Now I knew things were really off course.
“Cleo,” I said slowly. “It’s true Marie was pregnant, but it’s not what you think.”
But upon hearing those words, the redhead had flushed again, her expression so hurt, so pained, that I had to continue immediately, I couldn’t stand putting her through this. Best to yank off the band-aid in one fell swoop.
“Marie was pregnant with a child which she thought was mine,” I said slowly, “but I never fucked her.”
“Drake,” said Cleo woodenly, looking out the window, unwilling to meet my eyes. “You don’t have to lie to me. I know how babies are made. You don’t have to make up some crazy story.”
And it was then that I seized her shoulders, gripping the narrow frame, forcing her to look at me, my eyes flashing. I had to make her understand.
“Lorena’s lies have messed shit up so bad that it’s impossible to disentangle,” I growled, “but I’m going to try. I have to try.”
“Baby,” I said slowly, “you know your mother was insecure right? That she was getting older, starting to sag, that she was worried I was going to divorce her and kick her out, right?”
But Cleo wouldn’t even acknowledge me, instead staring out the window, her expression frozen. But I saw a single tear streak from the corner of her eye, and that tear broke my heart, a great surge of emotion running through my big frame. My girl hurt and I had to fix it asap.
“Cleo,” I continued, more gently this time. “Lorena and I never had a real marriage, you know that. Back then, I just needed easy twat and Lorena was it. She never expected anything, never bothered me, so I married her for convenience,” I said. “But she started getting insecure because her body was starting to go to shit, sagging, showing her age.”
Cleo still wasn’t looking at me, but I could tell she was listening, biting her lip while staring out the window, that one tear still streaming down her cheek.
I tried to explain some more.
“Lorena wanted my lifestyle,” I said slowly, “and she was afraid that I’d kick her to the curb, divorce her once she started getting old. So she turned to all sorts of shenanigans to keep me hooked.”
That got the redhead’s attention finally. She turned to me with a hurt expression on her face.
“She pushed me towards you, did you know that?” she said softly. “Her own daughter, she offered me in her place, as a replacement for her. Did you know that?”
And I nodded slowly.
“I’m so sorry honey, it’s some fucked up shit,” I said from the heart. What had happened to Cleo wasn’t fair, not by a long shot. No one deserved Lorena as a mom. “I didn’t know at first, but I figured it out after a while and when I did, I wanted to stop but you were so beautiful, so tempting, and we’d already started the sex …” I rumbled, pausing, unsure.
Cleo flushed, biting her lip again. I have to admit, the word “sex” aroused me too, my john instantly coming alert, the blood beginning to pulse in my groin. But there was too much to say, and I commanded my body to behave for the time being.
“But if we were sleeping together then Lorena had succeeded, she had a golden ticket already,” said Cleo slowly. “Why would she try to break us up?”
And here, I took a deep breath.
“Because I was falling in love with you baby,” I said gently. “If I fell in love with you, who knows what would happen next? I’d want to marry you, have babies with you, which meant I’d definitely divorce her, kick her to the curb.”
And here, Cleo’s eyes grew wide. Her mouth opened but before we could get into the heavy stuff, I interrupted again.
“Baby, let me finish,” I said. “When Lorena realized that her plan with you had backfired, she hatched another, even more diabolical plan. She wanted a baby with me, just for the money. Because even if I divorced her, I’d probably still have to pay a shit ton of cash just in child support.”
Cleo looked confused at this point.
“But how were you going to conceive?” she asked, shaking her head. “Lorena knew you had no interest in her body anymore, there was no way to make a baby,” she finished.
And this was the most twisted part.
“Through Marie,” I said slowly, “that stupid dog-walker. She convinced Marie to be her surrogate.”
Cleo gasped.
“What? How?” she asked. “Being a surrogate is no joke, and where would she get the sperm, anyways?”
Here was the despicable part, the part that made my voice curdle with rage again.
“Your mother,” I said, my voice choking at how amoral the slut was, “saved my sperm from years ago, froze it, and asked the clinic to create a zygote from my sperm and her egg. She had the zygote implanted in Marie’s uterus.”