Page 32 of Baby for Stepmom

There was even another clip of the incident going viral on social media.

Just wait until he saw the messages—months of communication to “pizza delivery” neatly printed out in a thick stack—during the next session in front of the judge.

Financially, in the divorce, my dad was fucked.

TWENTY-NINE

DELILA

I ended up with the house, a chunk of his retirement funds, as well as child support. The judge also granted a five-year restraining order after reviewing the police report and the photos of Jax’s busted up face.

It didn’t feel real.

Maybe it would take me a little longer to stop flinching like I was still expecting Ryan to burst in at any moment and start screaming at me all over again.

Should I have felt like I had failed my marriage? What about feeling like a fraud?

Look at me now—divorced. Pregnant. I should have felt humiliated. Rejected… but there was only relief.

I hadn’t felt all the weight of my marriage until the moment it was lifted and I could finally breathe. If that made me a failure, then so be it. It was a failure I could live with.

There was a stubborn bit of grease that refused to scrub off that had me so distracted at first I didn’t even notice—the front doorknob jostled.

The weight of the bowl slipped out of my fingers, and the heavy ceramic shattered to pieces in the sink. Every muscle in my arm tightened as my blood pounded in my veins.

He was coming for me. Somehow he knew about me and his son, and had come back to make me pay.

This time he was going to really do it. He was going to hurt me and my unborn baby, and there was nothing I could do about it.

That moment during the botched surprise party played in my head over and over. How my ex-husband’s arm reared up. That punch smashing Jax’s handsome face, hard enough to knock him to the floor.

But he hadn’t even wanted to hit Jax… Ryan had been yelling at me.

Clenching my eyes shut helplessly, I listened to a man’s footsteps hurrying to the kitchen.

Before even realizing that I was doing it, I braced myself, hunching my shoulders and placing one palm over my lower belly.

No, not my baby. I couldn’t let him hurt my baby.

But the hands that snaked around my waist were warm, holding me tenderly.

“Hey,” Jax murmured into my ear, pulling me closer. “I got you.”

At the sound of his voice, all the tension loosened.

Ryan’s not here. He can’t hurt you.

Maybe if I said it enough, I would finally believe that it was true.

For so long I’d been a marionette, moving to the beat of my ex’s commands. Now it was like all the strings were cut and I was finally free.

After six years, freedom was hard to trust… but I trusted Jax.

Instinctually, I relaxed into his embrace as my body recognized the warmth of his touch. I leaned back, letting my head rest against his broad chest. My eyes rolled back as Jax pressed hot, open-mouthed kisses down my neck.

“Do I need to get you out of your head?” he murmured, as his kisses turned into something hotter. Something that made heat bloom in my lower belly.

Then Jax grabbed me in a fireman’s hold, lifting me into the air.