a little slip

Stranger! Please be my Child’s Father

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Chapter 7: a little slip

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“Your momma will still be with you, you’ll still go to the same school.” 

 

Hudson pondered that wording a bit more carefully. “And I’ll get to see Daddy!”

 

Gael laughed, wrapping his arms around the little boy, tucking the little frame to his chest. “Absolutely, little tiger.” 

 

Hudson shook his head. “Bear! Tae’s a bear.” 

 

Gael pinched the end of the little one’s nose lightly, not enough to hurt. “Mmm, maybe you’re your momma’s bear. But you can be my little tiger. You even look like a tiger.”

 

Hudson seemed pleased with that explanation. “Rowr.” He growled, a small squeaky imitation of a tiger. 

 

Gael couldn’t resist grinning, planting a kiss on his curly hair. “There you go, my tiger cub.” The two delved into growling at each other, practicing their roars, before pausing as Arabella came to stand in front of him.

The sight of her son growling at her pulled a weak smile to the woman’s face, before she set her phone down, bracing her hands on the chair in front of her.

She looked like she was grappling with things that neither of the other two could begin to understand, any color that was once filled in her features drained out of her, leaving Arabella looking pallid and two minutes from passing out. 

 

“Hudson, I think we’re going to have to stay with your Dad for a while, okay? Is that alright with you?”

 

“Mhm! I’m okay! It’ll be fun with Daddy, momma!” 

 

Gael could tell that Arabella was very surprised with that admission--maybe the older had expected more of a fight from her anti-change son, that it was relieving when the child didn’t make so much of a fuss. 

 

“Oh, okay. Great, honey.” Arabella blew out a breath before facing Gael, who didn’t say anything, just watched with careful eyes as the mother clicked her phone on and off in her nervousness before speaking.

 

“I have a few terms that need to be met, Mr her Arabella murmured, unlocking his phone and looking down at presumably an essay-like text message.

Shit, what types of conditions was she going to add? If it was anything that was too obnoxious, Gael reserved the right to say no, right?

 

Right?

 

Gael still didn’t say anything, simply gestured with a flourish of his hand for the other woman to begin. Patience was his key here.

Despite how much this woman irritated the shit out of him, if this was to work, there had to be a compromise. Only then would his stupid scandal from before be eradicated and the press would finally be off his back. 

 

“If I’m going to be referred to as your spouse, please don’t call me Arabella Miller. Or Bella, or something along those lines. Never my real name, and never Hudson’s real name. Please.” She murmured after looking at her phone for a heartbeat, the words slipping out of her mouth in a hurry. 

 

Damn, this woman was really concerned with her privacy, huh?

That was a simple fix. Fine, fine.

He could do that. 

 

“Sure, sure. I’ll make sure to tell my team about that as well.” Gael murmured, picking up his own phone to compose a text to send to his manager. Simple fix.

 

“I only have one other condition.” Arabella said, glancing down at the text message she was reading from, taking a deep breath before speaking again. “I request for no public appearances with myself and Hudson. No interviews. No pictures. No statements. Nothing. I will not be in the social media eye. You can acknowledge my existence, but that’s it. I don’t want to go on a talk show with you or anything of the sort. And my child needs to live without being touched by all that craziness.” 

 

What?!

“Miss Miller, what the hell? We have to make it believable. How are we going to do that if we can’t even be seen at an interview or two together? It’s not like I want to do it either, but my PR and every news outlet in the entire country will be asking about it.” Gael’s voice, that had been so carefully controlled and measured when talking to the troublesome woman, slowly increased in pitch at the second condition.

What the fuck? It didn’t even make sense.

That was too excessive, in Gael’s opinion. 

 

“No, Gael! I cannot be seen! I cannot have my pictures on every single fucking media outlet!” Arabella matched Gael’s rising voice, eyes widening. 

 

“What the fuck do you think has already happened, Arabella?! Do you think everyone mobbed you because you’re hot? Please! They’re onto you because of fucking me, everyone already fucking knows who you are! What the fuck is your issue?” Gael spat out, hands slamming down on the table. 

 

“We’re in this entire fucking mess because of you! You meddled and you interjected into our lives! I’m sorry no one fucking loves you enough to occupy you when you’re bored, but that’s not the cause for Hudson and I. We were happy before you fucking came along.” Arabella seethed. 

 

Gael saw red, bitterness curling his tongue and making his fingernails cut into the flesh of the palm of his hands. “That’s why you fucking lied to your son that I was his Dad, wasn’t it? Sure, Miss Arabella. You look fucking happy to me, in this shitty fucking apartment and one toy to give your son. You’re doing a very fucking good job.” He snarled, too far gone to register the panic that flitted across Arabella’s face. 

 

A small voice cut in between them. “You aren’t my Dad?” 

 

Fuck. 

 

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Gael was the fucking worst. He could have said anything about the other, could have fucking targetted any single point that the mother did that irritated the shit out of him, and he ended up focusing on the single thing that would hurt not Arabella, but Hudson. 

 

The little boy looked anxiously between the two adults, small bottom lip threatening to wobble, a sign of incoming tears.

Gael spared a glance at Arabella, who seemed horrified and paralyzed as he was. Gael felt stiff, just watching everything happen in slow motion, watching as his words destroyed this little kid’s hope. 

 

Arabella was quick to salvage the situation. “He didn’t mean it like that, baby bear. Momma and daddy haven’t fully gotten married yet, right? So he’s not technically your dad yet. We have to do a few things before the government accepts him as your dad. We have to do a few things first,” The panic was clear in the other woman‘s voice as she tried to reason through Gael’s massive slip-up.

Arabella looked up and glared at Gael, who snapped into action, kneeling by the little boy. 

 

“Right, right. You know how in videogames, you have to complete a few levels before facing the boss? Technically, you’ve almost defeated the boss, but you have to do the levels. Same thing.” 

 

If anything, Hudson seemed a bit more confused with that explanation, but Arabella was more than ready to interject and comment how it was time for the little boy to go to bed. 

 

It was only an hour and a half later, when Arabella came back, without-Hudson, sleeves wet with the evidence of the little boy’s bath, that he noted how tired the woman looked, dark circles accentuated as the minutes ticked by. 

 

“I think we saved the situation,” Gael quietly started, feeling absolutely terrible over what had happened at the dinner table. He had his differences with the boy’s mother, definitely, but the boy was an innocent party. He didn’t deserve that. 

 

Arabella shot him an incredulous look. “We didn’t save shit. He still doesn’t fully believe me. Kids are smarter than that, you know. They’re like little adults, just a bit more chaotic.” 

 

Gael nodded, unsure of what to say after that. Should he apologize? The words were at the tip of his tongue, but he wasn’t quite sure what he could do to get them to come out. 

 

“Okay, Mr Laurent. We’ll move in with you. Can you please, please, make sure my two conditions are acknowledged? I promise we’ll be good houseguests, the second this entire thing dies down we’ll leave you alone and let you be. But I’m unwilling to part with any of my conditions. I can’t.” Arabella tentatively broached the subject, and Gael could see how tired the woman got just by talking about their situation. 

 

“Okay.” Gael acquiesced. “Okay. We’ll figure out a way around it. I’ll accept the two conditions.”

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TBC

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