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Resolve sets her chin. “That this baby isn’t Jacob’s.”
It’s a good thing I’m already seated. Jacob, however, makes it all the way to his feet this time. “It is too my baby!”
“Jacob…”
He shakes his head. “No…”
She reaches for his hand. “I’m sorry, Jacob. It’s just…” Tears fill her eyes. “Remember I told you about that guy I went out with a few times? How awful he was?”
Jacob freezes. Personally, I ball my fist to keep from slapping her hand away from.My.Son.
“You slept with him?” Jacob recoils.
“I didn’t mean to. I…he…”
Reagan glances—at me—her beautiful features sculpted by all-too-familiar pain. My heart goes from my throat to the pit of my stomach.I know you’ve been where I am. I press my fingers to my chest and focus on a deep breath. I thought she only meant…
Reagan swallows hard and continues. “I had no idea I was pregnant when you asked me out. Jacob, you’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met in my entire life, so when I found out, I thought, maybe…” The smile she tries for falls flat. “You gave me hope.”
He edges back just enough to be perceptible. “That’s why you were so…” his gaze flits to mine, “pushy…from the start, isn’t it?”
Staring down, Reagan nods once.
“You planned it. You were going to pass off that creep’s baby as mine.”
Lip caught between her teeth, she concedes with a nod.
Jacob is my child, but suddenly I feel like another in a roomful of gawkers invading a very private exchange.
“I knew it was wrong. And I finally decided I couldn’t go through with it. But I couldn’t lose you, either. That’s why I asked Alex to loan me money for an abortion.”
I gasp.
“I didn’t want that, but I knew what I was planning wasn’t fair to you. And then you were arrested, and I was sick, and you were so sweet. I knew you’d be there for me and the baby, and I knew we could be happy together.”
Jacob stares, zombielike. This moment is costing him, and he’ll feel the damage for years to come.
His features solidify. He yanks free of Reagan’s hand. “Yeah, you’d have been happy, but I’d have been living a lie.” He gets in her face. “From a jail cell.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“Right.” He bumps into me when he backs up. “That’s why you laid the pressure on last night to keep lying. To keep me taking the fall.”
“I…I figured the truth would come out. I just needed more time…”
Rearing back, Jacob stumbles on the chair legs, barely catching himself before falling. Righting himself, he tears from the room.
Neither I nor the detective try to stop him.
Chapter 32
John
I spread my hands along the top of the nearest chair and exhale.
Wow.
My head falls, face to the floor. Of all the interrogations I’ve taken part in or witnessed, this one takes the cake. Shocking revelations? Check.
