I called my brother.
The phone rang once. Before Mason even finished saying “hello,” I would yell that I was pregnant and Garrett was the father. I wanted to sow a little chaos and let Garrett suffer as I had suffered.
The phone rang twice. I hoped Mason would let me join him whenever he beat the shit out of Garrett. I wanted to see it.
The phone rang a third time.
But if I really wanted Garrett to be in this child’s life, if I wanted him to be more than just an answer to a factual question, was this really going to work? Was having Mason beat him a couple punches from a coma really going to encourage Garrett to stay in my life? Or was it just going to drive him off further?
The phone rang a fourth time.
This was a mistake. I needed to—
“Hello?”
Shit.
My breath hitched. I couldn’t…I didn’t know…what the hell should I say?
“Hannah?”
I bit my lip.
“Did you butt-dial me? Hannah?”
“Yeah, no, I’m, no, yes, I’m here.”
Fuck. Painted myself into a corner.
“Are you OK? You sound like something terrible happened.”
“I…I need your help.”
You can’t tell him. Don’t. It’ll ruin more than it’ll make good. Don’t be vengeful. Don’t let this baby have an absent father forever.
“What’s going on? Hannah, talk to me. Are you safe right now?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I’m at my place, it’s just…”
I bit my lip and shook my head. More tears were on the verge of coming down. I was left with making a choice between the lesser of multiple evils. There were no good answers. I just…
“I made some mistakes, Mason.”
“OK, like what kind of mistakes?”
I was stalling, and the longer I did, the more Mason would suspect I’d done something so terrible I couldn’t even tell him. I had to say somethingnow.
“I went out on date with…with a guy that I learned is a Bandit.”
I was making every single bit of this up as I went. I knew what I’d said alone would trigger Mason’s protective instincts, but that would only cover up the truth for so long.
“Guy named Jason. He…it started out nice, but he started being aggressive on the date. Touching me. Said if I didn’t make him happy, he’d make me do it. I just…”
“What does he look like?”
I bit my lip.
“Tall. Man bun, but, uh, darker hair.”
