He saw us.
“So…” Reese exhales deeply. “In a desperate attempt to save my reputation and kill any type of proof he has against me that I’m a terrible mother who leaves her kid at home to sleep around…I…sort of…” her sentence trails.
“Sort of what?” Zoe is impatient. “Spit it out!”
I finish the sentence for her. “She told him that I was her fiancé.”
Silence settles in the apartment. Nothing but the annoying buzzing of her fridge cuts through the quiet.
Zoe stares at me with an open mouth before she erupts into belly-clutching laughter again. Her laugh fills the apartment, and as serious as this is, I can’t help but laugh alongside her.
Reese glares at us from the kitchen with a reddening face and furrowed brows. “Stop it!” she stresses. “This is serious!”
“Benedict…” Zoe tries to hide her amusement. “Benedict believed you?! That you two are engaged?”
Reese throws her hands out. “I don’t know! It’s not the first time I’ve used the excuse that I have a boyfriend! He just doesn’t care, so he keeps coming back to torment me.”
“Okay, hold up.” I place my palms face down on the island like Reese, careful to avoid the chipping edge. “Why is he threatening to take you to court?”
Reese moves her attention to the bedroom door. Her lips tug into a frown. “He’s threatening to take Charleigh from me. He wants full custody.”
Oh.
“He doesn’twantfull custody,” Zoe argues. “He’s just a fucking asshole who can’t stand that Reese doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him, so he’s using Charleigh as leverage.”
Reese growls. “Zoe! Again with the language.”
I shake my head. “Let me guess…he’s given you an ultimatum?”
He isn’t getting his way, so of course she can’t get hers.
Reese pauses before eventually nodding.
“Ah,” I hum under my breath. “So if he doesn’t win, neither can you. Is that the game he’s playing?”
She exhales. “Yeah, I guess so. He didn’t want her to begin with. He wanted me to terminate the pregnancy, and I refused. I was fine with doing this on my own. But once I had Charleigh, he popped back up, and…” The words fade, and she drags her gaze elsewhere.
She does that a lot.
Shies away from me when things get real.
“And he wanted you back?” I finish for her.
Zoe snorts. “You could say that.”
I stay locked on Reese. Her eyes widen in her sister’s direction, and she gives a little shake of her head.
Now,that’sintriguing. Another secret? What else doesn’t Reese want me to know?
I mean, I am her fiancé after all. Doesn’t she know that her secrets are safe with me?
To take the pressure off Reese, I break the silence. “Alright, so he knocked you up, wanted nothing to do with you, and then he waited until you had the baby to come back and…what? He wants to be a family now, and you don’t? So he’s trying to threaten you into a relationship with him?”
Reese shrugs. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
I reach across the counter and steal thenot-vodkafrom Reese. I unscrew the top and place my mouth right where hers was moments ago and chug.
Her lips curve at the sides a little when I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
