“Police, they don’t know,” she replied. But from the fear that burned in her eyes, I knew there was more to the story than she or the authorities were letting on. “I bring you something of hers.”
“Trust me, there’s nothing of hers I want.”
“You want this. It is yours, too.”
I racked my brain trying to think if there was something that Lacey had taken from me all those years ago. But I kept drawing a blank. Then for the first time, I saw there was someone with Mrs. Martinez.
A tiny, dark-haired girl was hidden within the many folds of the woman’s skirt.
“Willow, come out.”
The moment the little girl stepped into my line of sight, I felt like I’d been hit by a fucking lightning bolt. My body shuddered from the aftershocks. It was as if I was looking at the female version of myself when I had been that age.
“Fuck me.”
“This belongs to you. Willow, she your daughter.”
At that moment, the room tilted and spun, and if it hadn’t been for Rev behind me, I probably would have done a pansy-ass thing like fucking passing out. I momentarily leaned on his strength until I could recover. Although the physical evidence showed that the kid was mine, I immediately went on the defensive. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I don’t have any fucking kids.”
Wide-eyed, the little girl stared up at me. From her expression of wonderment, I knew she was putting the pieces together. Regardless of my denial, she knew the truth—Iwas her father. As I glared down at her, an unwanted feeling of pride coursed through my veins.
Mine.
I’d created the angelic looking thing before me. As I mentally counted the months and years in my mind, I couldn’t help but think she had been conceived during that one perfect month with Lacey. We’d fucked morning, noon, and night, so I guess it wasn’t hard to imagine I’d knocked her up. I’d certainly been barebacking, and she was off all meds. I guessed now that had included her birth control.
At that moment, Mama Liz came barreling through the crowd with Bishop at her side. I guess Rev had sent him after her. When her gaze fell on Willow, a strangled cry erupted from her lips before her hands came to cover her mouth. “Oh David,” she whispered.
Mrs. Martinez nodded before reaching into the large bag on her shoulder. After taking out a piece of paper, she thrust it at me. “You on Willow’s birth certificate,” she argued.
Just hearing the girl’s name caused a stabbing pain to shoot through my chest straight to my heart.
Willow…my daughter’s name was Willow.
The first time Lacey and I had ever fucked was under one of the willow trees in the field down the hill from the compound. Before we’d fucked, we’d sat under one for hours, talking and laughing. Like a lovesick pussy, I’d even carved our initials into one of the trees.
Taking her hand in mine, I’d traced her finger over the initials. “This isourwillow tree just like you’re always mine.”
“Always,” she’d murmured.
Then everything had gone to fucking hell, but she’d remembered enough to name our daughter something meaningful.
“Look,” Mrs. Martinez instructed, flashing the paper in front of my face.
I grabbed it from her and stared down at it. There it was in bold, black ink. Under “Father’s Name” wasDavid Malloy.
Fuck me. Willow was mine.
I was a father.
I’m not sure why I needed to see it on a paper to believe it. Just one look at Willow, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt I was her father.
What the fuck had Lacey been thinking? She put my name on a legal document, yet she never fucking picked up a phone to tell me I had a kid?
There were a thousand things I wanted to scream at her at that moment, but I couldn’t. I’d never get to have the answers I so desperately sought because she was dead. Worst of all, she’d been murdered. What the hell had she gotten herself into that had ended with her murder?
Without a word to Mrs. Martinez, I folded the birth certificate up and slid it into my back pocket. The one thing Preacher Man had always taught me was to acknowledge your responsibilities.
After glancing at Willow, her wide-eyes were still locked on me. A ragged sigh erupted from my lips. I’d never really thought about being a father. More than anything, I’d thought about hownotto become one. Since the time I’d started fucking, I’d taken all the necessary precautions to prevent pregnancy. At almost twenty-eight, I was still looking far into the future when it came to settling down and having kids.
