“You’resorry?”Suddenly he couldn’t stay seated anymore.He needed to move.Pace.Do something.Otherwise all the anger-fueled adrenaline roaring around him would make him explode.He shifted to the window.With Bella nearby he needed to control his volume, even though everything within him wanted to yell.“I cannot believe you hid this from me, Gen.”
“I’m sorry.”
“‘Sorry’reallyisn’t cutting it right now.You can’t just simply apologize for this.”He gripped his head with both hands.“Why?Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’d gone away, and I didn’t want you to feel obliged to me in any way.”
“Are you”—expletive—“kidding me?”He stabbed a finger in the direction of where Bella had disappeared.“She’s my daughter, and you hid that from me.For ten years.I don’t know what to say.”
Gen’s hair had slipped from its ponytail to hide her face.Her bottom lip quivered.
He steeled his heart against her distress.She was the one who had made the mistake.She was the one who had lied to him.
He dragged his hands down his face, wishing he could rip aside the reality and still exist in last night’s bliss.How could so much have gone wrong in such a short time?
“When did you know?”he asked.
“Two months after graduation.I was getting ready to move for college, and you’d already gone.”
“Don’t you dare make this sound like it’s my fault.If I’d known…” He shook his head.
Her eyes narrowed.“If you’d known—what?What would you have done?Would you have given up your NHL career to get a job so you could care for our baby?”
Well, no.But, “Maybe.”
She snorted.“Get real.We both know you wouldn’t have.”
“But I could’ve sent you money.I could’ve supported you so you don’t need to live in a place like this.”
She stood too.“And what’s wrong with a place like this?We’ve got a roof, we have food, we get by.”
“But… but… No.This isnotokay.It’s not what I ever wanted for you, let alone the daughter I never knew I had.”
“But you don’t have the right to tell me how I should be living.You’ve never had that right.And I know that you always had a problem with where Mom and I used to live in Willow Springs—”
“I didn’t—”
“You did.You made it obvious every time you came around.You thought I lived in a dump.And you know what?Compared to your fancy houses and your amazing apartment, maybe this place is a dump.But it’s my dump.And I like it.”
He scoffed.“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“How dare you?”she snapped.“How dare you sneer at what my mother has worked her butt off to provide?”
Her eyes sparkled with angry tears.
Remorse creased his soul at his careless words.“Look, nobody is denying she’s worked hard—”
“She gave up herlifeso that I could chase my dreams of being a doctor.She’s sacrificed everything to care for Bella and me.Don’t you get it?I owe her everything.”
He got it.Could see how Minnie Rivas had shaped Gen into utter dependence on her.That wasn’t an argument he was gonna win tonight.
He had to change tactic.“What does Bella know about me?”
“Nothing.”
“Apart from the fact that I’m your ex?”
“We only talked about that for the first time this morning.She overheard me and Mom arguing when Mom saw my irritated skin.”
