I would’ve kept my place, right?” Gwen said with a sneer.
“As a starter wife, to be sure.”
