Free Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) by Mallory Monroe Page B

him?”
    “Yeah,
I know him.   He’s Paul Lungren.   He was her boyfriend before she met me.   And she swore it was over, Dad.   She swore up and down it was over.   I wouldn’t have been with her if I would have
known she still wanted him!”
    The
first order of business when that baby arrived, Charles now knew, was to make
his son get a paternity test.
    “She
had other boyfriends before me, and I didn’t worry about them.   But this guy kept coming around.   All the time.   I never liked it and she knew it!   I told him to stay away from my house, and I told her to stop letting
him come over, but she didn’t listen to me, Dad.   She never listens to me!”
    Charles
could hold back no longer.   “What did you
expect?” he asked.
    Donald
looked at him.   “What do you mean?”
    “You
married the trick, Donald.   You married
the girl most likely to fuck, and now you want to pretend she’s somebody
else.   Well she’s not.   She’s exactly who you married.”
    Those
should have been fighting words for Donald, but they weren’t.   Because he knew his father spoke the
truth.   “She’s pregnant,” he said.   “And it’s my baby.”
    “You
hope,” Charles said.
    But
Donald gave his father a firm gaze. “It’s my baby,” he said.
    Charles
didn’t respond.   Because it didn’t matter
what Donald said.   Baby pop out, a
paternity test was going to be ordered.  
    “You
taught me,” Donald continued, “that even if I messed up, I had to do the right
thing.”
      Charles squeezed his son’s small arm.   “Yes, I did,” he said.
    Then
tears appeared in Donald’s eyes again.   “What am I going to do now, Dad?” he asked.
    “I
don’t know, son.”
    Donald
looked at Charles.   “If it was you, what
would you do?”
    Charles
didn’t mix words.   “Leave her,” he said.
    “But
I love her!” Donald shot back.
    “Then
you’re fucked.   Because she’s going to
fuck.   Don’t think this beat-down you put
on boyfriend is going to do the trick.   If she couldn’t keep her legs closed two months after her marriage to you,
don’t expect her to keep them closed two years after the wedding.   So if you can live with that reality, that
your wife is going to screw you, then stay with her.   If you can’t live like that, son, cut your
losses now.”  
    Charles
looked at his son, as Donald jerked away from his grasp and walked over to the
window, undoubtedly to cry again and feel sorry for himself again, and reaffirm
his love to Susan again.   Because Charles
knew the type.   Donald wasn’t going
anywhere.   Same thing happened to Charles
early in his young marriage.   He stayed
too.   He stayed for years after her
initial indiscretion.   He stayed until it
hurt too much to stay.   Then he kicked
her ass to the curb.
    But
he knew his son.   Donald wasn’t going
anywhere right now.   And telling him to
leave his wife was like telling a baby not to cry.   Because that apple, no matter how delicious,
never fell far from that tree.

 
    An
hour later, Abigail Ridge, sitting on her patio while Reeva, her assistant,
gave her a manicure, received the call she’d been waiting to receive for
weeks.   “Stress reliever?” she asked him.
    “Big
time,” he responded.
    She
smiled.   “I can’t wait,” she said, bit
her bottom lip, and then ended the call.
    Reeva
smiled as she continued to file her boss’s nails.   “Big Daddy?” she asked.
    Abby
grinned.    “Finally, yes.”
    “It’s
been weeks.   A long time.”
    “Too
long.”
    “You’d
better take the pill today.   You know
that’s the first thing he’s going to ask you.”
    But
Abby had been thinking about that too.   She’d been thinking long and hard about that.   She was thirty-nine years old.   In a matter of months, she’d be forty.   And she was still Charles Sinatra’s piece on
the side.   He had no main course, and
granted she was his number one piece, but she was still a piece