Page 103 of Breakout
“I know you are a foster child with exactly three hundred dollars in your bank account. My son saw a pretty face and thought with his dick and fell for your scam.”
Disgust rolls through me. I’ve known that Beckett has a bad relationship with his family since I’ve known him, but now I get it. His father is fucking foul.
“I didn’t scam your son. If you actually knew me, you would know that’s a lie.”
“Just give me a price, sweetheart, and I’ll cut you a check. You can start over wherever you like, and you’ll never see me again unless you bother my son.”
“I hate to break it to you, Mr. Hayes, but I can’t be bought. There is no price that will make me walk away from your son,” I tell him firmly.
He nods and rubs his chin. “Okay, say we pretend that this never happened, and I let you stay married to my son. What do you think will happen in a year from now or five?”
“I don’t know what the future holds.”
“Well, I do, so let me enlighten you. My son will play house with you for now, then one day he will wake up and realize that you two come from different worlds and want different things. It will probably be after you embarrass him for the fifth time during a business meeting. He will get sick of the pitying looks and realize that I was right. That he needs to be with someone who can handle the pressure of being his wife. That will makehim seek out the comfort of another woman. Next thing you know, he will tell you that he doesn’t need you to go to any fundraisers or business deals and that he will handle them on his own. What will really be happening, though, is he will be taking his side piece, the woman who hits all the requirements. Now Beckett might mess up and knock her up, but it will light the fire under him to make her his wife before the baby is born, because no Hayes will be born a bastard. So he will divorce you and leave you without a second thought. Now tell me, Ms. Anderson, is that the future you want?”
Each word hits me and tears me apart exactly like he was hoping it would. Lawrence Hayes knows exactly how to use his words as a weapon, and while he might have hit every single insecurity I have when it comes to my relationship with his son, there is still one thing he doesn’t know.
That this is all fake.
That my marriage is already one of convenience.
No, this man is too blinded by the thought of someone he deems as unworthy touching the family fortune that he can’t see what’s right in front of him. He has no idea that I’m the one with a bigger bank account, and I’m the one who could be well and truly fucked if things go sideways with Beckett.
“I’ll give you credit, Mr. Hayes, you must have worked awfully hard on that speech, but see, what you failed to realize is that it wouldn’t work on me.” I take a step forward, despite the fact that I feel like I could get sick. “I feel sorry for your wife, that she crawls into bed every night with a sorry excuse of a husband. I might not know what the future holds for Beckett and me, but there is one thing I do know, and it’s that your son would never cheat. He has more integrity than that and respect for the both of us and our marriage.”
“Why, you little…”
I cut him off. “In case it hasn’t penetrated through your thick skull yet, there is no price. I will never be bought. It will be my face you see at family dinners and in family portraits. No one else’s. Now if you’ll excuse me, some of us actually work for a living.”
I spin on my heel and start walking back toward the restaurant.
“My report failed to mention that you’re a pain in the ass, Ms. Anderson.”
“Hayes. My name is Peyton Hayes, so start using it.”
As soon as I step out of view, I pull out my phone and hit dial. I need to warn my husband that his father knows our secret.
My phone rings, and I frown when I see her name light up across the screen.
“Hey, babe, everything okay?” I ask quietly.
Some dude sitting a table away glares at me. “No phones in the library.”
I give him the middle finger as my woman takes a deep breath.
“No, Beck, it’s not,” she says, voice shaking.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I begin to load my bag up.
In the entire time Peyton and I have been together, or even when we were just friends, did she ever call immediately after a shift. By my judgment, she hasn’t even left the place yet.
“Are you hurt?”
“Physically, I’m fine.” She takes another deep breath. “I went outside to take my break in my car.”
“I hope Larry was with you,” I cut in.
“Beckett, that isn’t important right now. That’s not why I called.”
