Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Borden lifted his lip in a silent snarl, and was about to reply when Ariya walked up to his side. “It’s okay, Dad. I’ll talk to him.”
Borden walked away, but didn’t attempt to hide the distaste at having me in his establishment.
The moment he was out of earshot, Ariya grabbed my hand and led me outside. She didn’t go far, just to the right of what I now confirmed was Hennessy’s car, and crossed her arms.
“You know?”
I laughed at that.
“Yeah, I know.”
“I…”
She stopped and looked at her hands, then rubbed her face with a roughness that surprised me.
She wasn’t wearing any makeup.
Holy shit. I didn’t think there was ever a time that I hadn’t seen her perfectly coifed.
“Just spit it out,” I ordered. “I’m going fucking crazy here.”
She looked at me then, her spine straightening.
“She’s not yours.”
The relief in those words as they hit me were nothing less than staggering.
I knew that she wouldn’t lie, not about this.
Ariya was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
“Then why does everyone think she’s mine?”
Ariya bit her lip. “If her father was known, then it wouldn’t be good for me or her. It’s better that they suspect, but don’t get it confirmed.”
“In the meantime, though, you’re making everyone think that she’s mine, and that I’m an asshole for not having anything to do with a dying kid.” I paused at Ariya’s flinch. “I’m sorry, that was inconsiderate.”
Ariya swiped at her eyes, and let out a shaky breath.
“Thing is, it’s the truth,” she sniffled.
The bar door slammed in front of us, but neither one of us turned to see who it was. We did stop talking, though, waiting for whomever it was to pass.
Only they didn’t pass. They got into the car that was at my back.
Hennessy.
My eyes turned to follow the car’s path as it backed out, and when it finally got far enough away that I could see in the window, I knew that Hennessy knew something.
Or what she thought was something.
Hennessy didn’t peel out. Didn’t drive away in anger.
No, she drove away sedately, just like the controlled woman that she was—when she wasn’t with me.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Ariya pleaded, meaning Hennessy. “I know that this situation isn’t ideal. I know it. It’s asking a lot from you, but that little girl right there is my heart and soul. I don’t want to have her last days filled with anger and pain because her little life was turned upside down.”
I looked over at the little girl.
God, she looked so much different, even from just a few days ago.
A few days ago, she’d been upright and standing on her own volition. Today she was sitting down in a chair that was set up for her in the corner of the bar, right in front of the window. She had an iPad in her hand, and she was watching it with so little enthusiasm that it almost, if I didn’t know about her illness, looked like she was disinterested and mad that she was made to sit still while her mother worked.
Only she wasn’t sitting still because she was told to. She was sitting still because she physically couldn’t hold herself up.
“I won’t tell anyone,” I said. “I’ll let everyone think that I’m the father since that’s what they already think, but she doesn’t think that, does she?”
God, I really hoped that she didn’t think I was her father.
When I had thought that the little girl was mine, I’d been heartbroken.
My father hadn’t been there for me, and I’d made a promise to myself when I was young that I’d never do that to a child of my own. If I had a child, which I was thinking wasn’t a good idea at this point, then I’d make sure they knew that they were wanted.
Even the idea that this child thought she wasn’t wanted was enough to rip my heart to shreds in my chest.
“No,” Ariya said sadly. “She knows who her daddy is.”
I looked over at her.
“Who is her daddy?”
Ariya’s head dropped until her chin rested on her chest.
“You know who.”
The moment that she’d said that the baby wasn’t mine, my mind had automatically gone to the one person that the child looked like, and that was the woman that had stolen a little piece of my heart all those years ago when she’d come outside at a church picnic in borrowed clothes. Each time I saw her, she took another piece.
Soon, she’d own every single bit of it.
Even if she hated me because she thought I had a kid when I didn’t.
***
Two hours later, I was standing with my phone to my ear while looking at the front door of the most known ‘gangster wannabe’ in the entire town.
He was a prick and a half, and I wanted nothing to do with repossessing the fucker’s car.