Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(71)
“She claims that we…had sex,” he said, his voice strained. “And that when she got pregnant, she was forced out. She has a son, not quite one year old. She claims that he’s mine.”
Her vision swam. A baby boy. AThe club whore had a baby boy with her boyfriend.
Oh my God!
No.
It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be.
Ramsey couldn’t have a kid with someone else. He had avoided the scandal with Parker. The clubs had just been a distraction. Ramsey would never sleep with employees. He would never force out pregnant women. He would never have a son that he didn’t know about.
Wait—not yet one year old!
That would mean…the baby would have had to be conceived when they were dating. It meant that Ramsey would have had to cheat on her.
She didn’t even have words in that moment. What could she possibly say to that?
Ramsey continued quickly, “It’s not true. None of it is true. Elisa is a bitch. I never, ever would have done any of the things that she said. There’s no way that she can prove it. She’s trying to capitalize on the publicity and success of the medical wing. She wants her fifteen minutes.”
“She’s f**king with my life for her fifteen minutes,” Lexi growled.
He sighed heavily. “I know. I wish none of this had ever happened. I wish she had picked someone else for this bullshit. It’s not fair to you or the company. I wish she wasn’t trying to drag us all through the mud to get a little bit of money.” He paused. “It’s going to hit the news tonight…tomorrow at the latest. I wanted you here with me before it broke.”
Lexi ground her teeth. Just what she wanted to deal with. “What are you going to do about it?”
“We’ve already asked for a paternity test, which we’re scheduling as soon as possible,” he told her.
“Are you lawyering up?”
“Of course. We’ll have an attorney working on the logistics. We really just want this to go away with as little damage as possible.”
“But you’re going to prove her wrong, right?” Lexi asked. She knew that she had an inherently jaded view on the legal system, but still, she wanted the person crashing a train into her life to see justice. “If you are innocent, you’ll be able to prove it.”
“We’re minimizing the damage,” he said softly. “The company doesn’t care if it’s true or not…just as long as it’s swept under the rug and doesn’t impact the medical wing.”
“But I care if it’s true or not.”
“And you have my word, Lexi, that it’s not true,” he said earnestly.
And all she could think about with the realization that she would likely never know what had really happened was that…Ramsey’s word had never really meant that much.
Chapter 13
Christmas had been about as awkward as Lexi had ever experienced with the Bridges family.
She and Ramsey had decided that they were going to do their own thing on Christmas Eve morning, hang out with his parents that night, and then go to her parents’ house in the morning to celebrate with them. They had spent less time with her family since they lived farther away and thought it would be nice to spend a little more time with them for the holiday. Her mother wanted to help with the engagement preparations, and it would be a good excuse to talk to her about it.
That should have worked. It should have been okay—except his parents had decided that they were going to throw the country club holiday party on Christmas Eve after church, and Ramsey’s mother was hosting this year. So, Ramsey and Lexi wouldn’t be able to do any kind of celebrations with his family that night. Lexi had compromised and said they could go to her parents’ house on Christmas Eve even though she wouldn’t have as much time with them, and then they would spend time with his family on the big day.
But, of course, Ramsey had been expected to be at the party on Christmas Eve as well. A big part of her had wanted Ramsey to be the rebellious man she had fallen for. She had wanted him to tell his parents no, and she had just wanted she and Ramsey to do their own thing. Christ, she would have been happy to just skip all of it, sit around in their living room, and open presents without anyone else around. They could have eaten cinnamon rolls and watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Ramsey just wasn’t that person anymore. He had signed his soul over to the devil when he had agreed to work for his father. Expectations came with that, and even if Ramsey hated the club, he wouldn’t do anything to risk the business he had created and now loved.
They had spent Christmas Eve at the Bridges country club party. It hadn’t been too bad. Parker hadn’t shown up, and Bekah had actually left Lexi alone. She had been too busy receiving all of the sympathies for the terrible circumstances behind her divorce. Lexi had tried to avoid rolling her eyes.
They had stayed the night at his parents’ house and opened presents with them in the morning. It had been completely different than what she was used to. An interior designer had decorated everything, and all of the packages had been perfectly put together under the tree. Her parents usually used whatever wrapping paper was around that year and hand-wrapped the packages. They liked to overdo it, too, and they would get a ton of small presents to fill the tree past capacity.
Lexi and Ramsey hadn’t been able to escape the country club until well into the afternoon, and by the time they had arrived at her parents’ house, they had already eaten, thinking she wasn’t going to show up. Overall, it had been more stressful than it needed to be.