Chapter 2

“Knock you up, baby? Are you serious?” I asked my eldest stepdaughter to clarify her words.

“Yes, I want to have your baby. I want to rub it in Mom’s face, too. She was a stupid bitch. She should have reversed her tubal ligation, if at all possible, and gone out of her way to have your baby, giving me and my sisters some half-brothers, or at least half-sisters. I would have loved my little half-siblings, especially once they turned fourteen and I could fuck them. I’m sure that Brooke and Riley would agree with me there, I might add. I love the new age of consent, by the way. It’s much better this way. Fourteen is the right age to lose your cherry, no higher or lower,” Erica persisted, making her sentiments known to me.

“Yes, well, I seem to be very popular as a source of seed these days. That’s handy, of course, given that the push for ... less aggressive men to surrender their balls to the surgeon’s knife of their own volition is bearing some limited fruit. The cash reward for those men is a factor as well, of course. Give up your gonads and get some cash! Very clever. It will pay off in the long run as some of the ... less ideal candidates for manhood and procreation are eliminated from the genepool as they should be,” I commented on the most recent developments of the battle of the sexes.

Men had clearly won said battle, but we had to sacrifice some of our lesser specimens in the process. The future would prove just how wise a forfeit that might be, but I had a strong gut feeling that it was the best choice under the circumstances. There had been a lot of guys who just didn’t, pardon the expression, make the cut. They could still have useful, productive lives, but they couldn’t be allowed to breed. Criminals were just one category of the undeserving progenitors of the next generation of humanity, though the most obvious, of course.

“So, how about that business of putting a bun in my oven ... hopefully Brooke’s and Riley’s in time. It will be the ultimate revenge against Mom ... for all four of us! She’ll have to be the grandmother of her ex-husband’s progeny! It’s perfect karma, at least if you ask my sisters and me. We adore you, in case you missed that fact somehow! All three of us love you just as much as we love Mom ... and we like you a lot more than we like her,” Erica confirmed what I had by now suspected ... there was no great bond between mother and daughters.

“Wow, you really mean business here, don’t you, baby? Well, in that case, meet me tonight. After work, of course. My place ... yes, my place on Hellmark Island. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that you’re let in, honey. Your mother can’t track us there, after all,” I chuckled at the thought of how much trouble my ex would get into if she tried to follow Erica to my private apartment in the staff living quarters.

“You’re picturing Mom being arrested for trying to get on the island, aren’t you? That would be funny, though I don’t want her in prison. Maybe jail for a few nights, have it shake her up and get her to finally sign off on the divorce. It was her idea and now she is dragging her feet, silly girl. I hate to speak of my own mother that way, but that’s how flaky she has been of late,” Erica laughed over the phone, “I love her and I’m her daughter, but I can speak facts. I’m not blind.”

“I have a solution that just occurred to me about the house. I sell you my rights to it, which would make you her roommate. Since there is no mortgage, because it was bought at auction and is fully paid up, I would incur no great loss. The cost would be nominal and you would have the same rights there as your mother. She couldn’t use her maternal authority over you, as a fully grown and responsible adult.

“You would gain appreciable assets, too, and would probably inherit her share when she died. Could you afford to pay me ... three hundred dollars, spread over a six month period? Family discount, basically a third of the cost of the place when I purchased it. If your sisters contributed at all, it would help as well,” I proposed to Erica, making her cough a bit.

“So, wait ... I’d be half-owner of that damn house, nice as it is, even if it didn’t cost you much at all, and would gain equity over time. I would be equals with Mom and she couldn’t even pretend to order me about ... When I showed a swollen belly, she’d have to wonder if you were the baby daddy, given this sweetheart deal.

“It’s a damn good thing that the new laws have put you beyond her reach, because she’ll be livid, especially when she learns about Brooke and Riley. I love that even Riley can conceive your baby and she can’t do a damn thing about it. This sounds just amazing, Daddy!” Erica told me as she made it clear from the background noise that she was busy getting ready for our date.

“I love that you still call me that, even as we’re talking about ... getting it on together,” I chuckled, making her giggle a bit.

“To me, Daddy, that’s what you’ll always be in my book. Ditto Brooke and Riley, trust me on that. You’ll always be our father, our Daddy. I don’t care about the ‘step’ part or the sperm donor. Where was he when we needed him? I don’t even remember his name. So what if we also want to climb on top of you and get a free ride? Please understand ... we worship you, always have. Mom really fucked up in giving us a real father and then kicking him to the curb,” Erica insisted, making her feelings quite clear on that subject.

“Well, well, well, who’d have guessed, right, pumpkin?” I laughed about that development.

I hadn’t quite expected the degree of love and loyalty that my stepdaughters felt toward me after all this time. This was quite the turn of the worm, wasn’t it? I doubted that they felt this way about me when we first met, but then enough time had elapsed by now, hadn’t it? Karen did have her good qualities, her virtues, of course, but lately, her demons had gained mastery over her essence. Hell, she had basically made them her entire personality of late. It was very tough to even recall what virtues even drew me to her in the first place. There was almost no trace of that young woman who met and charmed me so many years back. She was virtually gone, at least from what I could tell.