“Something I felt every single day of my childhood. I won’t do that to my own child.”
“You may not have a choice. You can’t force him to love you, you know?”
“Maybe not, but he will. This child is going to create an unbreakable bond between us.”
Her words hit exactly where she intends them to. Because she’s right. Sharing a child together does tie them in a way that nothing and no one can change. She will be a part of his life and an important one at that, even if only for the child’s sake.
“Who are you trying to convince? If he didn’t love you before you were pregnant, a baby isn’t going to miraculously change that.” I refuse to let her see she’s rattled me. I wouldn’t dream of giving her the satisfaction.
“Why do you not seem so sure?” She smiles, clearly seeing something in my face that I don’t intend for her to see.
I can stand here and argue with her until I’m blue in the face, but the fact still remains that if this is true, Penn is going to be having a baby with her. A baby. There’s no way this doesn’t change things. Hell, there’s no way this doesn’t changeeverything.
“You need to go.”
“Or maybe you do, considering you’re standing half naked in my future home.”
Her words stir something in me, a realization of sorts.
“You did this on purpose.” I say the words at the same time I think them.
“What?” She draws back like I’ve slapped her.
“You did this on purpose. You’re trying to trap him.”
“How dare you!” She flattens her palm to her chest like I’ve just said the most unimaginably offensive thing in the world.
Doesn’t change the fact that I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s true.
“How dare I? Look at you, look at the lengths you’re willing to go to in order to be with a man who was only sleeping with you to hurt me.”
I don’t have proof, but I suspected this the first time I saw them together. The way he almost seemed to flaunt her in my face even though he always hated Cat, maybe even more than I did. Whether it’s true or not, I still get a weird sense of satisfaction throwing it in her face.
She knew I was here. No doubt someone at the restaurant saw me leave with Penn last night. News in this town travels fast and given how much I drank, I know with complete certainty that I was all over him all night. She came here with the sole purpose of pushing me out of Penn’s life and while this news is something I’m going to need time to sit with, I won’t let her bully me into walking away. I did that once and it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.
Whatever the outcome, we will make this work... But even as I think it, I’m not so sure.
“We started seeing each other long before you came to town. What we had, what we have, has nothing to do with you.” She sneers.
“Which is why he dropped you the second I came back into the picture.” Pleasantries are long gone at this point, so now I’m going to hit her where it hurts.
“We’ll see who drops who once he finds out that I’m carrying his child,” she warns. “I don’t even know why I bothered. I thought I could reason with an old friend, but clearly that was a mistake. You’re too immature and selfish to do the right thing.”
“Me?” I gape openly at her. Pretty sure we’re living in two entirely different realities.
“You could have made it easy on him, but now you’re going to make him choose between you and his child. Who do you thinkhe’s going to choose? I can promise it won’t be you.” She backs away from the doorframe, a smile on her face. “Enjoy this while it lasts, London. Because when I tell him it’s you or the baby, I think we both know your time will be up.” With that, she spins around and walks away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Penn
“LV,” I call as soon as I push my way inside the front door of my house. I left work a little earlier than normal. If we’re being completely honest, I wasn’t all that productive while I was there, my mind otherwise occupied with the gorgeous woman I knew was at home in my bed.
A woman who is not actually in my bed.
I look around the empty room, the house oddly quiet.
“London?” I holler again, walking into the bathroom to discover she’s not in there either.
