Page 69 of The Omega's Secret Baby
She knows.
That much was clear to me in an instance. Somehow, she’d found out about Jake, and that I’d brought him here.
“Where is he?” my mother demanded, waltzing into the room.
“You can’t barge in here like that!” Frederica tried, but she was ignored.
The moment my mother spotted me and Jake, there was no stopping her. “You!” She came up to me and stabbed her finger in my chest. “What are you trying to do? Do you want me to have a heart attack like your father? I can’t believe you would do this to this family after all we’ve done for you! I’ve never been more disappointed in my life! To think that you would fall into the hands of a greedy omega after all the effort I went through to prevent that from happening!” She put the back of her hand to her forehead in a dramatic gesture.
“Please, Mother. You’re over—”
“Don’t tell me I’m overreacting!” She stabbed my chest again. “Your sister told me everything! Some dirty omega’s got you convinced that you knocked him up eight years ago and now you feel like you have to raise his bastard child. Is that true?” She glanced at Jake, who stared at her with wide eyes. “Is that the bastard child? He looks nothing like you!”
“He has my eyes. And you will stop calling him a bastard!”
“He does not and I will not!”
“Then get out of here! You’re scaring the child!”
“You can’t tell me what to do in my own house! And maybe that child needs to be scared so he won’t come back!” She turned to Jake. “We don’t need the likes of you here!”
I stood and dragged the woman away from my son. She might have been my mother, but there was a limit to the level of abuse I could tolerate. Especially when it was directed at my kid. “That child is my son, and you will treat him with respect!”
She did the most unladylike thing I’d ever seen her do—she spit in my face. “That is not your child. Get him out of my sight!” That said, she turned on her heel and left.
I swallowed, watching her go, balling my hands into fists. I couldn’t believe Karen had sicced our mother on me. Well, actually, Icouldbelieve it. What I couldn’t believe was that I hadn’t foreseen it. All this time, and I still hadn’t learned that basic human decency counted for nothing in this family.
“Matt.” Jake tugged on my sleeve. “I want to go home now.”
Of course he did. Who could blame him?
“Sure, kiddo.” I gave him the hug I’d wanted to give him earlier. “I’ll take you.”
Well, this had gone wonderfully. I could only hope that Eli wasn’t going to rip my head off.
31
Elias
Matt broughtJake back a bit earlier than I’d expected. I was in the middle of doing a crossword and trying to enjoy my rare alone time instead of worrying about my kid when the doorbell rang.
Jake greeted me with a hug, which surprised me, because he wasn’t doing that as much lately.
“Hey, kid,” I said, returning the hug, relieved to have him back with me. “Did you have a good time?”
Jake looked up at me with a curious expression. “Daddy, what’s a bastard?”
My heart just about burst into a million pieces. “That’s uh… That’s a word we don’t use. Ever. Okay?”
“But what does it mean?”
“It uh…” I looked at Matt, but he didn’t seem to have an appropriate explanation either. Before I knew it, my eyes narrowed at him. How the hell had this happened? I’d let him watch my kid foroneday! I looked back at Jake. “Go up to your room. We’ll talk later.”
“But—”
“Go to your room now. Please.” I had to talk to Matt, and I wasn’t going to do it with Jake present.
Jake huffed, but went up the stairs. I was going to have to console him with some ice cream later.
