“She’s a breeder for my seed and something I bought to fulfill my needs. There’s no need for you to meet her because not only is she as significant to me as a piece of furniture, she’s about as interesting. Nowleave.”
I don’t know what I’m thinking. I rush into Padraic’s office and just stand there.
“How. Dare. You.”
He looks over his mother’s shoulder, his eyes meeting mine. The woman in Padraic’s office stands on very tall red-bottomed high heels. She almost falls over on her way to me with a hand extended out. There are giant baubles on each one of her fingers and the arches of her eyebrows are yanked all the way up as she smiles. Her lips and cheeks are both incredibly shiny.
I stick my hand out to shake her hand and when our hands meet, my mother-in-law’s hand is strangely wet and cold, like she dipped it into rubbing alcohol. She hardly touches me and I’m the only one who squeezes. Her eyes flicker over my face and turn cold.So cold.
Padraic’s voice interrupts any possible greeting. “Cullen. Please, return to our bedroom.”
Does he seriously have the audacity to talk to me right now?
“Ignore him,” my mother-in-law says. Her face seems stuck in that approximation of a smile. “My name is Alison Tyler. Maiden name Langford. You might remember me from Vogue. The runway. Chanel.”
I don’t recognize her. She drops her hand away. I nod along like I know what she’s talking about and try my best to be polite despite the multitude of emotions about to erupt – mostly in the direction of my husband.
“I’m Cullen.”
“I see,” she says. “Well. You don’t look at all like my son’s type.”
“Oh…”
“You’re fat,” she says, her eyes dropping to my feet and slow rolling up the length of my body, lingering intentionally on my stomach before her gaze meets mine with an intentional, taunting smirk. I understand why Zack fled the scene, but I don’t have a clue of what I just walked into.
It feels a lot like stepping in dog shit. Squishy and uncomfortable. My feet feel warm. Alison’s eyes drop down to my stomach again. “I guess you might be pregnant.”
Her eyes meet mine again. There’s another challenge, but I’m too stunned to speak. You cannot honestly say it would be easy foryouto smack the hell out of an elder you just met – especially when you’re not sure how easy it is to pop lip and cheek filler.
My gaze flickers over to Padraic. He turns red, which I honestly enjoy because I want him to be miserable. I want him to know that disrespecting me will have consequences – uncomfortable ones.
“Alison Tyler,get out,” Padraic snarls. “I didn’t want you here for a reason and when I discover who told you about my marriage, I willdestroy them.”
His mother protests in her thick valley accent, “I’m not…”
“LEAVE!” Padraic roars, snatching his mother by her forearms and dragging her out of the room, almost lifting the woman off the floor as her thin arms begin scratching madly at him as she tries to push him off. “FIGHT ALL YOU WANT.”
His yelling continues until he leads her down the stairs. I rush out of Padraic’s office and watch him drag her down as they fight. He shoves her against the wall a couple times but I’m too shocked to intervene – and too hurt. Padraic disappears out of sight. Alone, just outside of his office, I want to disappear too.
What he said about me was humiliating and confirms my worst fears. This isn’t real. I don’t belong here. Thinking this was more than a contract was a stupid, naive mistake.
Chapter Seventeen
Padraic
“Where is she?” I roar at Jelena when I get back to my office after searching the house three times for Cullen. The maid gives me a confused look and shrugs. Her presence infuriates me.
I press her again, eyeing Jelena with suspicion as I watch her lift a photograph of my crew team from college to dust underneath it. “You don’t know?”
“No, Mr. Tyler,” she responds, setting the picture down without looking at me.I don’t trust her at all. Who else would have been stupid enough to talk to my mother?
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
I test my theory with a brazen accusation. “You told my mother about Cullen. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”
Jelena stops pretending to dust and turns her back on me to grab a small broom. The urge to take that broom and bludgeon her almost overwhelms me. If I didn’t have the more important task of finding Cullen, I would unleash my pure anger on this devious, scheming traitor.