Stanton Unconditional by T L Swan Read Free Book Online

sidewalk.
    Ten minutes later we are seated and waiting for our order without speaking. I have nothing to say to Margaret. Last time I saw her I nearly slapped her face off. I can’t believe I actually hit her. What in the hell is going on with me and the bitch slapping lately? I frown as I try to forget the disturbing thought. Margaret grabs my hand over the table and I bite my lip to stop myself from speaking.
    “Natasha … can we please call a truce … for Joshua’s sake.”
    I force out a nod. “Margaret, I have never wanted to fight with you. You are the one who hates me.”
    “I have never hated you dear. Please understand it from my point of view. My nineteen-year-old son comes home and tells me he’s fallen in love with his seventeen-year-old first cousin. That he has been having sex with her every day for a month and that he is going to marry her.”
    I look down and smile as my heart melts. “He said that?” I ask. “He said he wanted to marry me?”
    She sits back and frowns. “From that whole sentence that’s the only information you took.”
    I nod, embarrassed. “Sorry, carry on.”
    “And then, not two weeks later, she sleeps with someone else and breaks his heart and I have to put him on a plane to go to the other side of the world alone … and devastated.”
    I swallow the lump in my throat as the horrible taste of guilt rises from my stomach. I look her in the eyes. “I never slept with another man, Margaret. I lied so that Joshua wouldn’t throw his life away on me. I knew he would never let me leave him unless I told him that and it has haunted me ever since. To this day, I have never had sex with another man.”
    She goes silent and sits back in her chair in shock. “What, never?” I shake my head. Her face drops.
    “I know this sounds strange to you, but Joshua and I are truly in love and you have made us miserable with your venom. Joshua should never have to choose between us Margaret. It is just not fair to put him in that position. I would never do that to him but you seem to do it easily.”
    She drops her head. “I know.”
    “And then you come to me after I let my father die telling me that we are not even related, when you have hated me for all these years. How do you expect me to react?”
    She tears up as she looks at me. “Natasha … I’m so sorry. I felt you were dangerous to Joshua. His love for you is all consuming and I know that in all honesty if you left him again it would break him … and I was right. He took a cocaine overdose. But in the end when I saw him so miserable I couldn’t do it to him any longer. I had to tell you the truth.”
    I sit back in my chair. “Tell me, are you going to tell your son the truth about his paternity?” I ask as I raise an eyebrow in contempt.
    Her face drops. “Natasha, please don’t judge me. After I had Scott,” she looks around the café to make sure nobody is listening, “ Robertwas working all the time and lost interest in me sexually. I was only twenty-two years old. He was away three weeks out of four and I was pretty sure he was having an affair. I was miserable.” The waitress arrives with our coffee. Margaret stops talking immediately. “Thank you,” she smiles. “We had a friend that used to come to the house regularly to check on me and Scott, at Robert’s request. He was my only friend at the time and I came to depend on him. His marriage had temporarily broken up and we leaned on each other for support. We talked a lot, and often he would come over and then stay for dinner. We were both very lonely. One night after a few wines he told me that he used to fantasise about me … sexually… when he was alone in bed.” My eyes widen as I imagine the situation she is setting for me. “I was totally shocked and asked him to leave immediately. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It haunted me, Natasha. I was in my sexual prime and I was married to a man who saw me as a mother to his child and