“I don’t want to try, Cat. I just want her.”
“More than you want your own child.”
“The two are not mutually exclusive.”
“Yes, they are. Because she will not raise my child. So either you’re in this with me, or you’re out.”
“You don’t have the power to cut me out of my own child’s life simply because you’re mad that I don’t want to be with you.”
“Watch me.” She threatens, squaring her shoulders.
“I’ll watch you fail when I take you to court and file for full custody because we both know you’ll be a shit mother.” It’s true, but I still feel a little bad for saying so.
“She isn’t right for you. She never was. She didn’t want you, Penn. She threw you away like garbage. Is that what I have to do for you to love me? Treat you like trash? Spit on everything we had together? Choose everything and everyone but you?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I grit my teeth.
“I do. And you’re living in denial if you think she’s not going to up and leave as soon as something better comes along. She’s only here because she has to be. She’ll tire of you just like she did last time.”
“Careful.” My nostrils flare; my patience long since run out.
“She will not be a part of my child’s life. I can’t trust her.”
“Not your call. You’re not the only parent.”
“You really think she’s going to want you anyway? You think she’s going to want to watch you raise a child with another woman?” She lets out a condescending laugh. “Oh, Penn. How delusional you are. Where is she anyway? Not here? Wonder why.”
“Paternity test. I want one done as soon as medically possible. Until then, that is not my child. If you’re even pregnant at all,” I tack on because I wouldn’t put it past her to make something like this up.
“How dare you imply I would make this up or that I would lie and say you’re the father if you weren’t?”
“Perhaps you should take a long, hard look in the mirror, Cat, because that absolutely sounds like something you would be capable of.”
“You’ll have your paternity test. And when it comes back and shows you are the father, you end things with London, or you will never see me or this child again. You can only take me to court if you can find me.”
“You won’t leave.” I call her on her bluff.
“And what makes you so sure?”
“Because your obsession with me would never allow it. Now get the hell off my property. I don’t want to see you again until we know the paternity. And stay the hell away from London.”
“It’s a small town. We’re bound to run into each other.” She smirks like she’s really told me.
“Then turn around and walk the other way. You are not to speak to her again. About this or anything else.”
“That’s the great thing about a free country, Penn.” She flips her long hair over her shoulder and saunters off toward her car. “You can’t stop me.”
I watch her drive away moments later, the knot in my stomach opening up into a dark, endless pit that threatens to swallow me whole.
What. The. Hell. Am. I. Going. To. Do. Now?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
London
Eight years earlier...
“What do you see when you think about the future?” Penn asks, hand brushing mine as we lie on our backs on the trampoline in my backyard, looking up at the stars.
