F O U R T E E N Will
Will’s POV
The last almost four years working with and getting to know and being with Paloma have been amazing.
At first, she was a breath of fresh air.
She was there when I was exhausted, being a father, and in the late nights of the terrible twos and potty training.
Then, when Sarah didn’t bounce back after giving birth to Carter, she was there for me to lean on.
I tried to be there for Sarah, but she was so snippy and always nitpicking everything.
Nothing I did was good enough. She also had her best friend here all the damn time.
Paloma was always so understanding, and she never pushed for more.
“I know you’re a married man. I could never encroach on another woman’s territory,” she would say, and she didn’t.
She was respectful, professional. She was there, and I spent more time with her than I would with Sarah because I spent so many hours at work, and would listen as I poured my problems out to her.
When I would vent to her, it was usually because I was pushed to that point.
She would always offer ideas to try to fix things or help Sarah in some way, but anything I tried, Sarah would just snap at me or look at me like I’d lost my ever-loving mind.
I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to reach my wife.
Sarah hated the spa day idea. She didn’t think that my keeping him for her to go to the gym was a fucking good idea.
She would get mad when I would wake her up or set alarms on her phone so she could still do all the normal household things.
I could clearly do nothing right in her eyes.
I offered to get a nanny or a maid to come in and clean, but she snapped that she could handle it.
She would nag me all the time about not helping enough, but then she’d take over when I couldn’t do it, or I’d ask her for help. She’d just take over and do it herself.
I tried. And I kept things friendly with Paloma.
We didn’t flirt. We didn’t text more than I would with the guys.
But she was just a friend. Slowly, as I shared more about myself and my life, she would tell me about her childhood, growing up with her mom and her dad.
How her mom was a mistress, but it wasn’t what she wanted for herself.
She told me how she and her mother had a relationship with her father and his other mistress.
She told me the reason her mother took her father back was because he promised her transparency, love, and support.
It was different, but if it worked for them, great.
I was just happy that she had a loving family.
I would have considered her a good friend, but there was still that line I knew I wouldn’t cross.
Not until Sarah came to me and said she was pregnant with Maverick, did I feel a shift in dynamics.
She and I hadn’t had sex in weeks, hadn’t been together in any way more than what felt like roommates in even longer, and I was shocked to say the least because she was supposed to be on birth control.
From the very beginning, it was a hard pregnancy.
She was sick, in pain, and complaining constantly.
Nothing I did was ever good enough, and she was just pushing me away, further and further.
One night, it was close to the deadline of a huge project, and I was getting ready to leave, when Paloma slipped on the ice.
I reached my hand out to catch her, and I don’t know how, but somehow we ended up lying on top of each other.
She landed on me, laying right on top of me, while I smacked my head off the ground.
She rubbed my head, cooing and fussing over me, and it hit me.
I hadn’t been cared for or fussed over for months. Maybe longer.
She was looking me over, checking on me, straddling me, when I felt all of the blood draining south.
I watched as worry took over her face. Her eyes were so big and glassy, and she felt bad that she’d slipped and fallen, making me try to catch her so she didn’t get hurt.
We lay there on the cold ground for a few moments, our faces inches away from each other, when something shifted yet again.
We both brought our faces toward each other.
Before I knew what was happening, we were kissing.
We were lost in each other. I felt alive for the first time in so long.
That night was the hottest night of my life.
Things had gone from zero or one hundred really fast. Somehow, I managed to get us up off the ice and back inside the office.
We were stripped, naked, and fucking before I knew what was going on.
That night, I ravaged her at least three times before making my way home.
Home to the perpetual grouchy woman and the two screaming kids who never listened.
That night was what started our affair. We kept things as quiet as we could for as long as we could.
When our relationship started getting more serious, we made a private social media account.
That was how we communicated with each other, how we planned our meetings and rendezvous outside of working hours.
When people eventually naturally started finding out, close friends, a few family members, we directed them to the private joint social media we created after one day at work, explaining that we were in love, but it wasn’t the right time for me to leave Sarah with the boys being so young.
Some were appalled at first, but when I explained how neglected I was at home, how much Sarah ignored me in favor of the children at home, how we were going to tell her, but we needed time, they started to understand.
And when they saw Paloma and me together, seeing the love in our eyes?
It was obvious to everyone how perfect we were for each other.
Things were still hot and heavy, even two years after our first night together. I couldn’t get enough of her.
I loved Paloma with everything I had in me.
I couldn’t wait for us to welcome our little girl in a few short months.
She was already a spoiled little princess, just like her mommy.
The only thing bringing a rain cloud into my life was the divorce; I couldn’t wait to be done with it.
I wanted to marry her as soon as I could, get her off the market, even though she had said time and time again that she was happy as my mistress; such a dirty word wasn’t for her.
I hadn’t been expecting Sarah to serve me papers, and didn’t know how she’d found out, but the singing telegram at work was too much.
It was downright humiliating. I still didn’t know how she had found out about all of the money I’d hidden, but I wasn’t willing to let it go.
Not when she just sat at home on her ass for the last seven years.
I couldn’t let that depressed, old woman, with her worn-out body, take all of my money.
My father and I had built up Anderson Construction, not her .
She didn’t do anything but stay at home, mope, and take care of those rambunctious boys of hers.
“Don’t worry, honey,” my beautiful Paloma whispered to me as she played with my hair, my head resting in her lap.
Her belly was showing enough now that you could tell she was pregnant.
She was still small for how far along she was.
She was the only one who understood me. She always understood me, never pressured me for more.
She was there when I needed her. I called Davis, my lawyer, and told him to stall however he could.
I needed to find a way to hide my money better.