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Being nominated for a Spectrum award hadn’t made him half as frigging happy, and he’d been over the moon for that one.
He loved Chloe and Axl, and he was pretty sure Chloe loved him back. On the way anyway. Axl was harder to peg, but he’d take his chances there too.
They had time. All the time in the world.
Michael completed the baby monitor purchase and started to slip his phone back into his pocket. He needed to get his stuff together for rehearsal, and shit, he was still hungry. Maybe he’d slap together a sandwich and stick it into one of those little plastic containers Chloe left everywhere for Axl. She had enough little boxes and baggies for Axl’s snacks to keep him fed for a month.
The ring tone for his father sounded and Michael sighed. So much for his good mood continuing until practice. Then again, when better to deal with his father than when he was capable of deflecting anything rude he might have to say?
Forget might. Martin Shawcross used rudeness to keep people in line as a rule. In a case like this, he’d be in super attack mode. All he’d be concerned about was Chloe not getting a chance to put a finger on his precious money. Nothing else would make a difference. Especially not his son’s happiness. That was probably at the bottom of the list.
He clicked to accept the call. “Hi Dad.”
“So you finally deigned to answer me, Michael.”
“Can’t answer a phone call you haven’t made. You’re the one who chose to text.”
“I was between meetings. I’ve been out of the country.”
“Yes, so I’ve been told. Thanks for sharing ahead of time. I might’ve called to tell you about Mom if I hadn’t been informed by your secretary that you and your teen bride were gone yet again.”
The teen bride crack was rude and uncalled for. Petaluma or Petunia or whatever his father’s new wife was named wasn’t a teenager. She was at least twenty-one, he was almost sure. But since the best defense was a good offense, he was ready for the attack.
“Petula isn’t a teenager, and I don’t appreciate your tone. The fact that you’d take it with me after what you just did is laughable.”
“What I just did? What is that exactly?”
“You know what you did. You shacked up with a junkie’s ex, one who wouldn’t hesitate to filch every spare nickel she could use to provide for her bastard.”
Shock rendered Michael speechless for a full thirty seconds. “How dare you?” he spat. “You don’t even know anything about her. Hell, you don’t know a damn thing about me either if you think what we did is just ‘shacking up’. That’s what you do. Not me.”
“And how would I know? You’re not exactly forthcoming. You’re no better than Malachi nowadays.”
“Malachi was a lot smarter than I was. He stopped talking to you years ago.”
His father rolled over Michael as if he’d never spoken. “I called your mother, and she had no information to offer me about the situation as you hadn’t bothered to fill her in. So my next step was your former stepmother, as I know you’ve always been cozied up nice and tight to her bosom.”
The jab in his back wasn’t unexpected, nor was the feeling of betrayal. Of course Lila wouldn’t hesitate to badmouth Chloe. She would figure she was protecting Michael too.
Even if she gave ammunition to a complete asshole.
“And?”
“Lila wouldn’t tell me much. She’s spent too much time in recent years with trashy rockstar types, so I suppose she considers herself more part of that crowd now than a responsible parental figure for you. Besides, that wasn’t quite what you saw her as, is it?”
Michael gripped his phone to keep from pitching it at the wall. “You have no idea about my relationship with Lila, but I can guarantee we have more of a real one than you ever did with her—or any of the other females you trot out like fancy pet poodles.”
His father chuckled. “Right. Your relationship is so real that she didn’t even do her due diligence to help you out of an unfortunate mess. She just stepped back and let you live your own life, as she called it. Well, son, be grateful I’m not the same kind of person as your former stepmother. You’re always my first concern, not my own personal life.”
The irony of that made Michael choke out a laugh. There was absolutely no humor behind it whatsoever. “Right. Your personal life never mattered to you. That’s why you’re having baby number two with a woman you barely know while your sons are practically strangers. And why is that? Because you’ve proven where your priorities lay, and it’s never with your sons.”
“Speaking of babies and women you barely know, I want to reassure you. You’re not stuck, no matter how much you think you are.”
“I’m not fucking stuck. I’m right where I want to be. Axl is going to be mine, and Chloe is my wife—”
“W
rong answer. That baby is her brat, and not your responsibility. And Chloe Adams is not your wife.”
