I was on guard, as my emotions warred with each other. Anticipation. Resentment. Betrayal. Anger. Hope. Revenge. All of it. Caro had some explaining to do.
She stopped in front of her car and glanced around. When she spotted me, she squared her shoulders and advanced, like a brave warrior marching into battle.
I wouldn’t make this easy on her. She’d done the unthinkable in my book. She’d kept my child a secret from me. A guy didn’t forget or forgive such a betrayal easily.
“Easton.” Her voice was calm and cool, as if our meeting were nothing more than a minor business transaction. I steeled myself against the conflict raging inside me and presented my best poker face, the very one I used when the veterans were giving me shit on and off the ice.
“Caro.” I was relieved my own voice was as cool and unemotional as hers.
She started to sit across from me, and I whipped off my coat. “It’s wet. Sit on this.”
She hesitated, caught off guard by my chivalry, then reached for the coat. For the briefest of moments our fingers touched. Old feelings and memories slammed into me with the force of a head-on collision. And for me, that collision was a near fatality.
I remembered too much. The feel of her soft skin sliding across mine. The little moans she made when I pushed inside her. The way she looked at me as if I were the only man on earth.
Oh, God. Fuck. Damn it to hell.
She was not that girl anymore, and I wasn’t that boy. Nothing would ever be the same between us. We’d had puppy love. My memories were clouded by a false perception. The dream was likely far better than the reality.
Unfortunately, that reality looked pretty damn fucking good to me.
But I was wrong. She was deceptive, a schemer. She wanted something from me, but I wanted something in exchange. I had to keep my end goal in mind.
She sat opposite me and stared at her hands claspd in front of her on the table. I waited for her to speak, not giving her the benefit of breaking the ice first.
“Easton,” she croaked and cleared her throat. She swallowed, still staring downward, not meeting my gaze. She was nervous. I saw the slight tremor in her hands. Her composure had been an act. Only a bastard would enjoy her discomfort, and I guess at this point in time, I was a bastard.
“I have— You have twins. A boy and a girl.”
My smug smile fell off my face, and I shed my composure faster than a stripper sheds her clothes. “How do you know they’re mine?” I heard my husky, tense voice and hardly recognized it.
“DNA.” She didn’t explain further, and I didn’t ask, but there was a question of how she would’ve gotten my DNA to test.
“I’ll want to do my own test.”
“We can do that.”
“Why are you coming to me now? Why tell me at all since you obviously planned on keeping their father a secret from them indefinitely?”
She cringed and met my angry gaze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know?” My voice rose until I was almost shouting. My patience had developed a short fuse around her. A couple walking a dog stared in our direction and slowed their pace. I lowered my voice, not wanting to alarm them enough they intervened or called the police. “How could you not know?”
“It’s complicated.” She wrung her hands over and over. “When you left me, I didn’t know I was pregnant. My former boyfriend was there to pick up the pieces, and I slept with him, trying to ease the pain. I assumed they were his. When I found out I was pregnant, he insisted on marrying me.”
“I see.” I didn’t see. Regardless, some other man had raised my children as his. They had to be six years old by my calculations.
“I’m sorry. I would’ve told you sooner if I’d known.”
“You’re sorry? That’s all you can say is you’re sorry? You don’t think a father has the right to know his children? You don’t think I have a say in their lives? Fuck you.” Anger rolled through me, blotting out the pain and giving me strength to get through this. I embraced my fury, wallowing in it, welcoming the way it wiped out all rational thinking. I didn’t want to be rational right now. I wanted to shout about the injustice. I wanted to blame her, make her feel the guilt of denying me the right to what was mine. My children. Two of them. My blood. A boy and a girl.
She stood. “I understand why you’re upset, but getting mad at me isn’t going to fix the situation. You have my number. I’ll be in town for a few more days. Call me when you’re ready to talk.”
“I’m ready now.” I stood, too, and stalked after her as she walked purposefully to her car. “We’re not done yet,” I growled, knowing I sounded threatening but not caring.
“Miss? Are you okay?” The older couple walking the dog had circled back around and stood near her car.
“I’m fine. Thank you.” She offered them a sweet smile. I stopped in my tracks as they stepped in front of me, preventing me from following her.
“I’m so sorry.” Tears flowed down Caro’s face. Her eyes pleaded with me to forgive her. My feet were anchored to the sidewalk. Before I regained my composure, she got in her car and tore out of the parking lot.
This was the second time she’d run out on me.
Caroline point of view
I was shaking so badly I could barely drive. Glancing in my rearview mirror, I didn’t see any cars behind me. I pulled down a side street and into an alley. After shutting off the car, I lay my head on the steering wheel and gulped in great lungfuls of air.
I had to stay strong. I had to get ahold of myself.
I didn’t know what kind of reception I’d expected from Easton, but I’d hoped for a better one than what I’d gotten. He was justifiably angry, and he’d gotten angrier and angrier, much like his daughter had a tendency to do.
His daughter.
Oh, my God. What had I done?
Heaven help me. I deserved to rot in hell. Or worse, I deserved whatever the future might bring. Why hadn’t I done the math all those years ago and realized the twins could be his? We’d always been so careful, and I was on the pill. It’d never occurred to me they were anything other than Mark’s kids. That sounded ignorant of me, and I understood why Easton thought I was full of shit.
I’d deluded myself into believing he wouldn’t want to be a father any more than he’d wanted to be with me once that summer had ended.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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