Post by FRANCESCA EMERSON on Mar 10, 2020 8:15:27 GMT -5
To think that she had missed this. The back-and-forth. The fight for power. All those nights she’d sat alone and wished for him to be there, with his sharp mind and even sharper tongue, making her feel alive. Making her feel normal. Now she had it, the initial rush of gratitude had faded, giving way to something much darker. Her stubbornness was rising, and as Barry stated that decisions concerning Ivy were also his to make, she began to dig in her heels. She stared at him as anger bubbled up inside her. The vicious part of her growled that Ivy was only his daughter if she said so. Sure, he could petition the courts for a paternity test, but Cheska could hold that up for months. Years. His wasn’t the only family with an army of overpaid lawyers. She had them, too. But, she reminded herself, she was trying to be civil. Trying to give Ivy the upbringing she’d never had, one where she was loved and valued beyond what she could do for them. Where she was more than just a pawn. That would be out of the question if she took this route. Cheska let out a deep breath, jaw tight. ”Which is why I said we had things to discuss.” She pronounced each word slowly, as if it pained her to say them, holding his gaze with a steely one of her own. Surely he didn’t think that he could just waltz in and everything would be happy and shiny. No discussions, no forethought, no plans for the future. No arrangements or agreements or contracts. If he did, he was a fool. When he asked why her parents needed to be told first, her eyes narrowed. Had he forgotten the kind of people they were? How much trouble they could cause? How everything was business to them – all about cultivating status and the illusion of perfection, just like their hotels? Breaking the news to them would be a delicate thing, as would the negotiations that followed, weighing her parents’ need to protect the family’s reputation with Cheska’s need to protect her daughter. And herself. She needed to go into that holding as many cards as she could gather and would throw out half the deck if they were the last to know. They had to feel as though they were getting the better end of the deal. ”Right, because that wouldn’t go badly at all,” she replied to his suggestion that they tell everyone together. Cheska had visions of her father losing his temper, picking a fight. Blaming Barry for ‘ruining’ his daughter. Barry’s family defending him and the whole thing devolving into a mess of screaming and accusations. Or maybe she just wanted to do things in small steps so she could better control the outcomes. ”And I won’t be alone,” she added. ”Parker will be with me.” She could feel her frustration rising, making her heart thud harder against her ribs. It escaped as a sharp breath when Barry told her that her name wouldn’t be dragged through the mud. She looked at him as if he were mad. ”What world do you live in?” she asked, shaking her head. ”Certainly not the same one I do. In your world you can be photographed with a different woman every weekend and Witch Weekly will write endless articles about how one of the wizarding world’s most eligible bachelors is playing the field until he finds The One.” She used to make fun of him for it, but now it was maddening. ”I get called a gold-digging party girl out to entrap the heir to the Chaucer empire despite the fact that I have my own money, my own business, and my own home.” Cheska glared at Barry, struggling to keep her voice soft enough to not upset Ivy, but it was hard when the anger inside her kept growing. ”And that’s all beside the heat I’ll take from my own family, from friends and strangers alike. Let’s not pretend our situations are the same.” |