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CHAPTER ONE
BASTARD
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There were distinct disadvantages to having a precocious child. As Bella's child stood in front of her, she suddenly understood all of them. Oh, God. This was what her parents had to endure for years.
"Mom, I'm sick of being a bastard," the little tyke announced as he stepped into her office.
Her reading glasses slid down her nose before she tossed them on the desk. "Who taught you that word?" she demanded.
Shrug. "Dad says it when he's watching the Seahawks games." Shrug. Winsome grin. Oh, and toeing the floor with the tip of his sneaker. The kid was a pro.
"Alexander Charles Lahote, you are in no way old enough to repeat things your father says. Especially since ninety-nine percent of them are idiotic."
The door to the office banged shut as the idiotic father in question strolled in, hands in his pockets and whistling as if he hadn't been willfully contributing to their son's corruption. "Watch it, Xan, she's pulling out the full name card."
"Paul," Bella muttered his name in warning, scowling darkly before looking back at his Mini Me. Xander had his father's looks - thick black hair and bronzed skin - and, fortunately, his mother's brains. But the one thing she was determined for her son not to have was married parents.
"But Mom…"
"Don't even try the 'but Mom,' Alexander." Bella set down the documents she'd been glancing over when Paul brought Xander back from their scheduled visitation. "Dad and I getting married might not un-bastard you, you know. Look at Uncle Jake, he's been a bastard for years and his parents were hitched."
Xander gave this observation a bit of thought, his lower lip sticking out in a pout to end all pouts. "But Mom…" he said again, which earned him an arm around the middle and Paul tackled him to the waiting room couch as he shrieked with laughter.
Bella watched them wrestle and she couldn't help but smile. Her kid. Her ex. They were gorgeous together. If she still had those stupid sitcom fantasies of them all living under the same roof when she was alone in bed at three in the morning, she was certainly not going to admit it.
Paul had proposed to her three more times after the infamous "Not An April Fool's Joke" marriage proposal and she'd turned him down flat each and every time. He'd stopped asking by the time Xander turned three and then spent two years dating a succession of Marias, Brees, and Brittanys. All of whom seemed to work at a strip joint. She'd retaliated with a few years of Liams, Garretts, and Peters. All of whom seemed to work as doctors, lawyers, and other suit-and-tie professions. And then there had been the Jake rebound.
Bella shuddered.
Yeah. As she'd reminded Xander - Uncle Jake was a bastard. But the kid was seven now and he seemed to have marriage on the brain. He barely even knew any married people, so she had no idea where he'd gotten such a rosy picture of the institution.
This had to be nipped in the bud.
ASAP.