I wanted to shout at her that she was my daughter and I should know every damn thing that happens to her, but that would be pointless. I grumbled under my breath just as my phone rang on the countertop. "I need to get that."
Rosalee didn't respond, just kept her focus on Violet.
"Yeah?" I snapped at the unknown caller and instantly felt bad.
"Mr. Holloway, this is Alison from Dr. Porter's office. Your results are ready."
"Okay," I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "What are they?"
"That's not how it works, Mr. Holloway. I have the username you'll use to access the portal, but you'll have to create an account with a secure password, and then you'll be able to access the results." She walked me through the process, and fiveminutes later, the call was over and I tried in vain to access the portal.
I shoved my feet into my boots, ignoring the snow that continued to fall outside, and settled into one of the chairs overlooking the mountain peaks. It took a few tries before I was able to access the portal, and when I did, I simply stared at a bunch of lines that meant fuck all to me, except the last one. The probability of paternity was well over ninety-nine percent, and I was not excluded as the father, which meant it was true. It was real.
I was Violet's father.
She was my baby girl.
I took a minute for that little detail to sink in, and I sat there, soaking up the thought that I was someone's father. Sure, I'd taken responsibility for Violet, but this was real. It was true. She was mine, and that meant it was up to me to give her the life she deserved from this moment forward. It was a heavy obligation, but I was up to the task.
I had to be.
After I stared at the details of the paternity test for entirely too long, I swiped off the page and pulled up my call log. "Nate, I got the DNA results. Violet is mine. Get the lawyers on this immediately. I want, no Ineed, to make sure everything is in order on the off chance her mother is trying to fuck with me." There was a good chance she would show up a week from now, a month from now, maybe even a year from now when Violet was safe and settled and I was attached, and then she would make her move. "Please."
"Wow." That was all Nate said for a long minute, maybe two. "I guess congratulations are in order. Wait until Mom finds out."
I groaned. "Nate, don't say one fucking word to her about this. I'll tell her when I'm ready." Which would be never.
"Maybe it'll get her off your back?" He snickered because we both knew the truth.
"It would only intensify her efforts to find me some boring socialite to marry. I don't want to deal with that shit right now."
"My lips are sealed," he promised. "But I will be up soon to meet the little angel myself."
"My door is always open, but you'll be sleeping on the couch." I laughed at the thought of my brother in his three-piece suit curled up on my sofa.
"I'll be fine. If push comes to shove, you and I will sleep head to foot like we used to as kids." Laughter roared out of Nate, and I couldn't help but smile.
"That's not happening, but you're welcome anyway."
"Okay. I'll have the lawyers sort it out, and maybe I'll hand-deliver the paperwork."
"Yeah, yeah. I guess I'll be seeing you soon, then." I ended the call and sat there for at least an hour, watching the colors in the sky shift from blue to pink, purple, and orange. Eventually, I made my way back inside and found the kitchen empty, the house quiet, and myself all alone.
Again.
Which was just how I liked it, at least before a certain golden-eyed beauty moved in and turned my life upside down.
Chapter 14
Rosalee
Xavier was being weird. Weird in a way that was completely different from how weird he usually was. He was still grumpy—I was pretty sure that was etched into his DNA—but he was also awkward and distant. All day he'd been withdrawn, spending hours in the backyard staring off into the distance, and I wondered if he was contemplating the best way to fire me.
He will or he won't,I told myself and shook off the anxiety that gripped and tightened my belly. I knew I couldn't change whatever he planned, so I did what I could while I was still here and focused on recognition activities with Violet. She was growing so fast, getting taller with each passing day. She was more mobile these days, and any day now she would utter her first real word. I hoped I would be around to see it.
While I did her exercises, my gaze wandered out to where Xavier was, his ear glued to the phone. He was so serious, so intensely focused on the caller that I assumed it was Serenity on the other end of the line, trying to find a suitable replacement for me. But then I heard a bark of laughter, and that green-eyed devil settled into the pit of my stomach.
Nope. Not my concern,I told myself. Xavier wasn't mine, and he would never be mine. With that depressing thought, which I wasn't sure was depressing at all, I picked up Violet, and we went to her room where she practiced standing and carrying oversized plush bricks to her play mat. "You're doing so good, Vi!" She was starting to show recognition of colors, shapes, and patterns, which was a good sign according to the literature I'd read on kids her age. "Good job, sweet girl."
