Jilted (19 page)

Katherine, still not getting the hint, rushed past Ashley and stood in front of him to block his path. “Where are you going? Tell me you’re not going back to that woman. I won’t stand for it and if by some unfortunate chance those are your brats, I’ll never accept them. They just don’t fit into this family. What will people say when they see them?”

And that’s what it boiled down to: Katherine Hollingsworth cared more about appearances than her own flesh and blood. Sometimes he wondered how this woman could have actually given birth to him. “Move.”

“I’ll do no such thing. Not until I can talk some sense into you. I—”

Without waiting for her to finish he walked around her and this time when she tried to halt his progress he lost it. “Get the fuck out of my way!”

Tears welled in her eyes and her lips trembled. Ashley remained unmoved. It was one of the tricks she’d used to manipulate him when he was younger but he was far too old to fall for them now.

“Listen to me right now, Mother. If you interfere with me getting involved with my children, I will make you regret it and you know exactly how I can do that. Now move before I forget that you’re my mother and snap your goddamn neck.”

She gasped, finally seeing that he meant everything he said. Katherine took a few small steps to the side, enough to let him pass.

Ashley stormed out of the house and practically ripped his car door off the hinges he was so angry. All those lost years he could have been the father his children needed but a lie had made him a stranger to them. To compound the situation, he married another woman because his mother had urged him to do the right thing. He got in his car and peeled out of the driveway.

Several emotions whirled through him as he thought about his mother’s treachery and the part she’d played to keep him away from his own kids.

He’d been summoned.

Ashley walked into his mother’s house with a heavy sigh. She’d left him several urgent messages and told him that it was important that she see him. Finally when he’d gotten around to calling her back she’d been vague about what the issue was. She simply said it was a family issue and that he needed to come over right away. He figured it must have had something to do with one of the twins. His mother wasn’t particularly maternal but every once in a while she pretended like she actually gave a damn about her offspring. He hadn’t seen his family in several weeks, not since the wedding fiasco.

Owen and Colleen had called but Ashley hadn’t returned their messages. He did speak to his mother, but only to confirm that she had carte blanche to return the wedding gifts and handle the fall-out from the ceremony that didn’t take place. Any bills she accrued because of it would be sent to him. Katherine seemed to take more enthusiasm in handling that than she had actually planning the wedding.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see his family; he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He barely spoke to Tim and William. He didn’t want to deal with the looks of pity or the “I told you so’s.” Any conversation surrounding that day would only serve to remind him of Skylar and that was someone who he was actively trying to forget. As far as the associates at the firm, they stayed out of his way. Whenever they saw him coming usually a bunch of them would immediately flee. Ashley was fine with that. It made it easier for him to focus on his work.

He was highly annoyed that he had to come here tonight, but he was the head of the Hollingsworth clan and though they could be pains in the ass, his family was his responsibility.

When he walked into the sitting room, the twins were not around. In fact, the only people there were his mother and a teary-eyed Tiffany.

“Where are Owen and Colleen?” he demanded without preamble.

Katherine folded her arms across her chest. “Is that the way you greet your mother? We haven’t heard from you in a very long time.” She switched it up with a smile. “Well it doesn’t matter, you’re here. Tiffany and I have been waiting for you.”

He spared Tiffany a brief glance before returning his attention back to his mother. “What’s she doing here?” He jerked his thumb in the blonde’s direction. “You said this was a family matter.”

Katherine patted his arm indulgently. “Tiffany is practically family, and besides, I’m sure you’ll want to hear what she has to say.”

Sighing, he turned to the woman who gazed at him expectantly. Her eyes and nose were red. She was shaking as if something frightened her. Tiffany stood up and walked to him. “Hello, Ashley.”

“What do you want, Tiffany?”

“That’s no way to talk to her, Ashley. Where are your manners?” his mother interjected.

“I repeat, what do you want? I don’t have time for any bullshit so whatever you have to say, go ahead and spit it out.”

She ran her tongue over her glossy lips. “I-I’m pregnant.”

“Congratulations.” He then turned back to his mother. “If that was the emergency, I would thank you not to waste my time again.”

“It’s yours!” Tiffany practically yelled the words.

Not again. He’d already been through this with Skylar. Now Tiffany? He already knew women were treacherous creatures, but this was getting ridiculous. “Tiffany, I never rated intelligence to be one of your strong points but I would have thought that even someone like you knew how babies were made. We’d have to have sex in order for us to make a baby and we haven’t had it in a couple of years.”

Katherine placed her hand against her chest, looking absolutely scandalized. “Ashley, must you be so vulgar?”

“Cut the act, mother. I know you consider Tiffany your little pet, but even you can’t be so foolish to believe her lies.”

Tiffany ran back to the couch and picked up her handbag. With desperate, jerky movements, she dug into it and produced what appeared to be an x-ray before returning to his side. “Here. Look at this. This is my ultrasound. And you’re the one with the faulty memory because we were indeed intimate in Dubai. You were just too drunk to remember it.”

Ashley grabbed the ultrasound photo out of Tiffany’s hand and stared at it. It seemed legitimate. As much as he wanted to argue the fact that this wasn’t his baby, he couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t. Like she had pointed out, he’d been way too wasted to actually remember what happened, although he did recall waking up with her naked body curled next to his.

He was trapped. Slowly, he handed the picture back to Tiffany. “I will of course take care of it and all your financial needs.”

Her eyes widened in apparent surprise. “That’s it?”

Ashley narrowed his gaze. “What exactly do you expect me to say? Did you think I’d drop to my knees and declare my undying love for you? I’ve already played that role once before so I’m certainly not going to be a fool for you.”

“Ashley Frederick Hollingsworth. Tiffany is going to have my grandchild, a Hollingsworth grandchild. If it’s a boy, it will be your heir, someone to carry on the name. Surely you don’t want your child to grow up a bastard. Don’t you see, darling that this is the opportunity for you to right the wrong you did by bringing that unsuitable thing into my house. Tiffany is worthy of having the Hollingsworth name and she’s carrying your child. Do the right thing.”

“Laying it on rather thick, aren’t you, Mother?”

“Well, you are the head of this family. Your father would have wanted you to do the right thing. Besides, do you want your child to grow up without a father in its life every day? Think about how close you and your father were when he was still alive. Would you want to deprive your child of that?”

Tiffany gently placed her hand on his arm. “Please, Ashley. I wouldn’t be able to show my face anywhere if I were an unwed mother. My father would likely disown me and I don’t think I could bear that. Please, Ashley, this is your baby too and…I think it should be raised in a two parent household.”

Ashley barely heard a word that Tiffany uttered. It was what his mother said that held a lot of impact. It was true that before his father’s death, they were close. Stephen Hollingsworth took a piece of Ashley’s heart with him to the grave. It was low of his mother to remind him of that closeness in a situation like this, but his father had always drilled into his head the importance of responsibility. Ashley didn’t love Tiffany. He didn’t even particularly like her, but the fact that she was pregnant by him meant that he had an obligation to her to make things right. It’s what his father would have wanted him to do. Besides, he had no plans to marry anyone else and Tiffany would make a decent hostess at least. She had the added plus of being nothing like Skylar and with that thought his decision was made.

“Okay, Tiffany. You want to get married?”

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Are you asking?”

“Don’t play coy with me now. You went to my mother so the two of you could gang up on me so now you’re getting what you wanted. Either you do or you don’t.”

“Yes. I’ll marry you.”

He nodded. “Fine. We’ll go down to city hall tomorrow and get a license. As soon as the 72 hour waiting period is over, we’ll get married at the courthouse so that should give you enough time to get a dress.”

Tiffany’s mouth fell open but it was his mother who spoke. “Well, this is just ridiculous. No son of mine will be getting married at a justice of the peace office like some lowlife commoner. No, we’ll have to have a grand affair. We can have it at that beautiful old mansion downtown. They put on the most fabulous weddings. Tiffany would make such a beautiful bride.”

“I’d really like that. I mean, I don’t even have a ring. What will I tell my family? Daddy would be so disappointed if he can’t walk me down the aisle.” Tiffany fluttered her eyes at him again. She probably thought she was being seductive when she did that, but one of her eyelashes was becoming unglued, making her look like an idiot.

“Then perhaps you should marry someone else if you want a fancy party and a ring. I tolerated all the planning and big production once already and I’d rather not repeat it.”

Katherine waved her hand dismissively. “That was just a tiny affair. I was way too embarrassed to invite the real VIPs. But with Tiffany, we’ll do it proper this time.”

“Mother, it sounds like you should marry her then. First of all, it’s going to take you at least a few months to pull this grand to-do you speak of together and by then Tiffany will be too far along. Second, if either one of you wants this wedding to happen it will be at the Justice of the Peace office.”

The argument had continued for a better part of an hour but when his mother and Tiffany had seen that he wouldn’t relent they gave up. He and Tiffany were married the following week. Their marriage lasted a total of 42 days when he discovered her deception.

The ultrasound had been a fake. There was no pregnancy. He’d kicked Tiffany out of his home and his life and filed for an annulment on the basis of fraud. His mother swore to him that she didn’t know Tiffany had been lying. Ashley had put it down as a lesson learned. His brief marriage to Tiffany coupled with what had happened with Skylar had changed him. He became more cautious, trusted fewer people, retreated further away from those he was once close to.

But now, his foolish decisions five years ago came back to haunt him with a vengeance. It was hard to believe that one’s own mother could lie about something of such great magnitude. She’d denied her own grandchildren just because Skylar wasn’t the ideal daughter-in-law.

What else had she lied about?

Chapter Sixteen

“Jeremy, I’d like to thank you again for coming out with us yesterday. The kids really enjoyed your company.” Skylar decided not to ask him to join her and the children at the park but she issued an invite for lunch afterwards to the kid’s favorite fast food restaurant. The triplets really seemed to like him, especially Finn and Harper. Tristan, on the other hand, seemed a bit distance although he wasn’t exactly rude. Skylar found it bizarre considering he was the one who had wanted her to invite Jeremy in the first place. Thankfully Jeremy took the little boy’s behavior in stride, or pretended not to notice. Either way, Skylar considered the outing a relative success.

She really enjoyed spending time with the Jeremy who she found she could laugh with and have stimulating conversation. That the kids liked him was a bonus. Later, after she had put the children to bed, Jeremy had called to ask her out to dinner the following night to a hot new restaurant that he’d wanted to try for a while. Skylar gladly accepted on the condition that her mother or Izzy could watch the kids. Both women were happy to sit for her and Skylar was grateful to get out of the house. It kept her from obsessing over what Ashley’s next move would be.

Jeremy reached across the table and placed his hand on hers. “I enjoyed them as well. It was my pleasure. I was pleased that you asked me to join you. After you told me what you did about the children, I kind of worried about my chances with you.”

Skylar frowned at the oddity of his statement. “Why would you think that? I really like you, Jeremy. And you said yourself that you wanted to give us a chance and I’d like that too. Ashley has nothing to do with us.”

He raised a dark brow. “Are you sure about that? From my perspective, you’ve been a bit distracted tonight. There were a few times when I was talking and you weren’t paying attention. Should I be concerned?”

Skylar lowered her lids to look down at her half-eaten meal. “I don’t think so, but I need to be honest with you.”

“This sound ominous.”

“Ashley came by the house on Friday.”

“What? Did he somehow find out about the children?”