“We need proof first. You saw how deep her claws were in him. If we don’t have something to back it up, it means nothing,” she explained.
“What are you going to do?”
She attached the picture to an email. “I’m going to send it to Noah and see if he can have his fiance determine the validity. He’s a doctor.”
I watched Sascha work with adoration washing over me. She was so intuitive and knew how to use all the resources at her fingertips. I couldn’t count on two hands all the times I’d wished I knew a doctor, and it turned out one of the editors under my employ was engaged to one. I barely knew Noah, let alone that he was engaged to a doctor. I really needed to get to know my employees better, and made a silent vow to do so once all this mess with Carson and Alia was behind us.
The remainder of the car ride passed by quietly. Neither myself nor Sascha had much to say, and it was clear our thoughts were still mostly with Carson. I did spend a few minutes updating Ryland, but even that conversation was short as Ryland became incredibly irritated and short when I explained the situation to him. We all cared about Carson and none of us wanted to see him treated the way Alia treated him. We checked into a hotel and did our best to relax, including trying to have a little bit of sexy time, but neither of us were into it. After a little bit of foreplay, Sascha laid her head on my chest. I rubbed her back gently and she responded by placing sweet, simple kisses on my chest and stomach and with our concerns on Carson, we held each other until we drifted off to sleep.
Sascha
I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I peeled myself away from Ian and grabbed my phone, bringing it up to my ear in a dazed, not-fully-awake, stupor.
“Hello?” I grumbled.
“Hey, it’s Noah.”
I sat on the bed, energy shooting into me. “Oh my gosh, hi. What have you been able to find out?”
“Derek says it definitely looks suspicious, but he needs to look into it more first and get something concrete. He could risk his entire career if he invalidated something like this and it turned out to be legit,” Noah explained.
“I understand completely. Does he have any idea how long it could take?” I asked.
“No, I’m sorry. He’s working as fast as he can, but he’s gotta make some calls and talk to a few people, and that’s between shifts, so it could be a while,” Noah said.
I sighed. Carson was on the edge with this woman already, I didn’t know that we had much time. “Okay, please just impress how important it is to him and if there’s anything else we can do to speed the process along, let me know.”
“I will. Keep your head up, girl. We’ll figure this out,” Noah replied.
“Thanks, Noah. Coffee on me when I get back,” I said. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
I ended the call and looked over and Ian was watching me with peaked brows. “Well?”
“Nothing new yet,” I said. “He said it looks suspicious, but he needs to be sure.”
“So do we,” Ian replied. He held out his arms and I crawled back into bed with him. He rubbed my hair gently and I started to doze off again. “What is he going to do if it’s real?” he asked eventually. “What are we going to do?”
I shook my head. That thought had been a steel deposit in my stomach ever since I saw Alia’s pregnant belly. “I have no idea.”
* * *
We stayed in California for a few more days with the hope that Carson would reach out, but he never did. We went back to Vegas and tried to proceed, business as usual, but neither myself, Ian nor Ryland could focus much. Any attempts to reach Carson were falling on deaf ears and close to two weeks had passed and we’d heard nothing from him nor had Derek figure out the paternity test yet. It felt like we were fighting a losing battle.
Finally, while I was with Ian and Ryland one day, I got a text from Carson wondering if we were together. When I confirmed that we were, he called.
I answered, my heart racing. “Hey!” I greeted.
“Carson, gde, chert voz’mi, ty byl?” Ian hissed.
“In English,” Carson responded.
“Fine, where the fuck have you been?” Ryland barked. He and Ian were nearly as upset as I was, if not more so.
“I’m sorry, to all of you. This has been really crazy, and I guess I’ve been avoiding you three because I was dreading this moment,” Carson said.
“What moment?” I asked.
Carson let out a deep sigh. “I have to pull myself out of this relationship.”
“What? Why?” I replied, sadness filling my body in an instant.
“Alia wants to get married,” Carson replied.
All three of our jaws dropped through the floor. It was like someone had come in and dropped boulders over all of our heads.
“You can’t be serious,” Ian said. “You can’t marry her. She’s horrible.”
“She doesn’t want to have a child out of wedlock, and to be honest, neither do I,” Carson said. “Children are supposed to have a family. Two parents who are married and can raise them in a stable home. We want to make things official within five days so we can start applying for licenses and insurance and all of that.”
“Carson, now isn’t the time for your righteous, rule-binding bullshit,” Ryland snapped. “Do you have any idea what you’re suggesting? You’re going to marry a woman you don’t love just to raise a baby you aren’t even sure is yours?”
“Did you guys not tell Ryland about the test?” Carson asked.
“We did, but Carson, that test is fake,” Ian spat out.
I eyed them both angrily. The plan wasn’t to make that accusation until after we were certain.
“What?” Carson asked.
I growled a little at Ryland and Ian, but ultimately decided it was best for me to take over. “We weren’t going to say anything until we had proof, but the paper that Alia gave you is fake.”
“You can prove that?” Carson said.
“No, not yet, but… Look, do you trust me? Us?” I asked.
Carson was silent for a while. “I do.”
“Then come back to Vegas. Tell Alia you want to get married here and bring her with you. I promise before you actually tie the knot, we’ll have proof that test was forged,” I explained.
“Sascha,” Carson murmured.
“Carson, just do what she says!” Ian freaked out.
“There’s nothing wrong with being in Vegas, just come home, and for fuck’s sake answer your goddamn phone!” Ryland joined in.
“Okay,” Carson said, a small chuckle in his voice that made me feel a bit better. “Okay, I’ll come home. I just hope you guys know what you’re doing.”
* * *
“Noah,” I whined. “The wedding is tomorrow.”
Carson had done exactly what we asked him to. He came home, he brought Alia, and he trusted us to get everything sorted out, but it was the day before the wedding and I still had no answers.
“I know,” Noah said. “I’m sorry. Derek is waiting on one call that could confirm everything, but the person is ducking him. He’s going to have a colleague call in the morning and trick him into answering. Please just stall until then.”
I hung up my phone, exhausted and, above that, pissed off. I couldn’t believe that someone could honestly manipulate someone like that, and drag a poor baby into it. Didn’t that child deserve to know who its actual dad was?
Carson walked into the bar, the same one where we’d first met. I asked him to sneak away from Alia for a few minutes to grab a quick drink with me. I was hoping I’d have better news, but now I had my back up against the wall. As he sat down on the stool next to me, he just looked exhausted and broken. It made me want to punch Alia in the face.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“I don’t have much time,” Carson said. “I called Ian and Ryland earlier, but I wanted to tell you in person. This is going to happen. I’m sorry.”
“Carson, you can’t let her do this to us. What about me? Don�
��t you want to be with me?” I asked.
Carson looked at me with desperation in his eyes. “I would love nothing more, but I’m stuck. I’m the one who made this dumb mistake and my child doesn’t deserve to suffer because of it. Even if it wasn’t about doing the right thing, I could never trust Alia to let me see my child if we aren’t married. I’m sorry, but this is the way it has to be. I even checked what you were saying with the hospital that issued the test and they confirmed it was real.” He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not,” I said sadly. “I know it isn’t, I just need a little more time.”
“I knew it.” Carson and I looked up and Alia was storming into the bar. She wedged herself physically between Carson and I, bringing her face so close to mine, I could headbutt her, and I would if she weren’t pregnant. “I thought I told you to stay away from him.”
“You’re a liar and I’m going to prove it,” I hissed back.
I prepped myself to go toe to toe with her, but I saw Carson’s pleading look from behind her and stood down. He was already so stressed out, and I didn’t need to add to it. I let our eye contact linger for a few more seconds before I finally stood up and walked out.
Carson
I sat with my head in hands, unsure of what to do, or if there was anything to do. I was going to have to marry Alia. I considered setting her up with a few million dollars for our child, put it in a bank trust so she could only withdraw expenses for the baby, and send her off to some island to live and leave her alone, but that wouldn’t be fair to the baby. I feel backed into a corner.
“I’m ready.” I looked up and Alia was standing there with a white dress on and a small bouquet of flowers in her hand. “You look nice,” she told me.
I had put on a suit for the occasion, I was getting married after all. Well, for the first time. Alia had revealed to me that she just wanted to get married legally for now, but that we would have another, complete ceremony for friends and family in Malibu, sometime after the baby was born.
“Okay. Let’s go,” I said, standing up and grabbing my keys.
“You don’t have to look so miserable,” Alia said. “We’re getting married, not picking out plots.”
That’s what it felt like to me. “I’m just tired,” I said.
We loaded into my car, with me hoping that I would get struck by lightning before we got to the courthouse, when I got a call. I could see on the panel on my car that it was Ryland. Alia sucked her teeth.
“It’s my job,” I said as I answered the call. “Hello?”
“Carson, I need you to come into the office right away,” Ryland said.
“Right now?” I replied, side-eyeing Alia. “I’m kind of busy.”
“I understand, I apologize for interrupting your plans, but I promise, it’s of the utmost importance. A major investor is about to back out because he hasn’t heard from you in weeks. Please, we could go under without this money.”
I looked over at Alia and she was leering back at me. I shrugged and finally she nodded with a huff. “I’m on my way. Alia’s with me.”
There was a quick beat of silence. “That’s quite all right. See you soon.”
The line went dead before I could even say goodbye. I knew he was upset with me, Ian too, but what was I supposed to do? This child didn’t ask to be brought into the world and I couldn’t make its life worse because I wanted to continue my poly-relationship with my best friends and the most incredible woman I’ve ever known.
We got to the office and Alia made me fight for it just to get up to the office. She stopped to pee twice, and kept holding me back on complaints of her back hurting and having weird pains. I knew she was just causing problems because she was annoyed I was delaying our trip to the courthouse, but I just went along with her games. It was in my best interest to get used to her immaturity now, I was signing up for it for at least the next 18 years. We finally entered Ryland’s office, and to my grave concern, Sascha and Ian were there as well. I told him that Alia was with me, what were they thinking?
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Do we need all these people here to talk money?”
If Ian’s eyes could shoot lasers, I’d be a pile of ash on the floor. “Since when are we just ‘these people?’” he scoffed.
Sascha stepped forward and slammed a piece of paper down on Ryland’s desk. I took a step forward and saw that it was a piece of paper much like the one Alia had given me, but it claimed that I was not the father of her child.
I turned to look at her. “What is this?”
Alia snatched it from my hand and looked it over. “It’s obviously a fake,” she said.
Sascha walked around from behind Ryland’s desk where she was standing, to stand near where I was.
“Those are the real results of the test,” Sascha explained. “I had a friend check into the validity of the results she gave you, and he determined that she paid an intern at the hospital to create a fake test result. She’s pregnant, but the baby is not yours.”
Alia ripped the paper into pieces and blew them into my face. “There are your real results.”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “Because we brought the only original and let him give it to you because we’re that dumb.”
“I know you’re a little dense, so I’ll explain,” Sascha said. “We are actually not that dumb.”
Ryland lifted a manilla folder, holding it open for me to see the dozens of copies of the real test inside. “We’ve got plenty more where that came from.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Alia sneered. “How do I know you didn’t pay someone to make that one saying mine is a lie?”
Ryland held up another manilla folder. He opened it and I could see in it dozens of stapled together papers. “Copies of the police report the hospital filed against the intern who forged the fakes.” He held the folder out to me. “Would you like to take a look?”
I reached for the folder, but Alia grabbed my hand. “Carson, let’s just go. They’re obviously trying to tear us apart.”
I turned and looked at her, knowing that what they were telling me was true. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You can see yourself out,” Sascha added quickly.
Alia’s face got redder and redder until she looked like a tomato being squeezed to bursting. She turned her back to us and made it like she was heading for the exit, and then turned suddenly, swinging her hand out towards Sascha.
“Alia!” I yelled.
But Sascha was far from being a woman who couldn’t handle herself. With cat-like reflexes, she grabbed Alia’s hand and whipped it around, pinning it behind her back in a policeman hold. She held her tight in place, despite Alia’s wriggling, pulling her other wrist behind to hold them both in place. Ian let out a shallow whistle in response.
“I don’t want to do any more than this because I do actually feel bad for your baby, considering it’ll probably never know who its actual father is, but I’ll protect mine if I have to.” She shoved Alia a bit closer to the door. “You can leave peacefully, or you can regret not leaving peacefully.”
“Lakehouse, gents?” Ryland said quickly.
“Now it’s me who’s telling you, never come near Carson again, or next time, I won’t be so merciful.”
I had to kindly ask all the blood rushing to my groin to relax, now was not the time. Alia looked at me, Ian, Ryland and finally Sascha.
“Fuck all of you,” she hissed and then finally stormed out.
I stood in silence for a while as Ian, Ryland and Sascha cheered around me. Finally, Sascha walked up to me and touched my cheek. It snatched me back to reality as I looked down at her.
“She’s gone,” she assured me.
I kissed her. “If I didn’t love you before, I definitely do now.”
Sascha smiled with a nod of her head. “Me too.”
Ian poked his head between us. “Sorry to ruin this moment, but do you think you can do that arm hold
thing in bed?”
Sascha slapped him away and as we each laughed, it was finally starting to settle in that my nightmare was over.
Epilogue
Sascha
Two Months Later
I was halfway through my day in the blink of an eye. I was looking forward to my evening, but in a few months’ time, the amount of work amassed by the assistant to the three bosses of a thriving publishing firm, was large. Carson was getting more and more meetings by the day, Ryland kept coming up with new ways to manage the financial reports, which meant I had to keep designing new ways to file them, and Ian was actually having to learn what it meant to have employees for longer than a few months, because turnover was at an all-time low. It didn’t mean that the editing department wasn’t a revolving door, however, and as I was about to leave for my lunch break, I got an email from Ian, asking me to come meet him in his office.
When I entered, shutting the door behind me, Ian handed over a manilla folder to me. It had Carson’s writing on it, one of the editor’s here, Dante’s name on the tab, and a huge ‘FIRED’ stamped across it.
“Finally let him go, huh?” I asked. He had been making irrefutable errors for some time now.
“Yeah,” Ian said. “I heard it was ugly. He actually tried to size Carson up.”
I snickered. “Huge mistake.”
“Gigantic,” Ian added. “Anyway. You must be thrilled?”
I tilted my head. “Why is that?”
Ian chuckled. “Have you forgotten already? You applied to be an editor. Remember what I told you when you interviewed? Eventually someone would be fired and that job would be yours. I would say you could improve your chances by sleeping with the boss, but…” He made a kissy face at me and I whapped him on the head with the file. I looked at it for a moment. I had forgotten that I applied to be an editor. I’d gotten so used to be their assistant, not to mention the perks that came with it, that I’d completely abandoned the thought of doing anything else. “It wouldn’t change anything.”
Three Bosses’ Assistant: Love by Numbers Book 2 Page 10
