Fake Marriage Box Set

I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I'll be paying for that, since you have apparently let your life descend into absolute chaos,” I said to her.

“Sorry, we couldn't all be handed a flourishing company and a trust fund when we came of age,” Lexi said sarcastically. “Don't get me wrong, I know that Orinoco has flourished with you at its helm, but most of what you've got, you got because of luck. Don't try to pretend that you're any better than me.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “I think I'm being more than generous to you, especially given that you showed up totally out of the blue. If you don't want to be here, enjoying the benefits of that trust fund and that flourishing company, you can always leave. Although, I don't know where you would go. But if you are going to stay here with me, I'd prefer that you be a bit more civil. This is, after all, my home.”

Lexi snorted. “You've been more than generous to me?” she asked.

“I've just offered to put you up in an apartment downtown, a nicer place than you could probably ever hope to afford, and I've offered to put Emma into one of the best daycares in the city. In the meantime, before we can get you settled there, I've offered to let you have the run of the house, up to and including the services of my maid, who has agreed to look after Emma while you're busy finding work. What part of that doesn't strike you as generosity?”

“That's not generosity,” Lexi said heatedly. “That's your responsibility. Given that, oh yeah, Emma is—” She broke off sharply, glancing over at the child, but those unspoken words hung in the air between us. Given that Emma is your daughter.

Lexi took a deep breath and let it out slowly, visibly trying to compose herself. Emma was looking back and forth between us, clearly uncertain, and I wondered where Janice had disappeared to. Lexi didn't want to bicker in front of the child, and I had a grudging respect for that resolve. I knew a lot of parents who didn't care what their kids overheard, and I'd always hated that method of parenting.

There might be no love between Lexi and me, but for Emma's sake, we had to at least pretend to get along.

Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how much getting along I could do right then, not when Lexi was insisting on being so rude to me, right there at my own breakfast table. I had a few choice words for her regarding responsibility as well. Regarding her responsibilities to Emma.

But I bit them back and stood up instead, grabbing my jacket off the back of my chair and shrugging into it.

“You've hardly eaten your breakfast,” Lexi protested, and at that moment, for the briefest second, it was as though she put aside all her other feelings towards me and was strictly focused on my well-being. I filed that away for later consideration.

For now, I just grunted. “I'll grab a bagel to take with me or something,” I said when Lexi looked like she was going to protest again.

Lexi ducked her head, pushing her eggs around on her plate. “Thank you for letting us stay here,” she said again, her voice barely audible.

I nodded curtly at her and strode quickly from the room, forgetting in my haste to even say goodbye to Emma. I wasn't entirely sure why that bothered me so much, but it was all I could think about during my whole drive to work.

Fortunately, once I arrived at the office, the usual chaos, compounded by the potential expansion, was there to greet me, and I didn't have a spare moment to think of anything else.

Chapter Thirteen

Lexi

I smiled over at Emma as we colored side-by-side in one of the books that Janice had bought for the girl. “That's a very pretty flower,” I said to Emma, pointing to the smear of red that she was coloring.

Emma shrieked with laughter. “Mama, it's not a flower,” she said. “It's an apple.”

“Sorry, pumpkin,” I told her. “You're right, of course it's an apple.” I hid my grin, coloring in the sun that she had imperiously told me to color in bright pink.

I still felt a little uneasy about this whole thing, especially the idea that Andrew wanted to keep tabs on my job search. I'd already applied to fifteen jobs that morning, but I still felt guilty taking a one-hour break to play with Emma. That wasn't fair. I didn't want to be one of those mothers whose kid never saw her because she was too busy with work.

For better or for worse, though, that wasn't looking like it would ever be an issue, since I'd have to get work in order for that to be the case. And that wasn't happening.

I was drawn from my gloomy turn of thoughts by the sound of my phone ringing. I rolled to my feet and grabbed it off my bedside table, quickly answering the call when I saw that it was Misty.

“Hey,” she said, sounding excited. “I take it that since you're still not here at my place, things are going well between you and Andrew?”

I glanced back at Emma and then stepped out into the hall. The chances of her overhearing something that she would understand weren't very high, but all the same, I'd rather not have this conversation in front of her. The one with Andrew at the breakfast table had been enough as it was.

“Things went well enough,” I said cautiously.

“Come on, I want more information than that,” Misty said, and I could tell that she was rolling her eyes. “All you said in your message yesterday was that you guys were both exhausted and you were going to spend the night there with him. So, I guess you did that, but what happened next?”

I sighed. “I didn't want to tell you all the details in a message because I wanted to talk to you about this,” I told her. “Andrew has agreed to let Emma and I stay here. Not forever, as he's very quick to add, but at least for a couple weeks.”

“Oh, wow,” Misty said. “That's good, right?”

“I feel humiliated,” I told her. “I had to come crawling back to this guy, this guy who treated me so poorly, and beg him for a place to stay and food for my daughter.”