“I’ll tell you what’s wrong, Yvonne,” I huff as I stop just a few feet away, clenching my jaw just as my hands curl into fists at my sides. “Who is Gio’s father?”
Yvonne startles with a gasp, her brows furrowing. “Dawson, where is this coming from?”
“Don’t give me that, Yvonne,” I say sternly, my voice low enough to cut through her as she gulps. “Just tell me who his father is, and I can be on my way.”
“It’s none of your bu—”
“It’s none of my business?!” I roar with a chuckle. “Oh, I think it is very much my business.” I narrow my eyes, glaring at her now. “Is it just a coincidence that you conceived Gio during a dance? Or that his father enjoys reading the same books you do?”
Yvonne’s eyes fly wide, her jaw dropping. “He told you that?”
“Answermyquestion first, Yvonne!” I demand, noticing Yvonne taking a step back.
“Dawson, it’s not…” she gulps again, still being evasive.
“Just tell me the truth, Yvonne,” I grind out through gritted teeth, taking another step closer.
“I—I can’t,” she murmurs, her eyes becoming glossed over with tears as she snaps her head to either side as if she’s searching for an escape. She seems to find it, or thinks she does, when she makes to dart away.
But as soon as she takes one step, I grab her wrist to prevent her from leaving, and my vision is suddenly snatched.
Where my fingers are wrapped around her wrist, an electric current surges up my arm, keeping me bound in place until my vision becomes blurred. I look down at my hands and notice they’re not my own—they’re dainty and thin, pale as I turn them over before lifting one hand to my face.
I remove whatever is blurring my vision and place it down on the bed, recognizing the eyeglasses Yvonne used to wear. My lungs feel scorched, and I lug in a deep breath, realizing thatit’s panic I’m feeling. Then I place a hand on my belly, and hear Yvonne’s voice saying, “He’ll never accept you, baby—he rejected me … Dawson will never accept a child from me….”
I gasp when I’m sprung out of the vision, realizing that I’d been seeing through Yvonne’s eyes, five years ago, when she discovered she was pregnant.
Five years ago, when she disappeared.
She left while she was pregnant with my child.
Chapter 15 - Yvonne
Dawson glowers at me now, his eyes returning to their dark blue shade after I’d just witnessed them turn as silver as mine.
He just saw what I saw—a vision of me back when I’d had my first psychic premonition that told me I was pregnant with Gio.
It was in that moment that I decided to leave Girdwood. The memory is etched into my mind because it was life-altering, and because of my psychic vision, I didn’t need my spectacles anymore.
I didn’t need anything or anyone for that matter, and that’s why I ran. I ran as far away from Girdwood as I could, and as far away from rejection.
Dawson snatches his right hand away, his left hand circling his wrist as if he’d been burned, as he glares at me accusingly. There’s no getting out of this one.
He saw into a memory buried deep in my mind.
“I want the truth, Yvonne.Now,”he bellows, his voice echoing around the room to spread his rage.
Taking a deep, miserable breath, I hang my head in shame as my shoulders slouch, too. I don’t know what I was thinking, lying to him all this time. It would have caught up with me eventually, as it just did now.
“I ran away from Girdwood”—I pause with a gulp, keeping my eyes cemented on the floor—“when I discovered I was pregnant.” A shiver of fear passes through me as I wait for Dawson’s next round of anger.
“Who is Gio’s father, Yvonne?” his voice is measured as he asks the dreaded question.
“Y—you.”
Dawson leans in, cocking his head to one side. “I didn’t get that.”
“You! You are Gio’s father!” I yell out, lifting my head at the exact moment when Dawson gets his answer, and the anger sends him into a furious rage. He turns around and, with a tightly coiled fist, slams a punch into the side table next to the couch. The crack of wood startles me, and I gasp, lifting a hand to my throat just as the tears pooling in my eyes spill out.
