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Without another word, I retrieve Cassidy. After she gives her hugs and kisses goodbye, I take her hand and we walk down to the parking lot. She helps me buckle her in and happily accepts my phone with Backyardigans cued up. I shut the car door, and when I turn around, Chip is there.
I jump back, hand over my heart. “Good gracious. You scared me.”
He steps forward, into my space, until the toes of his expensive loafers are nearly flush against the tips of my ballet flats. “You have a nice little set-up being friends with Charlie and Nick. How’d trash like you get hooked up with a quality pair like those two?”
I’m so grateful for the night that disguises the heat on my cheeks. “Go to hell, Jonathan.”
His face grows angrier at my use of his birth name. He likes being called Chip, although I have no idea why. It’s a snack food, for Christ’s sake.
“You’re nothing but camp pussy—a whore that goes from player to player. Except you have a particular fetish, right? Quarterbacks?”
I glance back at Cassidy, hoping to God she can’t hear him through the glass of the car door. “Seriously, move the hell away from me.”
He doesn’t move. If anything, he leans closer.
“I told you I never wanted to see you again, but you didn’t listen. What do you think your precious Charlie and Nick would think about the fact that you got pregnant during an orgy? That you weren’t even sure who the father of your kid was? Do you think they would want you to hang around? A slut like you?”
My cheeks burn with shame. Charlie doesn’t know the specifics of how I became pregnant, and I would die before Nick ever found out. I try not to let Chip see this though. I try to not give him another weapon over me. “You know this kid is yours. And I would never have been in that situation if it weren’t for you.” I was seventeen and at a party with a bunch of pro players where drugs and liquor were being passed around? What chance did I have?
“But you were. And I’ve got the pictures to prove it. Anytime I want, I can pull those pictures out and smear your name all over this city. By the time I’m done, there wouldn’t be a judge alive who would let you keep your kid.”
I curl my hands into fists and fantasize about pummeling Chip until his jaw is broken and he can’t spew this filth.
“You don’t want a child. You said that. We agreed that you would have nothing to do with Cassidy. That I would never make a claim on you.”
“Because I paid you a hundred grand to leave Dallas,” he spits.
“No. You said that you never wanted to see me again. You came to me, not the other way around. Nothing in our agreement defines who my friends are,” I say, and am surprised at the evenness of my tone, despite the fear and anger raging inside of me.
“Let’s get one thing clear,” he sneers. “Charlie and I are about to become real close. So my suggestion to you is to find a new circle of friends. Or one of these days someone might see that picture of yours.”
“I was seventeen, and you drugged me,” I hiss.
He rocks back on his heels, still smiling his smug-ass grin. “Really? An NFL quarterback with more pussy than I can handle is drugging some teenage cunt? I don’t think anyone is going to believe that. Isn’t that why you didn’t go to the police? Because you knew no one would buy your story?” He leans so close I can smell the onions and beef on his breath. I turn my face to the side. “Rethink your options. You leave or I humiliate you and take away your kid. Leave or your friend Nick is going to have a real tough year. I’m his coach. He’s barely out of his rookie year. The franchise could easily look for a new quarterback if he doesn’t pan out.”
He reaches out, and I flinch. He tweaks me on the nose. “It’s all in your trashy hands, Elaina. What are you going to do?”
He tucks his hands in his pockets and walks off whistling. It takes three tries before I can get my door open, my hands are shaking so bad.
Chapter Fifteen
Lainey
I somehow manage to get home without an accident. Cass senses something went wrong and sits quietly in the back seat which only makes me feel worse. I hurriedly park and lift her into my arms. I hug her to me even though she’s getting too big for me to carry. Chip’s threats were all about me, but the attack felt directed at Cass, as if her very being offends him.
