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I’d paid for it. I should at least read what the lab had to say, right?
I was pretty sure that I couldn’t get rid of it without reading it, because unopened and unread mail had gotten me into so much damn trouble in the past.
Skye’s letter.
Not reading that had changed the entire course of my life.
I wasn’t a superstitious type of guy, but I tore open the envelope anyway.
I was pretty fucking happy, so I decided to just read the results instead of pissing off the gods of fate just in case they existed.
I was way too happy to push my luck in any way.
There was a lot of medical jargon that I really didn’t understand all that well, so I kept shuffling through the lab results until I could come across something I could comprehend and be done with it.
There was something called a combined paternity index.
And probability of paternity.
A data table of DNA markers.
Lastly, there was a conclusion.
There was one line I understood perfectly, and it stopped me in my tracks.
I was excluded as Maya’s biological father.
I kept reading that line over and over, like it was going to magically change.
Not possible. There’s no way.
Much as I tried, I couldn’t make those words change, so I started trying to process a truth I just couldn’t accept, even though the scientific data was right in front of my eyes.
The child I’d already come to love and adore was not my daughter.
CHAPTER 26
SKYE
“I’m starving. I thought we’d just throw some burgers on the grill, and I’ll make some potato salad,” I told Aiden as I went back into the kitchen. “Sound okay to you?”
I went and pulled the burgers out of the fridge, and Aiden still hadn’t answered, even though he was standing right behind me.
I dropped the meat in the sink and turned.
He was obviously in the same space that I was.
But his mind was completely somewhere else.
His body looked tense, his palms braced on the counter, and his head was down, staring at something I didn’t recognize.
“Aiden, are you okay?” I said, concerned.
He didn’t answer.
My first worry was that it was bad news about somebody in his large family.
“Aiden,” I said louder. “You’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”
When he finally turned his head, his beautiful blue eyes were cold, and that terrified me because I’d never seen his expression so glacial.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” I implored.
“When were you planning on telling me that Maya isn’t really my biological child?” he said in a guttural voice.
I moved to him and put a hand on his bicep, because I had no idea what he was trying to say, but I wanted the furious, chilly, and confused look on his face to ease.
I needed him to talk to me, because what he was asking didn’t make sense.
“What are you saying?” I asked quietly.
He jerked his arm away from my hand. “I’m saying that I got the lab results on the paternity test. I’m excluded as her biological father. Excluded. Zero chance of Maya being my child.”
“That’s crazy. It’s not even possible,” I told him as I reached toward the counter and snatched up the lab results.
I was silent for a moment as I read through all the technical stuff, but I quickly dropped to the bottom of the last page to see the conclusion.
What I saw stunned me as much as it probably had Aiden. I had to read the line a couple of times just to make sure I was interpreting it correctly.
He was right.
He was excluded as Maya’s biological father, which was conclusive proof that she wasn’t biologically his child.
“This isn’t right, Aiden. It has to be a mistake,” I said in a horrified tone.
He looked at me with a laser-sharp, thunderously pissed-off glance. “Is it? Or was I just a good target to be the dad since I’m now rich, and conveniently here in Citrus Beach?”
I felt like he’d just slapped me. Hard. And he hadn’t even touched me.
“That hurts,” I told him in a tremulous voice.
“Yeah. Well, it hurts to know I love Maya like she’s my child, and she’s not. Never was, according to the DNA test. And DNA doesn’t lie, Skye. Just tell me why the hell you did it. Why you made all this up. Was it the money? Because that’s the only thing that’s really changed about me.”
“I didn’t make it up. And it was never about the money. I told you that,” I said flatly. “I swear.”
I couldn’t completely blame him for being upset, but he had to know that Maya was really his daughter. He had to. Maybe it was hard to go against a DNA test, but in his heart he had to realize the truth.
Problem was, he was thinking completely with his brain right now, and he was right, lab tests rarely lied.
People did.
So he’d immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion right away. And what in the hell could I say in my defense except the truth? Which probably would seem highly unlikely to him right now.
“Since her birthday is in May, you must have forgotten about me pretty damn quickly. Or is she really Marino’s kid?” he asked angrily.
I took a deep breath and tried not to let my temper fly, too. That wasn’t going to help the situation right now. “I would have never been with him if it wasn’t for Maya. You know that, Aiden. I told you that I was pregnant with her when I agreed to go with him because I had nowhere else to go.”
“Bullshit!” he said in a frustrated voice as he took back the lab results and held them up. “Are you trying to say I should believe you and not the test? I might be gullible when it comes to you, but I’m not stupid.”
He’d never been gullible or stupid, but now probably wasn’t the time to try to convince him of that.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what had happened, or why we’d gotten the wrong result. But I did know the truth, something that he definitely didn’t want to hear right now.
“All I can say is that it’s a mistake,” I said softly. “I don’t know what happened, but you know I wasn’t with anybody before you, and I sure as hell wasn’t with anybody soon after. We need to call the lab.”
His expression was tormented. “Do you know how many guys probably do that, just fucking hoping the test was wrong?”
I got that he was angry, but I refused to let him keep using me as a verbal punching bag. He’d hate himself for it later, because that was just how Aiden was made.
I put my hands on my hips. “It is wrong. There’s no question about that. The only answer I need is how it got screwed up.”
“I can’t do this anymore, Skye,” he said as he dropped the papers on the counter.
He didn’t say another word as he walked to the garage and left.
A few moments later, I heard the sound of the garage door opening and closing, and then the engine noise of his truck fading away.
I took a deep breath, and then let it out. Tears leaked from my eyes. The pain of all he’d said was gut wrenching. Yeah, I understood that he might be justified in his anger, but it killed me that he hadn’t even listened, or considered the fact that it could have been a mistake.
