Page 39 of The Best Bad Decision

I could see the finish line but it felt like we were never going to get there.

“Second. I am not pouting. I’m ending my marriage because she cheated on me and ended up pregnant with another man’s child.” After saying she didn’t want kids. Repeatedly. “I also haven’t proven my point if you think this is a show.”

How did neither of them realize how serious this was?

“Third. I won’t talk to the wedding coordinator you hired because I’m not marrying Valerie again. No vow renewal. No second wedding because you think we’ve rekindled our relationship.” What in God’s name made them think this was salvageable? “I will not ignore the way she cheated on me.”

Or the way she’d treated me.

Or the way she’d ignored me.

And I wasn’t going to raise a cheater’s kid.

I wasn’t against adoption or a lot of ways kids could come into someone’s life, but I wasn’t going to raise her boyfriend’s kid because he wanted to hide it from his wife.

Picturing the way this would make Casimir roll his eyes had me almost smiling but staring at the crazy people in front of me kept it off my face.

“No matter how long you try to drag this out, I will not remain married to Valerie.” It would just take longer if she kept finding new ways to stall the proceedings.

Turning to Valerie, I ignored my mother’s dramatic sound effects. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing but you can’t make me stay married to you or to raise that child.”

She’d keep trying, though, I could see that on her face as she shook her head and looked at me like I was being ridiculous. “Still pouting.”

No, I wasn’t.

“I think you need to look up the definition of that word.” They didn’t seem to know what it meant. “If you keep harassing me, I’ll get a restraining order.”

And I’d start pressing the court to order some kind of mental evaluation because this was crossing into insanity.

They both blinked like the words didn’t compute.

Did they not understand how crazy this was?

“You’ve been telling people our divorce has been called off. You’ve been lying to people about planning a wedding I won’t pay for or agree to be in. You sent me an invoice to pay for the venue you picked out. That’s fraud.” In some form or another. It had to be. “Valerie keeps showing up when this is no longer where she lives.”

I thanked God every day that she’d stupidly wanted to keep our finances separate. When we’d first gotten married, she’d been on an independence kick because that’d been trendy online at the time. I’d just thought that was who she was and not who she’d been pretending to be.

“How did you grow up to be so dramatic?” My mother’s ridiculous response got a small smile from Valerie.

“Everyone has personality quirks.” She ran her hand down her belly, drawing deliberate attention to the baby growing there. “I can’t wait to see how they’re going to influence Atlee Junior.”

What?

No.

“I’m not related to that baby in any way, so I can’t influence him. That’s not how genetics work and I won’t be around to influence his personality either.” We weren’t living out a nature versus nurture debate.

I was going to have to call my lawyer.

Again.

How had we ended up here?

“And I will sue you if you try to name that child in a way that makes it sound like he’s mine.” There had to be a way I could stop that. “I might not be able to legally prevent you from doing it, but I can drag your name through the mud and make sure you end up on every social page in the country.”

And something finally got through to her.

As she sucked in a breath, I pointed to my mother’s car. “Leave. Both of you. If you ambush me again, I’ll call the police and have you removed.”