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“Is she...” Madeline’s voice trails off as her manicured finger lands beside her plump pink lips. “Is she a student there at the university? I’m almost positive she told me she was, yes?” Her eyes flicker up to me again, as if she’s waiting for me to answer.
“It’s none of your business, Madeline.”
She laughs sardonically. “How would thisnotbe my business, Aiden? You’re my ex-husband, but you’re also the father of our son. I have a right to know if you’re breaking the policy at the university. Is she a student of yours?”
“Just let this go.” Aiden’s voice grows increasingly concerned, and I find my stomach knotting up. “It really doesn’t affect you at all.”
“If I take this to the school...” She looks back up at me. “It would ruin his career, you know?”
“Please don’t do that,” I finally say, my voice edging with emotion. “It’s not like that. I’m an older student—”
“You’re not over twenty-five. I know that just by looking at you. I’m not stupid. I know a young woman when I see one. Though, I have to admit, I never thought Aiden was the kind of man to go for the cradle.”
“She’s an adult,” Aiden growls.
“Hmm,” Madeline mutters, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “That might be the truth, but if I took this to the school, you’d have to resign.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
“I might,or...”
“Don’t bring our son into this,” Aiden pleads, and my heart breaks for him in the moment. “Don’t do something that will affect him for the rest of his life—”
She ignores him. “If you’ll hand over full custody, I’ll keep this between us. You can keep your cute little lover, and Connor will move in with Richard and me. I think that’s a fair deal, don’t you, sweetheart?” She gazes up at me. “I’m sure you wouldn’t want to become a stepmom to a twelve-year-old, would you?”
My mouth opens to say something, but Aiden cuts her off. “Don’t do this, Madeline.”
“Well, let’s be honest. You only ever date seriously, right? So, whatever you have going with this woman, we can probably both agree that you haverealfeelings.”
My stomach flips, and I grasp the railing. I want to jump to Aiden’s defense, and tell this woman to get the hell out of his house, but... I also don’t want to make a bad situation much,muchworse. It could get ugly very quickly, and I don’t want to do that to him.
“Just give it up,” Madeline sneers, keeping her attention on Aiden now. “Let me take Connor with me without a fight, and you can keep your dirty little secret. I’ll send him home on the holidays.”
“No,” Aiden growls back at her. “You don’t even care enough about him to know his damn schedule, Madeline! How can I trust that you’ll keep up with him in another country? You can’t call me when you don’t feel like being a mom. You’llhaveto be there for him.”
“Oh, shut up,” she snaps. “I have Richard. He gets along just fine with Connor. The two of them need to bond more than they have already.”
“That would requireyouto be a good mom,” Aiden shoots right back at her. “You never want to be around your son.”
“Oh, you’re going to fucking regret this, Aiden. You just wait.” She spins on her heels and rushes through the doors of the house, disappearing from the house.
Aiden races after her, slipping through the front doors.
And I’m left standing there in the exact same spot.
Did I just ruin Aiden’s life?
I swallow hard as I try to process what just happened. I mean, she’s trying to blackmail him, but other than breaking one policy, Aiden hasn’t committed a crime, and he doesn’t need the job anyway... We could get ahead of this. We could go to administration and explain the situation. Maybe they would let me just transfer out of the class, and that would be it. Aiden could keep his job.
One foot in front of the other, I descend the steps the rest of the way, landing on the bottom floor.
My head feels light, but I feel like I have a good handle on it all.
“Fuck!” Aiden shouts as he steps inside and slams the door. “I can’t believe that just happened.” He runs his fingers through his salt and pepper hair, exasperation written all over his face.
“We can figure this out.” I rush to him, grabbing his hand. “It doesn’t have to be the end of the world—”
“You don’t understand.” He pulls away from me, shaking his head. “If she goes to the school with this information, it could mean the end of my job. And if I have to go into a custody battle without steady employment, and with the history of a romantic relationship with a student, she could paint me as an unstable home. This could go so fucking bad.”
