AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop it!” Nat cried out. “Stop fighting!”
Aria looked at us and said, “I want to legally change my last name. Mom, I don’t want to take your maiden name, and I don’t want to be a Mitchell, either.”
“Sweetheart.” Natalie frowned. “I know you’re hurt about the paternity results, but I swear I never even considered the possibility that Rob could be your biological father.”
“Stop calling him that! He’s not my real father! I don’t care that we share the same DNA!”
“Robert and I didn’t date until after you were born. He had promised to take care of us.”
“So that’s all I was to you?” Rob said. “A one-night stand?”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way.”
I gloated, watching that asshole realize he was never her epic love.Iwas.
“I was in love with you!” Rob admitted. “I could have dated anybody! Instead, I married you and took care of you… started a family with you. I stepped up to the plate, even though that son of a gun had denied what he believed—what weallbelieved was his own flesh and blood!”
“I was sixteen, Robert!” Nat cried out. “Did you honestly believe I’d fall in love with you overnight? You took advantage of me while I was drunk!”
“I did not! Nobody forced all that booze down your throat! Take accountability for yourself!”
“I was a confused teenager who had broken up with her boyfriend and was trying to get over him!”
“You never called me back until you were about to pop out the kid!Golden boyover there didn’t want you, so you used me!”
“That’s not how it went down, and you know it!” she countered. “Robert, I’ve always been grateful you were there for me when my life was a mess. I never lied to you. I didn’t know that Aria was yours. No one forced you to be with me! Why don’tyouown up to your shitty decisions for once?”
This was turning into a bad episode ofFamily Court.
“I’m so mad, Natalie! I can’t even think!” Rob rubbed his temples, wandering toward the window.
“Why don’t you stop being a selfish asshole for a couple minutes and be happy she’s your biological daughter instead of dwelling on ancient history?”
“Why are you still here?” He erupted in anger. “You’ve said enough! Leave!”
“No!” shouted Aria. “Idecide who stays or goes. I wantyouto leave!” she said to him.
“Robert, let’s just take a time out,” Nat suggested. “We’ll get something to eat and talk this over like civilized adults.”
Finally, she said something sensible.
“Or better yet…” Aria said. “Leave and never come back!”
Nat paused at the door and looked at me. I knew I had to speak to her one on one, eventually. But right now, I just wanted to have a moment alone with angel eyes.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
ARIA
I was in shock, feeling so many things at once, and the whole turn of events was mega strange, as if I had woken up from my coma, only to realize the reality I knew was nothing but a dream. And now I was on a completely different dimension of normal:Twilight Zonenormal… if you could even call it that? I almost expected Morpheus to show up with his long black trench coat and killer shades, holding out his palms with this serious look on his face, saying, “The red pill, or the blue pill?”
Okay… I was obsessed withThe Matrix. I didn’t need to take a red pill to stay in wonderland. I wasn’t Alice, and this wasn’t a sci-fi flick I was sucked into. Regardless, I would have followed Noah through any “rabbit hole,” no matter how deep or scary it was. It could have been a bottomless pit for all I cared. As long as I was falling with him, that’s all that mattered.
“I hope those are happy tears,” Noah said. His voice sounded so warm, contrasting the way he’d sounded earlier.
“They’rewhat-the-fuck-tears.” I laughed uneasily.
“Don’t cry.” He reached for my hand.
