Page 31 of Accidental Dad’s Best Friend (Unintentionally Yours #7)

Ethan

“ R ose?” Izzy is lost. “But you told me your name was Rosilyn. You lied to me?”

Jesus fucking Christ this is a mess. Rosilyn is Rose.

Rosilyn, the mom Izzy met at Jax’s school, who is also a single mom, who lives in her neighborhood, THAT Rosilyn, is Rose.

Our secretary, Rose. The one who is always doing extra work for Liam and offering to do extra work for me and batting her eyes and working late and… fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“You’re behind it,” I add to the conversation. “You’re behind it all.”

I am ready to rip into her. To fire her on the spot. Fuck Liam’s authority, I have the power to make this call too. At least until dawn when the magazine goes viral. Might as well do some damage while I’m still employed. But Mama Bear beats me to it.

“You lied to me,” she repeats.

“No, I didn’t lie. I just…didn’t tell you everything.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“Mommy, why are you yelling at Luca’s mom?” Jaxon is starting to cry. She sets him down but keeps going. Izzy is on fire.

“I let you in. I was your friend. I trusted you with my son!”

“And we are friends.” Rose or Rosilyn or who the fuck ever is starting to cry.

Fucking bullshit. “I liked you as soon as I met you. I mean, I will admit, when I saw you and Ethan at the coffee shop I was a little upset. I’ve known him so much longer than you, done so much more for him than you ever have–”

“I’ve known him my whole life!” She cries out.

“Which is exactly why this is so fucked!” Liam chimes in.

Good fucking God.

Rose goes on. “At first, yes, I was not okay with it. And I’m still not really.

But I want to be your friend, even if I can’t have Ethan.

Even if I was under his nose all this time and I was raising my son on my own just like you.

At first I thought maybe he just didn’t want to get tied up in a single mom story but obviously that’s not the case. ”

“So where are you going with this exactly?” Izzy asks.

“Because what I am hearing is that you have been crushing on Ethan for a long time hoping he’d like you back and support you and your child.

And then I came into the picture and you pretended to be my friend to get close to me all while threatening us. ”

“I never meant to hurt you. I would never do anything to actually hurt either of you,” she shakes her head.

“You broke my kitchen window! And you exposed us! Did you follow us to the game? Because if so, we can add stalking to the list of things you’re going to go to jail for.”

Rose’s face widens in horror. “Jail?!”

“You better fucking believe it.” Izzy narrows her eyes.

“Hang on,” I cut in. The cluster is getting too fucky. “No one is going to jail. But I will say, you’re fired. And you can kiss working in the industry goodbye.”

She nods and goes to walk out of the room, already softly crying. Then she looks back at Izzy and Jax. “I never meant to hurt you. I really do care about you. I went too far, I know. And I’m sorry.” With that, she turns and leaves.

Liam looks at both Izzy and I with a nod. “Are you proud of yourselves? Blackmailing me, firing my secretary? You do know I am still in charge right?”

“You won’t be pretty soon,” I say. “Not when that article goes live.”

“I’ll pull it. I can do that, you know. I have access to everything in this building.”

“And we have a platform to publish anyways,” Izzy adds.

Liam snorts out a laugh at that. “And who is going to publish your dribble? I am the CEO of the top magazine in the fucking industry right now. If you did your job, you’d know that.”

“Any magazine you’ve slandered over the years,” I answer casually. “Which is, I think, all of them.”

He narrows his eyes. “What do you want?”

It’s a bottom of the ladder question. A reverse Mufasa on the cliff moment, if you will. A smirk tugs at my lips and I load the gun I’ve been waiting to rapid fire for years. But before I can say anything, before I even have five minutes of reveling, Izzy steals my glory.

“Resign from your position. Leave the industry. Go work in sales or something where cheating people is expected. Then, leave us alone. Leave Ethan alone, and never contact me again. And, most importantly, never try to come after my son. If he wants to reach out to you when he’s older, he can.

But do not contact or even look him up. Do all of that and we’ll destroy the article. ”

“Izzy,” I cut in. She might be doing the right thing but dammit, I really wanted this.

“If he agrees to back down, we win. Without stooping to his level,” she says to me and fuck.

She’s right.

I nod once. A reluctant nod.

Liam looks between both of us. Then, for the first time since I met him forty some years ago, he deflates. The ego literally washes from his smug face, leaving him pale and defeated. And without a word, the mighty Liam Sloane exits his own building.

Izzy presses her hands to her face with a shaky sigh of relief. “We did it,” she says, then pulls her hands away and almost smiles. “We did it!”

“You lied to me!” Jaxon cries out and we both look down at him.

“What baby?” Izzy asks, her smile gone.

“You lied to me. You said you didn’t know who my dad was and you did. And it was Ethan!” He stops and looks up at me. “Did you know?”

Izzy looks at me desperately but right now, I’m done lying. She’s literally holding her breath but I’m done. “I didn’t know either,” I admit.

“You lied to him too!?” Jax screams and runs out of the room.

“Jaxon!” Izzy cries out before turning to me.

“This is all my fault. He’s lost his friend because I trusted Rosilyn or Rose or whoever she is. And now he knows the truth about you. And I just…I fucked up.”

I run a hand through my hair. I don’t know how to make her feel better. At this point, I don’t even know what I’m feeling. “Yeah. You kind of did.”

I know my words are a shot to the gut. But I don’t know what else to tell her.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to protect him. And to live our lives. Away from my dad, away from anything that would threaten the life I was trying to build–”

“Away from me?” I ask and she blinks.

“We couldn’t be together. This whole thing–” she motions between us– “It’s crazy. And we were silly to think otherwise. But he’s attached to you now and it’s all going away. And that’s what’s unforgivable.”

Izzy hugs herself and as much as I want to wrap my own arms around her, I won’t.

I can’t.

Because my own heart is trying to protect itself too. I shove my hands in my pockets to take away the temptation. “You are a good mom. You were just trying to do what was best for him. Even if what you thought was best might have been wrong.”

With that, I walk out. I don’t look at her, I don’t look at my door as I pass it even though it might be the last time.

I don’t look at Rose’s desk because I want to turn the damn thing over right now.

And when I see Jax, who is sitting next to the fish tank, huddled in his blanket and squeezing a worn out stuffed blue dog, I don’t look at him either.

I can’t. I’m not abandoning him, but for now, I need to figure out what I’m going to do.

Everything we thought we were working towards, everything I dared to hope could be, just went up in smoke.

And I need to assess the damage.