Chapter 0004
1116 Words
•ASHER•
When I woke up next to Haley in the morning, I slipped out of bed and got dressed before she could wake up and ask me what we were.
I left her a sweet note and a few dollars in case an accident happened and she needed to take care of it.
When I got to my car, my cell phone rang, and it was Jake. He chuckled when I told him I had just left Haley’s house and was heading home to bathe.
“I bet Lana is waiting for you at the gate, bud. You’d better have some excellent answers for her because she won’t believe the s**t you’ll tell her about sleeping over at my place.”
“I don’t owe her anything, Jake. She cheated with my driver, and whatever I do now is because of what she did.” I rolled my eyes when I saw the red lipstick on the collar of my shirt.
If Lana saw that, she would be mad and accuse me of cheating on her again, and I didn’t want to argue with her over that again, so I took it off and wore only the jacket.
“She knows you, Asher!” He laughed. “You dated girls at work while she was working for you before you asked her out. You were going to cheat on her anyway, even if she had been loyal to you. This makes me wonder how Haley took a married man home. You must be a woman’s man!”
“Did you do what I asked you to do? I need June to believe I never lost the year-long partnership to rebuild the old California museum.”
“Yes, that’s why I called. AJ has finished working on your portfolio and stated that you refused the offer because you didn’t want to tamper with the museum’s history. I think that would intrigue her.”
“Good. June’s connections are what’s going to get me a contract with her family’s businesses. She’ll bring me money, and I won’t play with that opportunity.”
“Then you might have to divorce Lana if you want the heiress of Leonard Fenwick.”
***
Note: “Six weeks and three days pregnant. The baby’s progressing well, and HCG levels match the specified week of pregnancy.”
My hands shook after reading the doctor’s note and divorce papers. For a moment, everything seemed to have frozen in time, and the only constant thing was the beat of my heart.
Rushing to the door, I rushed downstairs and found my mother and sisters laughing about something on the TV after they had let Lana leave the house.
“Oh, Asher, you’re home!” My mother giggled as she turned her attention to me. “I wasn’t sure you would be home for dinner tonight, so I would have instructed the chefs to prepare your favorite dish.”
“Did you know about this?” I threw the papers in her lap, hoping she would have an explanation since she and Raya wanted her to leave.
“You’re divorcing Lana? My God, that’s good news!” She squealed. “She’s good riddance. I am glad you see now, Asher, that Lana wasn’t cut out to be your wife.“
“She’s divorcing me, Mom, and apparently, she’s pregnant.” I pointed to the doctor’s note, and when she saw it, she laughed.
“That’s Wayne’s baby, Asher! You heard him. They’ve been sleeping together under our roof, and after confronting her, she ran away because she didn’t want to face her shame of carrying another man’s child.”
“If she’s carrying my child, you will no longer be my mother, and all your daughters will be dead to me.” I pointed my finger at her, seething.
“Asher!” My mother stood up from the couch, gasping.
“Start praying that I don’t find my wife because if I do and find out she’s carrying my child, you’ll be dead to me.”
“That’s an insult, Asher!” Raya snarled. “If you want to blame us for helping you to see the truth about your wife, go ahead, but don’t you dare speak to Mom like that. You know Lana’s blackmailing you and trying to see what you’ll do about her pregnancy. If she were carrying your child, she would’ve told you.”
“She left a f*****g note and divorce papers!” I snapped, looking at her. “My wife left me, and you want to stand here and lie to me and say you didn’t blackmail Wayne into lying about his affair with Lana?!”
“We never wanted Lana to be your wife, but we would never lie about her for you to leave her, Asher!” my mother retorted. “We helped you!”
“You ruined my marriage!” I snapped back before I took the papers from the couch and headed back to my room.
I slammed the door behind me and started pacing, feeling frustrated that I kept calling Lana, but her cell phone took me straight to voicemail.
I left her multiple voicemails and texts, asking her where she was and what she thought she was doing. I knew she had no place to live and had no family but didn’t know where she might be.
I called all the hotels in the city, and none had any record of her in their check-ins.
My cell phone rang, and when I saw it was a private number, I suspected it was Killian. He had a habit of calling from unknown numbers because he didn’t want us to call him at random times.
No one knew where he stayed or what he did for a living. He would only come home to see us when he had a meeting with the people he was doing business with.
Our mother told us that when he was fourteen, his birth father came and left with him.
My mother broke up with his dad soon after she gave birth and met my father when Killian was five years old.
“Little brother, I’m sorry I have to cancel our meeting. Something came up, and I have to return to work. Tell Mom that—” He hesitated and breathed. “Tell her I’ll see her soon.” He hung up the call before I could answer him.
I slammed the cell phone onto the bed and groaned. I took the divorce papers and tore them into pieces.
“Asher! June Fenwick’s here to see you!” Raya called, knocking on the door. “Asher!”
- Writer
