“No, sweetie,” I shouted up the stairs before instructing Genesis, “Stay here.”
She glared at me.
I found Joey coming down the steps holding her unicorn. “Is Billie here?”
“No, it’s daddy’s friend. She’s gonna leave in a few minutes. I’m sorry we woke you up. Go back to bed.” I ushered her back into her room and tucked her in, kissed her on top of her head. “Go back to sleep.”
I waited at the door for a few minutes after I closed it, just to make sure I didn’t hear her getting out of bed. When I came downstairs, I found Genesis sitting at the kitchen table.
“Gen, you need to leave. Now.”
“You’remarried?”
“What?”
She was staring down at an opened envelope. I walked over and saw that Genesis had gone through my mail. Our marriage certificate had arrived today.
I tried to pick it up, but she grabbed it. I sighed. “You need to go.”
“You’ve been cheating on me, this whole time, and now you’remarried?”
“I never cheated on you. And this is not what it looks like.”
Huge tears were in her eyes. “It looks like you’re married to Billie Joelle Bliss.”
As much as I didn’t want to explain myself, I didn’t actually want to hurt Genesis. I walked over and pulled out the documents from my lawyer and handed them to her. “I had to get married to get my inheritance. Billie was my neighbor?—”
“Wait, you have an inheritance?”
“Yes, and a trust, and Billie lived next door growing up and she agreed to marry me so that I could have access to the money.” She read them as I explained more. “We didn’t have a wedding. We haven’t told anyone. We’re getting divorced after ninety days. The girls don’t know. Her sisters don’t know. The only people who know are you, now, and my lawyer.”
Her eyes shot up to mine. “You swear you didn’t cheat on me?”
“I didn’t cheat on you.”
We didn’t sleep together until an hour after you broke up with me.
She sniffed. “I want to meet her.”
“No.” I grabbed the marriage certificate and the documents from my lawyer. “You need to go, Genesis.”
“I want to meet her,” she repeated.
“No. I haven’t even spoken to her in a week. Okay. She just did this as a favor for me. You and I aren’t even together. You’re not going to bother her.”
“Well, your daughters have obviously met her. One of them thought she was here.”
“And?” I didn’t see how that was relevant.
“Why can she meet them and not me?”
“Because she would never call them mistakes or suggest putting them in a boarding school.”
Her mouth opened then closed, then opened and then the tears were back. She stood up and pushed my chest. “You don’t have to be a dick.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. Just go, please.”
“But you’re not even giving me a chance. It’s not fair, they already know her, and you won’t even let me meet them.”
