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“How do I do this? Do I make him dinner first? Do I do this right away or wait for a better time?”
“You can’t wait any longer. Your best bet is to wait until you are both alone. Maybe tonight when the boys are asleep. He’s going to be pissed and hurt. Be prepared for an epic argument. But eventually, the anger will resend, and then you can both speak calmly. You can’t reach that point though until you actually get through the pissed off part.”
Fuck, this was going to be terrible. I pulled into the parking lot for the beach and parked along the front row. It wasn’t very busy today, at least not in this area, so I had a clear view of where Liam and the boys were. They were all sitting in the sand building sand castles, and it melted my heart and broke it at the same time. He was so good with them. Even though Jeremy wasn’t his, at least that he knew, he never acted or treated him like he was less than Christian. He treated them both equally, and I knew he cared about his welfare. He was a great father, and he would be a great one to Jeremy as well.
“I have to take that jump. I’ll do it tonight after the boys are in bed. Like you said, I just need to get over the furious stage. Then we should be able to talk calmly about it and what we need to do moving forward.”
It was going to be a massive shock either way. At least this way it would finally be out, and we could move forward and plan properly so Adam didn’t end up with Jeremy.
“It’ll be okay. Eventually, it will be okay.”
“I hope you’re right.” It was only a matter of hours now. I might as well enjoy what little time of peace that I have left.
Liam
IsilentlyclosedChristian’sbedroom door. Him and Jeremy were asleep once again in the bed. I still wasn’t too happy about them getting so close, but at this point, it was unavoidable. They still had little squabbles, but every kid did. I wasn’t too worried about it. And it seemed like Jasmine was looking to stay in New Port, so my fear of Christian losing a close friend was no longer an issue.
It was odd to think that a woman I had met at a conference four years ago had grown so close to not only myself, but Christian as well. I certainly never saw this coming, but it didn’t bother me. It felt like they had been in my life this whole time. I couldn’t imagine not having them around me. I had no idea if Jasmine felt the same, but I was hoping she did.
I headed down the stairs, and I easily found her in the kitchen. What I didn’t expect to see was her scrubbing the hell out of the stove. She had been a bit off today. When she arrived at the beach, I could tell that something was bothering her. I assumed it had everything to do with her meeting with Alvin. I knew we wouldn’t be able to talk about it in front of the boys. However, I had been hoping she would ease up a bit as the night went on. Only the opposite seemed to be happening. She had to have gotten bad news with Alvin.
“I thought I was the clean freak,” I joked, hoping to try and get even a small chuckle out of her.
Only she didn’t chuckle. She stopped scrubbing and stood stock still. A bad feeling was starting to build in my stomach, and I had no idea what was going to come of this conversation. Was she running? Did the meeting with Alvin go that badly that she was going to take Jeremy and run?
I crossed the distance between us and took her hand in mine as I spoke softly to her, “Hey, whatever is going on, it’ll be okay. We can handle it.”
I saw the tears building in her eyes, and it broke my heart to see them. I couldn’t help but pull her into my arms. She buried her face in my chest, and I could feel a slight tremble within her. I held her close as she whispered.
“I did a terrible thing.”
Well, that could be anything. It did make my own nerves pick up at what she could have done. I was really hoping she didn’t agree to settle before she even made it in the courtroom. If that was the case though, we could fix that. Alvin would need a couple of days to draw up the paperwork. There was still time to undo it.
“Whatever you did, we can fix it. All you have to do is tell me what happened, and it’ll be okay.”
I knew I couldn’t promise her that, but I highly doubted there was anything she could have done that I couldn’t fix. Almost everything could be fixed with the right amount of money and connections. Something I had both of. She sniffed, and I knew she had lost the battle against her tears. I turned my head slightly so I could press a kiss to the side of her head. She took a shaky breath in before she finally spoke.
“Jeremy is your son.”
Ice flooded my veins. I couldn’t have heard her right. I had to have heard her wrong, because there was no way that she just said that Jeremy was my son. That couldn’t be possible. I mean, yeah I guess it could be possible. We did have sex a lot that night. And it was four years ago. But it couldn’t be possible, because we used a condom every time, and they didn’t break. Not to mention, she would have told me by now. She could have easily found my contact information with one Google search. I never hid what my name was. Even if she couldn’t find me, which was complete bullshit, she would have told me after arriving here. She had plenty of time to drop this bomb on me.
I moved back as I spoke, “What did you just say?”
The pure fear in her eyes told me that I hadn’t heard her wrong. That she had been keeping this massive secret from me for not only four years, but for the past three weeks. The fearfulness in her eyes should have had my anger dimming, but it didn't. My brain couldn’t fully register what she was feeling because it was too busy being flooded with my own pain and emotions.
“I can explain,” she started, but I wasn’t hearing any of it.
“Oh, you can explain,” I began as I took a few steps away from her. “You can explain to me how I have another three-year-old son? You can explain to me how you have not once opened your mouth and told me since you discovered you were pregnant with my child. You couldn’t tell me during the past three fucking weeks you have been living in my home?” I roared.
I was barely able to keep my voice at a decent level. I wanted to scream, to keep screaming until my throat felt like it was on fire. Only there were two little boys trying to sleep upstairs. Two little boys that happened to be my sons. Both of them. I had two three-year-old sons. And now I was in the middle of a custody battle for one and a whole other fucked up custody battle for the other. Because now I had to fight some fucking asshole who couldn’t be bothered to give my son the time of day. Who believes that my son is actually his.
God, this couldn’t get more fucked up.
“Were you ever going to tell me? Or were you going to keep allowing me to pay for your legal bills until you go running off with my son, and I’ll be none the wiser.”
“I never asked you to pay for my legal bills. I never asked you to get involved in any of this. You don’t get to stand there and make it seem like I tried to trap you or something. You weren’t exactly warm and fuzzy when we arrived. I might not have told you right away, but were you ever going to ask? Or do you really expect me to believe that you didn’t do the math and wonder if Jeremy could have been yours? That you don’t look at him and Christian and see the same fucking eyes staring back at you? Some of the same interests. Same mannerisms,” she snapped, and I could see the fire building in her eyes.
“Oh, this is my fault? Because I didn’t assume that a one-night stand with protection produced a child? Lots of children their age look similar. Lots of them hold interests in dinosaurs and the deep ocean. You don’t get to put the blame on me because I didn’t ask a question that I never thought needed to be asked.”
