The Conspiracy of Baby-Switching novel Chapter 70

Gabriel

Violet rushes the children through the back door and my heart sinks, the last thing I would ever want is for them to have to deal with this. I turn my attention to Ariana; she's crying hysterically and out of control.

"Calm down," I tell her.

"Calm down?" she gasps. "Calm down?" she cries again. "Did you fuck her?"

I stay silent, unsure what to say.

"Tell me the truth, Gabriel. Did you sleep with her on what was to be our wedding night?" Fuck.

I've been so carried away with Violet and the children that I completely lost track of time. Yesterday was supposed to be our wedding day.

I'm such a fucking asshole.

"Did you even remember?" she whispers through tears, her voice cracks, betraying her hurt.

"Of course I remembered," I lie. I need to defuse this situation and get her out of here, she's completely unstable. "I'm here to see my children."

"Do not lie to me." She picks up a glass and hurls it at my head; it smashes against the wall.

"Hey," I say sternly. "You do not break anything in this house."

She picks up another glass and hurls it, glass flies everywhere as it explodes against the wall. "I'll burn down her entire fucking house, she's nothing but a trashy homewrecker."

Ugh...she's been speaking to my mother. "Let's go back to my house." Where the fuck is Mark?

"No. I want to wait for her to get back." She folds her arms and begins to pace. "I have a few things I want to ask her."

"Such as?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

My anger simmers dangerously close to the surface, and I grab her by the hand. "Out. Now."

"No," she screams, and begins to hit me hard in the chest. "How could you?" she cries hysterically. "How could you do this to me?" She keeps hitting me over and over. "You said you loved me. We were just starting our life together, how could you walk away from something so beautiful?" She pummels my chest and it's official, I am the worst kind of human.

She looks up at me. "You're coming back to New York with me?"

"Yes."

She smiles through hopeful tears.

Fuck.

"Come on." I put my arm around her and gently usher her out of the house and put her into my car. She's like a broken child, sobbing uncontrollably. I can't bear to see her like this.

Look what you've done.

We drive in silence back to my house as my mind races a million miles per minute.

What's Violet going to think of me leaving with Ariana?

This looks bad even to me, but how can I help it? What kind of person would I be if I didn't care for Ariana when she's like this?