When it became apparent that he and Gwen were a long-term thing, possibly marriage, Cassandra entered her many years of unhealthily searching for any man (or woman) who was good enough to have her. She even started with Ian, one of James’s best friends.
None of them had been enough to make her feel better.
“Think back a long time ago, James. Remember when you were going off the college and your father told you of your family’s protocol?”
Realization, as bitter and cold as it is sweet, dawns on him. “No fucking way. You didn’t.”
“I did. I’m not proud of it, but I did it, and now it can’t be undone.”
“What are you two talking about?” Gwen is so far beyond having had enough of this bullshit. When is she going to get some real answers, damnit!
James faces his girlfriend. “I’ve told you about the material I have on ice, right?”
Her jaw drops. “Yes, but you did that a long time ago!”
“I did. When I graduated high school and was old enoug. My father made it exceptionally clear that I was to do so, should anything happen to me before I could have children. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Still…” James glares at the woman he once considered a friend. “That doesn’t explain how the hell you got a hold of it. Only my family has access to it, and I am supposed to have final say.”
“I know. Trust me, I was shocked to find out that eighteen year old you was such an idiot that you signed a release saying my family could access it as well.”
“What!” James turns to his girlfriend, who still has a look of complete disbelief on her face. “I did no such thing. I would have known if I had signed off on some other fam…” He stops. James knows as well as anyone else that he was not reading through the forms he signed. But why would the Welshes be included in those who had access to his genetic material?
“You know our parents are screwed up, James. It was my mother who put the idea in my head. She… she really wanted us to get together when we were younger.” Cassandra will not bring up her own feelings. She has not lied about her mother’s involvement, anyway. That woman has often dreamed of her daughter and James Merange being the biggest “it” couple in town, and achieving the one thing she wasn’t able to. How often had Sarah Welsh and Albert Merange discussed the possibility of those family genetics coming together one day? Such old and established families were not above nefarious tactics to make their matchmaking dreams come true. If anything had happened to James? Discussions were in place to posthumously marry Cassandra to him (perhaps not legal, but as long as the spiritual precautions were in place, then their faces would be saved and people would smile and nod at the prospect of Cassandra Merange being a respectable widow with babies born long after her ghost of a husband died.) All it took was Madam Sarah Welsh muttering that Cassandra should take a trip to the fertility clinic to sent her volatile daughter on another wild ride. “Although I will say she was shocked when she found out I had done it. Insisted I leave town, which had been an idea of mine anyway. I was going to tell you. I swear I was, James, but I was afraid. During one of my lowest moments, I decided to transgress your trust and go behind your back. Your father knew about it. My mother didn’t, until after it was already done.”
“My father knew? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“So, yes, I have had your child. I shouldn’t have. I should have asked your permission before doing such a terrible thing. But your son is here and alive, James. I’m sorry.”
James has no idea how to process this harrowing news. If it’s true (and he will still demand a paternity test) then he has to own up to the sudden fact that he is a father.
And Gwen… who is more shocked than her!
“You went behind my partner’s back, stole his sperm, and had a fucking baby?” Gwen stands, eyes locked on Cassandra’s pretentious countenance. “You think you can come and humiliate us in public and… for what? You want his money? You want to destroy his relationship with me?”
“Absolutely not! That is not my intention. Please.” Cassandra turns to James. “You must believe me. I was not in the right frame of mind when I went along with that suggestion. But I am now. I told you because you have a right to know that you have a son with me. And… I don’t need or want your money. But if you want to be a part of his life, I will not stand in your way. He should have his father around.”
“Cassandra.” James’s voice drowns in the betrayal, the shock, and the decisions he now has to make when his own mind is clouded. “You have done something I will never be able to forgive. Any respect I had for you is…” He doesn’t say it. He doesn’t have to, for Cassandra knows damn well what he means. “Don’t just apologize to me. Apologize to Gwen for foisting this on her as well. And for making her doubt me for even a second!”
The two women meet eyes for the first time in many minutes. Cassandra wishes to express the remorse she feels for what she has done, but she struggles to feel too sorry for Gwen who, at the end of this long and trying day, will still have the option of going home with James and sharing his bed with him. Gwen knows nothing about Cassandra other than what she has heard from her boyfriend and the other rich people in their circles. Until tonight, she has not had a real opinion of her.
Until tonight.
From now on, Gwen will only see a lying, scheming, sack of shit who has tried to destroy James’s life. And for what? Oh, no, Gwen can see it. She doesn’t want to see it, but how can she ignore that look of desperation in Cassandra’s Bambi-like irises?
“If I don’t have this, then I have nothing from him!”
What. A. Bitch.
“James.” Gwen doesn’t take her eyes off this woman who has swept in like an emotional hurricane and threatened to destroy whatever happiness may have existed between these two. “I know you haven’t done anything wrong, but I am still so… so pissed. I can’t deal with this right now. I’m going home. Don’t come home until you’ve settled this.” She takes what pride she has left, calls their driver, and has him meet her out back where nobody will be able to see and pity her. Already her phone is blowing up with messages from women she calls her friends. She won’t return any of their messages tonight.
The silence between Cassandra and the father of her child is almost too much to bear even for this narrator.
“Do you want to see him?” Cassandra’s fingers tangle together. This manifestation of her fear will continue for the next half hour. “I brought him with me.”
James slams his face against his palms. He doesn’t know who he is angrier with: this woman or his father. Either way, James Merange is now the proud father of a bouncing baby boy, and that is going to change his new year in ways the resident prankster will never be able to get over.
His main concern is, of course, Gwen. But first he must meet this son of his and then call his public relations counselor. Immediately.
(Merry Christmas, James.)
Scene 13
The Taylor-Feldmans
The Christmas party is as good as gone by the time Gwen and James disappear with Cassandra into another room. That isn’t to say the party is boring. In fact, the party is so not-boring that the Welshes have to intervene by attempting to distract the guests from scandal.
But no matter how much Sarah Welsh talks up the decorations or suggests couples get up to dance to the live orchestra, she is brushed off so her magnanimous guests can spend the next hour blabbering about James Merange cheating on Gwen – with Cassandra Welsh!
“I can’t believe it.” Kathryn is slumped over in her chair, her boyfriend just as flabbergasted as she is and best friend sneering in contempt. “I never pegged James as the cheating type. He and Gwen seemed so in love.”
“I know.” Ian brushes his girlfriend’s bangs away from her eyes in an attempt to tell her I would never do that to you! Ian is perhaps the most betrayed person in the room. Not once has James ever insinuated that he is in a relationship with another woman. In fact, every time he and Ian talk about women, it usually descends into a one-upmanship of who loves his girlfriend more.
“True love is dead.” Eva won’t let the others know, but she’s as put-out by this supposed betrayal as everyone else. While she and Gwen have never been BFFs, they do spend a lot of time together thanks to their affable personalities. “Good thing they never got married, I guess. I can’t imagine Gwen staying with him after this.”
Ian’s phone buzzes in his pocket. Sure enough, it’s James. “I need to talk to you man. This shit is fucking insane. You’ve gotta hear me out. Meet me in the back though, ‘cause I ain’t showing my face out there.” He’s tempted to turn his phone off and let James stew in his comeuppance, but a quick look from Kathryn prompts him to reply with, “All right. Tell me where you are. Otherwise it’s a rendezvous in the men’s room, and that’s awkward.”
Two minutes later, he’s up and en route to where James is waiting.
This movement of Ian Mathers does not go unnoticed by the other guests. Many of them don’t have the personal connection to James that Ian does. Not even Zachary Feldman, the guy who was once hazed by the both of them in college.