Chapter 3My Sweet Puppy Is Him at Eighteen

“Seraphina, you just keep surprising me, don’t you?”

Seeing me hovering over the younger Jack, my husband’s face contorted into a mask of fury I’d never seen before. “Messing around in your office wasn’t enough? You had to bring him into our home?”

His voice rose, cracking with an emotion I couldn’t place. “So inseparable. No wonder you’re in such a hurry to divorce me.”

The raw volume of his voice made me flinch. “Keep it down,” I whispered, glancing at the sleeping figure on the couch. “You’ll wake him.”

Given the boy’s explosive temper, the last thing I needed was a confrontation between the two of them. I was just trying to avoid more drama, but in Jackson’s ears, my words sounded like something else entirely.

He let out a choked, bitter laugh. A glint of moisture appeared in his eyes. “Do I need to remind you, Seraphina, that this is our home? You’re telling me to be quiet in my own house for the sake of your little homewrecker? What do you take me for?”

Seeing the boy on the couch begin to stir, I acted on instinct. I grabbed Jackson’s hand and pulled him toward the door. “Not here. Let’s go. We can talk at the coffee shop downstairs.”

I held his hand tightly, afraid he would pull away. But he didn’t. Instead, his fingers instinctively curled around mine. He didn’t let go, not even as we stepped out of the elevator.

I felt a pang of awkwardness and tried to gently pull my hand back, but he only tightened his grip.

“What’s the matter? He can touch you, but I can’t?” he said, his voice laced with acid. “You had no problem betraying me, Seraphina, but you’re saving your fidelity for him?”

I couldn’t stand his sarcasm. I ripped my hand from his grasp. “Don’t you dare project your own filthy behavior onto me. Especially when you’re the one who isn’t clean!”

He stumbled back a step, a wounded look flashing across his face. Before he could say anything else, his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, his expression shifting, and turned away to answer it.

I didn’t need to guess. It was Penelope.

I tried not to listen, but in the dead quiet of the late-night courtyard, his voice carried clearly.

“What’s wrong? … You’re bleeding?! Okay, don’t cry, just lie down on the sofa and stay still. I’m on my way!”

He hung up and started to leave, but after a few paces, he spun around, grabbed my arm, and started pulling me with him. “You’re coming with me!”

Caught off guard, I stumbled along, trying and failing to break free. “Jackson, are you insane? Why would I go with you?”

“Because you’re the best damn OB-GYN at Metropolitan General! The youngest attending physician they’ve ever had!” He forced me into his Maybach, strapping the seatbelt across me himself.

“It’s a life-or-death situation, Seraphina. You wouldn’t want to violate your Hippocratic Oath, would you?”

As the car sped off, all I could think was that I would rather be in a car crash than deliver my husband’s mistress’s baby.

The Maybach didn’t head toward his penthouse, but to a chic apartment building in the next district. After a moment of surprise, I understood. With his company about to go public, he couldn’t risk a scandal. His little mistress would have to be kept hidden away for now.

As I suspected, from the moment we parked to navigating the elevator to the correct apartment number, Jackson moved with a fluid ease that spoke of countless previous visits. He even pulled out a key and unlocked the door himself, rushing inside.

A moment later, a soft, coquettish voice drifted out. “Jax, you’re finally here! I was so scared…”