His mother barely stepped foot into the house before the inquisition started. “Carson, what’s all this nonsense I’m seeing about you and a lap dancer this morning?”

I cringed, wishing the polished white marble floor would open up and swallow me.

“It’s not nonsense,” Carson answered, closing the door behind them. “I met Emma three years ago in the club she works at. We… hit it off immediately.” He raised one eyebrow as he obviously left her to draw her own conclusions about what ‘hit it off’ meant.

“Hit it off? With a lap dancer? Carson Matthews, have I really brought you up to be this person? Someone who has sex with girls like that?”

‘Girls like that.’ Ouch. That stings. I stepped back into the doorway, half-hiding as my eyes filled with shameful tears.

Carson’s forehead creased with a frown as his shoulders pulled back. “You brought me up to see the good in everyone, yes,” he rebutted.

She made a distasteful sound in her throat and shook her head. “All you can ever see in a girl like that is what you can use her for.”

Carson’s sister’s gaze flicked to me and her lips parted as her eyes widened. Carson’s mother was clearly too busy glaring at her son to see me cowering in the doorway like a wounded puppy. I winced, squirming on my feet.

“It’s not like that,” Carson stated. “Emma’s nice, you’ll like her.” Seeing Carson stand up to his mother on my behalf made me feel a little flicker of love inside. No matter what he thought of me and what he’d said to me earlier in my bedroom, he was standing there facing her and telling her he saw the good inside me. Even though he’d hurt me so damn much today, I couldn’t help but feel proud he was willing to stand up to his mother for me.

“Like her? You’re not seriously going to continue with this sordid little affair, are you? You need to think about your career and your sponsors. Have you even thought about the damage an association like this can do? You’ll lose all sorts of advertising campaigns after this. People don’t like to have their companies associated with scandal,” she retorted angrily. “And what’s all this bull poop about her having a child? For goodness’ sake, they’ve even linked you to it! Have you spoken to Mason? What’s he doing about all of this? They’ll obviously have to print a retraction and apology. It’s ridiculous.”

They still hadn’t moved far from the front door. His sister was just watching with wide eyes like I was. “Actually, it’s not ridiculous,” Carson answered. “Emma does have a child, a little girl called Sasha. She’s mine.” His voice was firm and confident as he spoke.

His mother’s mouth popped open in shock as she recoiled. “Yours? Don’t be obtuse!”

Carson sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “She’s mine, Mum. Emma got pregnant not long after we met. I only found out about it today, too. I haven’t even met her yet.”

His mother’s eyes closed as she massaged her temples in a small, circular motion. “But how can she be? Did you not use protection? Even with someone like that? Carson, for goodness’ sake, she could have given you anything! Goodness knows what she’s contracted through sleeping with other men or sharing needles!” Her eyes popped open. “Please, tell me she’s not a drug addict.”

“What the hell? No! She doesn’t do drugs. Jesus. Judgemental much?” Carson snapped angrily. “It isn’t like that. Emma isn’t like that at all!”

“Well, she’s a lap dancer!”

“Yeah, and she’s also in her second year at university studying to become a social worker!” Carson rebutted.

“This has to be a dream. This can’t be real,” his mother muttered, shaking her head.

Behind her, Carson’s sister stepped forward. “I’m going to go sit in the other room while you two shout this out,” she stated, walking toward me and catching my elbow, pulling me into the lounge with her. Carson and his mother didn’t even acknowledge her leaving as they glared at each other. “Hi. I’m Kimberly, Carson’s sister,” she said once we were safely away from the family feud happening in the hallway.

“Emma,” I croaked.

She nodded. “I know who you are. Carson’s told me about you before. He said you were really pretty and sweet-looking.” She smiled kindly. “Please excuse my mother’s behaviour. She gets extremely protective over her family. She’ll calm down soon and see sense. She just goes off on a tangent and storms in without thinking everything through.”

I nodded weakly. That was exactly what I’d thought earlier about Carson, too. Clearly he’d inherited a lot from his mother – just not her looks.

“He’s told you about me?” I asked, watching the door to make sure they weren’t going to follow us in here.

She threw herself down onto the sofa and pulled out a packet of chewing gum. “Yep. He said you two were friends.”

“With benefits,” I added, biting on my nails nervously.

She chuckled. “Yeah, with benefits.”

Raised voices in the hall made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “And by working things out you mean that greedy little witch is putting in her claim for as much as she can! She’ll bleed you dry. Just watch, she’ll lay claim to everything you own. I bet you were an easy target for her. A young, impressionable boy with no clue how girls like that work. I bet her gold-digging eyes lit up when you first met!”