“Er? Uh… you’re the one who marched into my store and made it sound like a life or death matter. I only humored you because I saw it as a way to get a promise out of you to stop being a pain in my ass. Now you suddenly have nothing to say?” He winked at her. Winked of all things. “Or maybe you did just drag me here because you wanted to take things to the next level.”
“Nope,” Teela said quickly. Too quickly. She mentally cursed herself. “Definitely not that. I- okay…” she leaned forward as well. She dropped her eyes back down to Ross’ shiny shoes. She could practically see her own panicked face in them. “Here it goes. I know that you were once a sperm donor.”
Her head snapped up when silence filled the room. Ross was studying her, eyes wide. He was completely red. She knew that Amy hadn’t made the whole thing up. She wasn’t wrong.
“I- how would you know that?” Ross ground out. “Who did you have to pay to get that information? I swear, there are laws about breaching privacy. I’m not a poor man. I can afford a good lawyer and I have no problem making people pay-”
“Shove it,” Teela snapped. “Just stop. This isn’t about you and your donated swimmers. Well- not exactly. I’m not going to tell anyone. I- god. This is so fucked up. I shouldn’t even be doing this. I should definitely not be doing this. I- I just happen to know that I got your sperm. Yours. It’s- I- I’m pregnant. It was your sperm. I- you- we… we made this baby.” Her hand fluttered protectively to her stomach at the same time Ross’ eyes shot down. He went from red to white in a manner of seconds.
“How the hell do you know that?” He breathed. “That’s also a breach… someone told you… why? So that you could try and get child support from me? So that you could drag me through the mud? So that you could be the next in a long line of leaches that have tried to suck wealth out of me over the years?” He stood so abruptly that Teela leaned back.
He was a little bit scary when he was angry.
Or maybe that was just the flashback she had to Steven, who used to be a real prick when he was mad. In the form of his fists.
She braced herself, but a second later, angry Ross composed himself and became calm and controlled Ross once again. Unflappable Ross. He stared at her carefully, guardedly, obviously planning his next move.
“This…” he pointed at her. “This is not happening. You can’t get a cent from me. You won’t. Not now. Not ever. If you tell a soul about the sperm donation thing, I promise I will make you pay. You’ll lose everything. You’ll wish that you never met me.”
Teela let out a low whistle. “Don’t worry.” She flashed him an obnoxiously fake smile even though her insides were in the worst state of turmoil she’d felt in a very long time. She was pretty sure she was going to hurl at any second. She swallowed hard a couple times, trying to force it back down. She was not going to puke in front of Troll-ass Ross. Not now. Not ever. “This wasn’t about me getting something from you. Believe me, I would never want a thing. It’s not about me telling people you jacked it into a cup for money when you were going through rough times. I don’t care about what you did in your private time. This was about me going against my better judgement and giving you a chance. It was about me thinking you might want to know you had a child out there. Right here. I mean, you probably have like thirty by now if you wanked off all those times, so hell. Why should this matter? It was stupid. And don’t think you’re the only one with friends in high places. If you try and make a big deal out of this, I’ll make sure your name gets dragged through the mud. I don’t have anything to lose, so don’t worry, you can’t take it. I’ll make sure everyone knows you got paid for your sperm. Then all the women out there who have ever used the clinic here will come after you. People won’t buy food from your stores. So, I guess if you go after the clinic for this, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot.”
Ross stared her down. She stared back. Both of them were breathing hard, their shoulders heaving like they’d just finished a rage marathon. Yup. That’s exactly what they’d just run.
“You- you’re unbelievable,” Ross hissed. “I’m glad you did me a favor and weeded yourself out. Aside from the people I fired, you were the only one who quit. So, don’t be so confident in your friends.”