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“I’m not married,” he said. “I knew better than that.” No, what he’d done was far worse. “I need you to swear that you’ll keep this to yourself. Give me time to figure out what I’m going to do. And then let me tell Dad myself.”
“Are you in jail? Or in danger of going there?”
“No.” Thank God for that.
“Then you have my word. Tell me.”
“I have a kid, Austin.” The words sounded far too raw when he said them aloud. “An absolutely incredible little baby girl. Her name’s Stella.”
“You what?”
Nolan hoped no one else was in his brother’s vicinity as he yelled the words.
“How old is she?”
“Three months.”
“And I’m just now hearing about it? It took you this long to figure out you had to do something about it?” Austin’s tone was still loud enough for Nolan to hear every word with his cell phone held out at arm’s length.
“I didn’t know about her myself until last week,” he said, pulling his arm back in so he could talk into the phone. “And please stop yelling. I’m not a kid anymore and don’t need you ragging on me. Believe me, I’m doing enough of that myself.”
“Jeez, man, a kid?”
“I know. She’s phenomenal, Austin. I never knew it was possible to instantly love something like this, but I have to take care of her.” He wasn’t articulating at all as he’d planned. Just spewing the emotion bottled up inside him.
“Are you sure she’s yours?”
The quiet words stopped him in his tracks. Literally. Standing in the middle of the somewhat-dingy hotel room, he looked in the mirror across from the bed. He saw himself, a successful banker, standing there, and hardly recognized the man.
But he felt like him.
“Positive.”
“You’ve had a paternity test, then, good.”
“No, I haven’t had a paternity test! She’s mine.”
“You don’t know that, bro. Women have been using kids to trap rich men for centuries. Doing the math, I’m guessing you’re wherever you were last Christmas, seeing her again.”
“Lizzie isn’t like that, Austin. I know...you didn’t think Kelly was, either, but I swear to you. What this woman wants most is for me to leave her alone.”
“That’s what she says. And let me guess, you’ve already offered her support.”
“That baby is my responsibility. Of course I’m going to take care of her.”
“She’s playing you, Nolan.”
Austin sounded as s
ure about that as Nolan was sure she wasn’t.
“Remember when I first told the family I was married? No one liked Kelly. But I was absolutely certain you all just had to get to know her. Sure that I knew her. She was my soul mate, Nolan. I was so sure of it I was willing to risk the Fortune name, our money...”
His brother let the words speak for themselves. Nolan knew where the story ended. How it ended.
Only the fact that his wife had been a proven player had saved Austin from losing a whole lot more money than he had.
“You couldn’t possibly feel surer than I did then, Nolan. I’d have died for the woman.”
