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“Finn, we should talk about this.” Her eyes are like twin burning coals as she speaks. Responsible is what she’s trying to be.
I shoot a basket instead. Banking my three-pointer as easily as if I was walking. If only I could do the same with free throws—
The music is abruptly cut off and my ears bleed in the deafening silence. Defiance flees, dripping from Hailey’s every curve. She may have forgotten about me, but obviously, my phone’s password was overlooked in her deception.
I spew a handful of well-earned expletives under my breath. In the quiet, I might as well have shouted them.
“Finn, you’re a dad. We are parents,” she begs, enunciating thewein her plea.
“Funny.” I smirk, dead inside. “Were we involved when you had our child? Were we in agreement on where it was to be raised? How?” Spikes of anger knife past my ribs. “Wereweinvolved when it came to you leaving not only me but all of us behind?”
…Most importantly, me.
Her silence is all the answer I need, and for once, the stillness doesn’t bother me.
“Finn—”
“—Save it,” I bark inflexibly.
My tongue is slick with hatred. My blood might as well be cocaine. I’m so amped.
I don’t want her excuses; Hailey knows what she did.
Her chin falls to her chest, but I have zero sympathies left to give when it includes her.
I reach for a lone ball, giving her my back. Further demonstrating how done I am, if it wasn’t already blatantly clear before.
I give back what she gave me when she chose to leave and supply nothing more.
Our conversation has ended.
Over.
Finished.
A few seconds pass, and then, “I thought I was doing the right thing…”
It isn’t the crack in her voice that gets me or the winded exhale I hear push past her nostrils. Not even the fist she somehow still has wrapped around my chest that she’s now squeezing is the cause. No, it’s the raw honesty that nearly knocks me straight off my feet.
So strongly does it impact me that I almost break andthinkabout giving in. I’m within a finger’s pinch of turning back around.
It’s as if then the music gods look out for me because a thunderous melody springs awake. It blares in the speakers with as much passion as the pain she’s burdened me with. My willpower hardens back to stone.
I owe her nothing.
eight
Hailey
“Hasheaskedyet?”
I shake my head on an inhale, setting down coffee on the table between Rory and me. No, Finn hasn’t asked to see our child yet. He hasn’t done anything at all but make it abundantly clear he wants nothing to do with me.
“When do you think he’ll be ready?”
I’m not sure he’ll ever be.
“I don’t know,” I reply instead.
