AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I keep my stare fixated on his face. “There was something I had to do.”
“I thought you left for good,” he admits, dropping his gaze to his feet.
Placing my palm on his cheek, I caress it softly. “I promised you I would never leave.”
A sigh of relief escapes him while he places his hand on top of mine. For a brief moment, his eyes close only to spring open a second later. Slowly, he drags my hand away from his face, where his eyes fall upon my empty finger. A slow smile escapes his beautiful lips, the first I have seen since the moment I arrived here yesterday.
“I should never have accepted it.” I lower my voice, choking on my words from the raw emotion. “It’s always been you, Will.”
And just like that, his arms wrap around me as he holds my head against his chest. His heart is beating a beautiful melody, one I know belongs to me. My doubt had permanently shadowed the truth, but there is no denying he feels the exact same way I do.
“You don’t understand how much I needed to hear that,” he tells me while kissing the top of my head. “But if it’s true, if I am his father…”
“We will make it work, Will, together. But right now, there is absolutely nothing you can do until the morning.” I pull away, staring into his eyes. The mesmerizing ocean blue I’ve known my whole life. “Can you forgive me? For saying yes to marrying another man.”
As Will stares at me with his bright eyes, all I see is the man I love. No animosity, no resentment. Just two people fighting for the same thing—each other.
“There’s nothing to forgive, baby,” he murmurs, tracing my lip with the tip of his finger. “We were both hurting. We both made mistakes. What matters is what happens from this moment forward.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The trouble with us is that we could never let go.
And finally, we’re both where we belong.
23
WILL
It is going to be the longest twenty-four hours of my life.
A DNA test to determine the paternity of baby Stone.
There were only two times I envisioned being a father. The first time, I was lying in bed with Amelia not long after New Year’s Eve. She was telling some drawn-out story, and I remember watching her with this big grin on my face wondering if our kids would have her emerald eyes or my blue ones.
The moment caught me by surprise. I was not a family man, nor did I want children of my own. I started to question my sanity; when in reality, I had fallen so hard it began to terrify me. I wanted things I’d never wanted in my entire life. Amelia did all that over a story involving meatloaf from the dining hall at the Yale campus.
And then, there was our moment in the Hamptons when she unveiled the truth about our break-up and the events which led up to it. I never even suspected Amelia had been pregnant, let alone miscarried. We were too caught up in trying to hide our relationship to think about the consequences aside from her parents finding out.
There are so many “what if’s” running through my mind. But what did it matter now? Life took us in different directions. It was never meant to be all those years ago. However, no matter how I play it in my head, the damage is done, and the hurt still lingers. It surely doesn’t erase my regret over how I handled the situation. Maybe if I was more of a man and stood up for what I wanted, things would have been different.
Though never in my wildest thoughts did I ever imagine I would be waiting inside a hospital for a DNA result.
All because of one reckless night.
When Mom and I flew down here upon learning the news, I didn’t even question whether I was the father or not. The fact is, I slept with Ashley. The timing matched, and Gordon Stone knew I was the father since Ashley told him before she died.
Yet Mom admitted she did question the paternity from the beginning. However, given how distraught I was, she wanted to wait for the right time to go through the legalities. When both Mom and Charlie insisted the test be performed, we only made sure we followed protocol to protect everyone involved.
At first, I hesitated, unsure why. There is no reason why Ashley would lie. We spent the night together, and while the details of the night were hazy, it doesn’t negate the fact it happened.
The more I allow myself to dwell on it, the more it dawns on me Ashley was a complete stranger. Sure, I learned some things about her that night but far from knowing who she truly was. Ashley Stone was a woman hurting, just like I was a man going through the same emotion.
And that’s as far as our connection went.
I followed procedure and did what I needed to do, which started with the DNA test. It was painless and straightforward, but the soon-to-be results weighed heavily on my shoulders.
The palms of my hands are increasingly sweaty with a slight tremble that refuses to disappear. An empty feeling forms in the pit of my stomach, to then flutter from nerves. The fluttering then turns into a lead weight—the heavy feeling trumping everything else. I feel sick, unable to think with a clear head.
