Page 9 of Secret Baby for Dr. Billionaire

Things started to change when Billy Anne was one and a half. I had come home two hours early from work, only to find an empty house and Billy Anne alone crying her lungs out in her crib with an empty bottle and a full diaper. I confronted Tonette that day and stupidly let things slide because I wanted to make things work. We were good for a year after that.

When Billy Anne was two, a co-worker informed me that she saw Tonette at the park with some random dude, and Billy Anne wasn’t there. I didn’t think twice about hiring a private investigator to find out what Tonette was doing the entire week while I was at work. What the PI came up with startled me to my bones.

Tonette had a cocaine-addicted boyfriend of ten years when we were together, and when she got pregnant, she and her boyfriend decided to milk money from me through child support. I could have simply broken up with her. But then I learned that Tonette would leave the house the moment I’d leave for work, leaving Billy Anne on her own until late afternoon. I knew I wouldn’t let things slide this time.

I immediately filed for full custody, knowing that Tonette would not win because she had associated herself with a drug addict and had no job. Filing for a restraining order against her was just a bonus; one Ralph offered because she’d put Billy Anne’s life at risk by neglecting her.

I could vividly remember the fight we had that night.

“You’re out of your mind if you think you can steal my child from me, Ben!” Tonette said. A storm had been raging that night, the thunder almost making the place I once called home shake.

“You lied to my face and left our daughter to fend for herself all day to what? To fuck some cokehead on the side?”

She had just come from her little rendezvous, and she didn’t know that I had been home since lunch when I confronted her. The blood drained from her face when she saw me playing with Billy Anne in her room, and she had made some excuse about visiting the post office that she had just left a few minutes ago. I wasn’t going to buy that shit again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I grabbed a handful of her clothes from our closet and threw everything, hangers and all, into the open luggage on the mattress. I couldn’t stomach seeing her right now and letting her sleep in the same house as Billy Anne.

“Don’t give me that bullshit, Tonette. I know you’ve been sneaking off every day to see your boyfriend for fucking ten years!”

I saw how Tonette flinched at my voice, but I couldn’t feel any guilt or regret. I didn’t even want to hear her truth. Right now, I just wanted her out of my sight.

“I was going to break up with him. This is my home now—you’re my home, Ben. And Billy Anne.”

“Stop it, Tonette!” The unexpected sting in my eyes forced me to blink the building tears away. “Jesus Christ. I have a private investigator, and I know your plan to milk money from me. And to use your own fucking daughter to do it!”

“Ben, please.” Tonette tried to grab my arms to stop me from packing the rest of her things. But my mind was made up to throw her out. She’d just end up with her boyfriend. I was done with her.

“You need to think this through. You can’t let Billy Anne grow up without a mother.” And I paused, my ears burning in rage. She had no right to manipulate me into her traps again.

I grabbed her by the shoulder and seethed in her face, praying that the words would cut deep enough for her to make sense of what she had done wrong. “I’d rather have my daughter live motherless than have you for her mother. You’re irresponsible and careless.”

“You can’t do this to me, Ben!”

“Oh, I can, darling,” I gave her a cold, cynical chuckle before letting her go. “I’m filing for full custody for Billy Anne and a restraining order against you. So I suggest you start looking for a job to find yourself a suitable lawyer. Otherwise, you can live happily ever after with that powder junkie you call your boyfriend. I hope it’s all worth it, Tonette.”

Then I dragged her things out of the house and into the pouring rain. When she resisted after I told her to leave my house, all I had to do was stare her down. She knew that she had no other choice but to do as she was told.

When she left with nothing but the clothes she had brought along with her into my home a few years ago, it was the only time I could think clearly. It was then that I heard that Billy Anne was on the stairs, hugging the railing, her sobs thick and loud.

Cursing at myself, I approached her and picked her up in my arms. She asked me what had happened with her mommy, and I told her that she had to leave for good. It broke my heart to see Billy Anne devastated like that, and I had vowed that she wouldn’t ever have to cry or be neglected again. Not while I was around.

Before I went to bed that night, thanks to a sleeping pill, I called my secretary to set up a credit card for Tonette because I wasn’t so heartless that I could live with myself if something happened to her. Five grand. That was it. She could get a good lawyer for herself. She could start over. Fuck, she could get therapy or go to rehab or whatever the fuck she needed.

Then the trial came, and she didn’t even make an effort to get a good attorney. She had been high as a kite every time she’d show up in court. And it was all the court needed to see in order to give their verdict.

The next thing I knew, I had Billy Anne all to myself at home, and I didn’t give two shits where Tonette was and what she was doing to ruin her life further.

I should have been happy. But I wasn’t.

I saw the signs that something was wrong with Billy Anne when she was three. She’d refuse to make friends at daycare, and then she’d tremble in fear when she was at the park. After that, she stopped talking to kids her age and some family friends she didn’t know very well. Maggie and I decided it was time to see a therapist when she turned four. She’d have solo sessions, and sometimes we’d go together.

I sold my house and Tonette’s car, then moved to one of my penthouses, having no news about or interest in the woman who had ruined everything for me and Billy Anne.

And now, after five years of therapy, Billy Anne was getting better, but there was still a long way to go.

My thoughts about our dark past were chased away when Billy Anne piped up from the backseat.

---