The Boss Pt. 02

"And how is your relationship these days? Are you still getting along like newlyweds?"

I guess Constance's face became flushed then. "We are having some problems. With Cal gone there is a little contention between us. The pregnancy hasn't helped as we were planning on having a few years to explore our relationship before I got pregnant but Cal's sperm was too potent. He overcame my birth control and now we are going to have a daughter."

"We, as in you and Toni, or we, as in you and Cal?"

"Actually, in an ideal world it would be Cal, Toni and me having a baby and we would love her like she should be loved by three parents."

I guess Emily started to laugh then. I heard her and looked over and saw whom she was talking with. I tried to not let the fact she was there interfere with my clients as they didn't deserve the drama that was going to unfold in a few minutes. I couldn't hear what Emily told Constance but I could see the facial expressions. It portended to be a contentious reunion.

Like I said I did not hear their conversation. It had to be related to me later but Emily responded to Constance's outrageous comment about how all three of us should be the parents of her soon-to-be born girl. "You know you are almost as delusional as my ex-husband. He wanted me to be part of a harem and his sluts would have equal say in how our children would be raised. I left him so fast his head is still spinning. I haven't known Cal all that long but I know he would never agree to your 'ideal' life. How long were you married to him? Do you know him at all?"

I believe that is when the conversation ended. I could hear my lovely wife from where I sat. "I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH FROM YOU! TELL MY HUSBAND I AM HERE AND NEED TO SPEAK TO HIM!" I thought she was going to stamp her foot like a child who has been told she can't have a piece of candy. Her look was thunderous. I don't think the spike in her blood pressure was healthy in her pregnant condition but what do I know?

I ignored her. I had clients to work with at the moment. If she didn't like it she could make an appointment like everyone else had to. I turned back to my clients. They raised Simental beef and wanted their brand to show it. I was proposing a profile of one of their bulls with their brand on it and the name of the ranch in the middle of the side of the beef. I made sure that the profile was actually one of their bulls so that it was authentic and not just some clip art. When I had a good rendition done on the sketch pad we agreed on that concept. We rose and I shook their hands and promised to have them a color example on the computer in a few days. They would then make their final decision.

After they left I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was time for the final confrontation. Thankfully Toni had not accompanied Constance to Raynardville. I went over to the chair where Constance was residing. I didn't greet her as I certainly didn't want to see her. "Constance, why are you here? I told you to do all our conversing through our attorneys. The divorce is on hold just until you deliver then the determination of parentage will be done and I will pay you child support if it is proven to be mine."

"It's actually a she, Cal. She will be a beautiful baby. Don't you want to hold your own daughter?"

"Not as long as you or Toni have any say in how she is to be raised. I don't believe you are a good enough role model to raise any child and, after the way that Toni and you sandbagged me, I don't believe she should be around any child at any time. The Lord only knows what kind of ethics and morals you two will teach her. I see nothing but destruction in her future."

"That's why you need to come home, Cal. You could teach her and show her ethics in action. You could be the one person who could put her on the right path."

"Yeah, I would be her nanny and caregiver while you and Toni flaunt your loose morals and lack of ethics in front of her every day. Sorry but no thanks."

"You will just abandon your child?"

"So you say."

"I promise you that I have had no other man since we became exclusive."

"Yeah, I know how good your promises are. You promised once to forsake all others and now you can't live without your newest love in your life. We will just have to wait and see if you have had any other man other than me. For all I know you and Toni have been having orgies with any swinging dick."

"You know that isn't true. I would never cheat on you!"

I had to laugh. "What do you call having lesbian sex with my boss? If that isn't cheating then what is?"

"But I love her and she loves me, that can't be cheating if you are having sex with someone you love."

I shook my head. She was delusional, pure and simple. You can't argue with someone that delusional. It might make you crazy.

"I don't think we have anything more to discuss. You need to leave. If you don't then I will have you removed for trespassing. I will not knowingly see you again. From now on send your comments through my attorney. I will have him pass them on to me. I do not promise to reply."

"But your daughter will be born soon. We need you back at home, both Toni and I and your daughter. I want you in the delivery room with me when she is born."

"Will Toni be there also?"

"Of course, she will be Jenny's second mom and she is my birthing coach. She has to be there."

"If there is one person I want to see less than you then it is my former boss. No, I won't be there. Have the DNA test done as soon as possible and I will provide my sample without quarrel or delay. If she is a product of my sperm then I will pay the child support set by the courts. I will warn you that I am not making very much as the business is still new and just starting to show a profit."

Hell, I was not even allowed any input on the baby's name. It had already been decided by the two sluts. I didn't voice that complaint as she would probably inform me that amongst the massive amount of unread messages was probably something about the baby's name. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of pointing that little fact out to me.

I led her to the door. I really wanted to grab her arm and force her out but it would not look good to anyone who might see me push her out the door. I opened it and she dutifully stepped out. "Constance, I am not kidding when I said I would have you removed for trespassing. You have no need of my services in any way, shape or form except for possible child support. Do not come back here and do not try to contact me directly ever again. That goes for your resident slut also. Have a safe trip home, not that I care about you but your unborn child needs to be safe."

I closed the door on her reply and locked it. I hoped the sound of the lock snapping shut would give her the message that I meant business.

After a few minutes I unlocked the door as we had appointments to keep.

A week later Jerry called and informed me that I was the proud father of a seven pound eight ounce baby girl with blonde hair, ten fingers and ten toes, and blue eyes. Again I wondered as to the paternal parentage as both Constance and I have dark hair and brown eyes. I had already submitted my DNA to a lab and had the results sent to Jerry. There could not be any way for the two to fake my results to match little Jenny's this way. Once Constance had the DNA results from then baby's test then any competent doctor could compare the results and determine whether she was from my loins.

I would like to say that Emily and I were becoming romantically involved but it was far too soon to be saying that. We were getting along famously. Occasionally she would have to bring her little ones to work when her mother had a conflict. We put in a bench with storage in the conference area so they could keep some toys there to play with. If there happened to be a client meeting then Emily would take the kids into the apartment and they would play in the living room area while Emily answered any call using a cordless phone.

With some of the staff working remotely and still living in my old small city, we were handling clients in both communities and the intervening area. Billables were on the upswing. Immersing ourselves in the various business interests was also bearing fruit. We could point out some of the less known details of the industry targeted to help educate the public while selling the concept.

The weeks passed. Finally Jerry got the divorce on the docket. The results of the DNA test were conclusive that I was in fact Jenny's biological father. I was prepared to provide the ordered child support and had been sending a check each month to Constance once Jerry had confirmed parentage.

It was the day of the hearing. Constance was asking for marriage counseling. Jerry got Constance on the stand first and forced her to relate the whole lesbian affair and how they had hidden it from me. Then he called Toni to the stand and forced her to admit how she had been giving me updates on the affair as it unfolded while keeping Constance's name secret. Jerry then made each of them admit that they had tried to make me virtually a slave with the partnership agreement and had, in fact, finally admitted to the affair after believing I had signed the agreement.

Jerry sat down after tearing them apart on the stand and whispered, "Do you want primary custody of the baby?" I didn't know what to say. It had never occurred to me that I might prevail over the mother of the child.

"Why do you ask?" was my only reply at the moment as I tried to make a quick decision.

"Look at the judge," said Jerry. "That man is pissed. If he could charge them with a criminal offense for what they did to you he would. Right now is the perfect time to ask this. Shared custody is a given at the least."

The judge did have a sour face as he listened to the opposing attorney try to minimize the damage the two women had to admit to. I nodded to Jerry. "This baby needs something better than those two. Go for it."

When it was his turn Jerry stood and addressed the judge. "Your Honor, due to the admission by my client's wife and her lover as to how they attempted to manipulate him into agreeing to their unusual living arrangement proposal and also since this was an unplanned pregnancy that both women have testified to as being a bone of contention between them, my client is now amending his divorce petition to include full custody of his daughter, Jenny Sanders. He is willing to grant liberal visitation to the baby's mother, Constance Sanders, but requests that the other party to this disaster of a marriage, Ms. Toni Lapiro, be denied any contact with the baby."

That one exploded like a grenade. All three, the attorney, Constance and Toni, jumped up and started explaining, complaining and yelling at once. It was quite the din for a few moments as the judge pounded his gavel for quiet. They shut up but remained standing. The baby was in her carrier and slept through the outburst. After a quick whispered conversation the attorney spoke. "Your Honor, Mr. Sanders does not care about the child. He has resisted and ignored all communications concerning the pregnancy and subsequent childbirth of his own child. He refused to have anything to do with Mrs. Sanders during the difficult stages of the pregnancy and the childbirth. As a matter of fact he has not seen the child until this hearing and has not even held his child. We do not believe that he should be granted anything more than supervised visitation."

Constance gave me a frightened look before suddenly standing. "Your Honor, I wish to be heard."

Her attorney was frantically trying to get her to be quiet and sit down but the judge censored the attorney and allowed Constance to speak. "Please speak, Mrs. Sanders. I will warn you that you are trying my patience here and are treading on very thin ice."

She nodded. "I am sorry for the confusion, Your Honor, but I do not support supervised supervision by the baby's father. If I had my way he could move home today and become the good parent I know he is capable of being. He is the innocent one here. I am not ashamed of my lifestyle choices but I do apologize for how Toni and I developed our relationship and our poor attempt to lead Cal into accepting it. The way we went about it harmed him more than we had anticipated."

The judge gave her attorney a hard stare when the idiot tried to object to his own client's testimony and rapped the piece of wood with his gavel to emphasize his distaste. "Then, pray tell, Mrs. Sanders why did you file for divorce. You cited abandonment and callous disregard for your feelings in your brief. Did your husband make threats against you or Ms. Lapiro? Did he make you feel unsafe in your home? Did he strike you or do anything to hurt you in the eyes of your family or friends?"

"Your Honor, I filed for divorce based on recommendations by both my attorney and Ms. Lapiro. We had not been able to get Cal to respond to any of our attempts at communication so that we might resolve some of the issues that Cal has. We hoped this would force him into counseling and give us that opportunity to make him understand he is loved and cherished by me and by Toni. The pregnancy was unintended and certainly unplanned but, if it helps him to heal, then it will be an additional point in my attempt to stay married while still having a relationship with Toni.

As far as any threats to me or Toni, he has not made any except to have either of us removed from his new place of business for trespassing."

"Your husband's attorney alludes to the pregnancy as being a point of contention between you and your lover. Is this true?"

"Since it was not a planned pregnancy it has taken some time to come to grips with. We had not planned on having a child for a couple of years yet. But, like other parents who had to quickly adjust to the news of a baby, we have accepted my daughter and are working toward being the parents she needs for us to be."

"Are you talking about yourself and Mr. Sanders or you and Ms. Lapiro?"

"At the moment I am talking about me and Ms. Lapiro. I hope that Cal will accept the requested visitation rights so that he can be part of her upbringing if he can't accept our relationship and move home."

I whispered to my attorney, "Ask her about her home, where she is living and so forth. Also, why did she sell the condo when I was helping to make the payments."

I think the judge was reading my mind or at least my lips. "Mrs. Sanders, where are you currently residing?"

"I live with Toni in her apartment."

"Did you and your husband have a separate place to live in while you were co-habitating?"

"Yes, Sir, we had a condominium that we lived in."

"What happened to that piece of real estate?"

"I sold it after Cal left."

"Why? Could you not afford it after he moved out? Was it too much of a financial burden on you?"

She actually blushed. "It was a little more of a burden as Cal's income dropped significantly but he did send money to our bank every month. I decided to sell so that Toni and I could set up household together as we do love each other very much."

"Did you make a profit from the sale of the home?"

"Yes, Sir, Cal and I had lived there for seven years so it had some equity built up."

"Did you share that equity with your husband?"

She faltered a little and became red from embarrassment. "No, Toni's business was failing and I had come in as a partner. We used every bit of money we could get to try and keep the business from going broke. It didn't work and the business failed anyhow. Toni now works for another company."

He looked over the paperwork in front of him. "I don't see a partnership agreement in these papers. Did you have a formalized contract?"

'No, Sir, Toni and I had a gentleman's agreement. She promised I would recover what I put into the company when it became profitable again."

"Did your husband have any knowledge of the use of his money in this venture?" She shook her head. "Did you attempt to tell your husband what you were going to do with the money from the sale of your shared domicile?" She shook her head again.

"So, in other words, you conspired to have an illicit affair with your husband's boss, who flaunted your affair to him while hiding your identity, then came up with this abomination of a partnership agreement to force him into approving your intended change in your marriage. Then, after he left, you sold the shared real estate to invest in this same woman without a contract while hiding the arrangement from your husband and not giving him any input as to how the money was being used.

Then you and his former boss attempt to hold him to the agreement you thought he signed, while committing fraud when bringing it to trial. Now you want him to just say, 'All's well' and move home, excuse me, to your lover's home and become what, an unpaid nanny? This while you flaunt your relationship with Ms. Lapiro?"

"Your Honor, Cal would not be an unpaid nanny. He would be welcomed with open arms by me as a full fledged partner in our relationship. I want him with me where he belongs."

"I think that I have heard enough. I will take all of this under advisement and will inform you of my decision a week from today in this courtroom and that the same time as we began these proceedings." He banged his gavel and left the chambers as we all stood silently.

I shook Jerry's hand and hustled out of the courtroom. I was trying to get out ahead of any attempt of Constance and Toni to waylay me. Constance was trying to pick up the baby and yelled at me, asking if I wanted to see my daughter. I hardened my heart and kept moving even though I seemed to be wading through molasses to get out of there.

Jerry prevented Toni from chasing me down by just blocking the aisle. The crap she was yelling made me realize she had never been a friend, just someone to use, abuse, and then try to control for her own ends.

I stayed that week in a motel. Agri Design Solutions was already finding success in that niche that Toni had carved out with Zapiro and now needed an office here in my old home town. Each day I met with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and various realtors looking for suitable space to hang my and my colleagues' hats. Of course they showed me the old Zapiro headquarters as it was designed for this type of business. The landlord's representative was a little confused when I refused to even enter the door and walked away telling him to find me something else.

There were multiple reasons for not renting that space and one of them was that someone would assume that Zapiro had reopened with a new name. Sorry, we were a new and unique business and didn't need that old baggage to drag us down. And, yes, there were too many bad memories of that office space to allow me to use it.

Finally I settled on an old retail space, kind of like what I had in Reynardville. It had some parking, not a lot, but was in an area that would get our name out there just from the street traffic. I called all of my local employees to come and check the place over. We soon had a plan for décor, including murals on the walls and special curtains for the large front windows highlighting some of our work. It is amazing what you can get these days. I also ordered some of the same kind of curtains for the Reynardville office.

When it came time for the final hearing I had a new suit and tie to wear. I still had the goatee but my hair was nicely cut as fitting my role as a business man. I had picked up the habit of wearing a hat so I came into the courtroom carrying a fedora. Jerry and I sat and lowly spoke as we waited for the judge. Constance was alone with her attorney. I guessed that Toni was babysitting or had moved the baby to an undisclosed location in case the judge ruled in my favor.