Page 60 of The Omega's Secret Baby
I’d spentthree weeks away from Oceanport when things started to look up for me. I’d finally found someone to run the show over here, and I was feeling good about the future of my company as well as my own—when my phone rang and I saw my sister’s name as the caller ID.
What could she want?
We’d talked extensively about my move back to Oceanport just two days ago and I hadn’t expected to hear from her again so soon.
“Hello, Matt,” she greeted me, and the tone of her voice let me know there was something she wasn’t pleased with. I still had no idea what that was, though.
“Hi, Karen. Is something the matter?”
“I don’t know,” she said with an air of derision, “issomething the matter? Why don’t you tell me?”
“What are you talking about?” Sometimes I wished my family valued straight talk a little more. But no, we always had to perform intricate dances around each other.
“Oh, it’s just that I went downtown today and I heard some interesting things about you from my hairdresser. Did you know? You’re the talk of the town.” She gave a high pitched laugh that didn’t sound amused.
Oh, that.“You know people love to talk.”
“They certainly do, brother. But do you know what they’re saying?”
I sat on my couch and suppressed a sigh. “I’m sure you’re going to enlighten me in a second.”
She laughed again, but her laughter still had a fake quality to it. “They’re saying you’re seeing one of the town’s omegas. Isn’t that ridiculous? You must think it’s ridiculous, no? Everyone should know you’re far too elevated for some small town omega slut.”
“He’s not a slut,” I cut in. Seriously, if there’s one thing I could never stand, it’s people talking trash about Eli.
“So you admit it.” She huffed. “I can’t believe you would stoop so low. If you had to go around fucking omegas, why couldn’t you do that somewhere else? You know, a little farther away from home where these rumors wouldn’t touch your family? It’s like you spare us no thought at all!”
I gritted my teeth. “For your information, I don’t make a habit of going around and ‘fucking omegas’ as you so eloquently put it. And I wasn’t aware that who I sleep with is any of your concern.”
Through the phone, I heard her exhale sharply. “Oh, don’t you pretend like it isn’t. We belong to an exclusive social class where you have to be careful who you mingle with. You know all that omega wants is our money. Or were you so distracted by your hormones that you forgot everything you’ve been taught?”
“You’re starting to sound like our mother.” It was all I could say. My sister was blowing this way out of proportion, just like my mother would. Neither of them would understand that I loved Eli, and that he loved me. Yes, when I’d first met Eli, I’d been a stupid teen and I’d acted on hormones. But so much more had grown out of that. My mother and sister had never had that sort of experience. It was kind of sad, actually, and this conversation was exhausting me. To my family, everything was about money. It wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d laced my dad’s coffin in dollar notes.
“Somebody has to be the voice of reason,” my sister said. “Might as well be me. Promise me you’ll stop this foolishness when you come back here.”
“I’m not going to promise you any such thing.” My love life wasmybusiness, and I was going to be firm on that. “I’m sorry, Karen, but you don’t get a say in who I date.”
“You’redatinghim? Oh, please. You can’t be that stupid. I’ve heard about this omega. He’s been single for years, rejecting everyone, only to throw himself at the richest bachelor in town? That omega has an agenda. And not a lot of morals. Did you know he doesn’t even know who sired his son?”
“That would be me,” I said, half-wishing I could see the expression on my sister’s face. Had to be priceless.
For what felt like a full minute, I heard nothing but her breathing on the other end of the line. I couldn’t believe I’d managed to shut up my sister. I finally felt vindicated for all the mean things she’d done to me when we were children. Like that time I fell asleep in the sitting room and she drew stupid things on me just before my dad was having business partners over for dinner.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Karen said finally. She sounded almost a bit defeated. “How long has this been going on?”
“We broke it off before I married.” And I wasn’t even sure why I was telling her this, because it wasn’t her business, but at the same time, I didn’t want anyone to think that I’d been cheating on my wife. That was not the kind of man I was. “Then we kind of ran into each other again when I came to visit this year.”
“Did you know about the kid?” There was a hint of suspicion in Karen’s voice that made me wonder what sort of congestions she was brewing up in her head now.
“I did not know,” I admitted.
“And he only told you this recently?” She was definitely suspicious. But what of, I couldn’t say.
“That is correct.”
She sighed. “He’s lying.”
“He’s not lying.” There was no way.
