“I don’t think I could make your life any worse. Or could I?” His snake-like grin returned.
I gritted my teeth. “I’m warning you…”
“Oh no. I’m shaking in my Pradas.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to leave. I should never have entertained him in the first place, knowing he would do the same shit he always did. I should have just walked on past, but he wouldn’t have come here after all this time if he wasn’t up to something. The thought hollowed out my stomach.
“I just want to know…was she worth it?” he called after me.
I stopped in my tracks at the mention of Sadie. He didn’t even have to say her name for his taunting to get to me, trickling into me like poison. I hated that he knew she existed. My heartstopped knowing she could be a pawn in whatever game he was playing.
“She must have some grade-A pussy to risk losing everything for.”
Everything in me wanted to whirl around and deck him in the face. I wanted to kill him. Instead, I turned around and faced him calmly, slowly counting to three. I would not give him the satisfaction of me losing control, no matter how intent he was on seeing me snap. I thought about what Sadie had said in the car earlier.
Let it go.
“Great to see you, Anderson,” I said without an ounce of genuineness.
He looked taken aback for a moment, surprised he couldn’t get to me. I internally thanked Sadie. He knocked back the rest of his drink and stood from his chair.
“Looks likeyoumight be the pussy,” he said as he walked past me, bumping past me with his shoulder.
I held my ground and watched him walk toward the lobby doors. I breathed out a sigh of relief, but it was cut short when I saw who Anderson was walking toward.
Sadie.
Chapter 35
Sadie
After my phone call with Gabrielle, where she practically had to talk me off a ledge, I wandered Central Park for a good hour, lost in my thoughts. The heavy, hardcover book with the glossy cover sat in my purse like a weight. The words written inside making it even heavier as I walked along the lake. I hadn’t opened it up again for fear of what I might read, but also because I knew I had to talk to Jeremiah.
Next to the book lay a small stack of ultrasound pictures. The irony of the contents of my purse was enough to make me laugh or cry. Both of which I had done in the course of today’s events.
Gabrielle had a point when she told me that I deserved to give him a chance to explain. People can write anything these days and get it published, truth or not. In the press or in books. While this man, Anderson, claimed it was a true story, Gabriellepointed out that there were always two sides. If not three. Or more.
I found an empty park bench along the water and took a seat, my feet screaming in the patent white heels that now felt suffocating. The arches of my feet were sore. I would have to invest in a good pair of flats because heels and pregnancy would not pair well for much longer.
I stared out at the water, smooth as it reflected the overhead scattered clouds that were now stained pink and purple with the setting sun. I took a deep breath and tried to push out the words that played over and over again in my brain, telling me that I might not know Jeremiah at all. Just as he had said he might not knowmejust hours earlier.
I heard his words sound through my aching head.
Shit, I hardly know you.
Likewise, I thought.
It was foolish to think I had learned everything there was to know about him in such a short time. Maybe it was because everything had moved a mile a minute with him, from the very first night I met him and slept with him, to our continued affair in the office, to being pregnant with his baby. Everything had been a whirlwind that I had been trying to keep up with. We both had. In the craziness of it all, we’d been able to find those moments where we really saw each other. But I clearly hadn’t seeneverything.
I watched as a mother duck waddled into the lake, the water rippling outward as her baby ducks followed warily behind her. Each one dipped a tiny, orange webbed foot in before swimming out to follow their loved and trusted leader. It would be so cute if I weren’t questioning everything about bringing a baby into the world, especially now that I was learning the true colors of its father.
The sun dipped lower behind the buildings, the glass windows reflecting back to one another as if in a quiet conversation. I knew it was time to head home, if that was what it even was. As settled in as I had grown to be living with Jeremiah in his fancy penthouse that overlooked this very same park, there was something in the back of my mind whispering that it could all be taken away. It could be temporary. Maybe it was fear from my previous relationship, or maybe it was the fear of the unknown with a man I had been falling for in a way that was foreign to me.
I had never been this free. This reckless. This passionate.
But I wasn’t the old Sadie anymore, and I had to face Jeremiah head-on.
I picked up my purse, slinging it over my shoulder, and walked toward the exit of the park. Fifteen minutes later, I stood before the towering glass apartment building. I took a deep breath before heading through the open door. I thanked the doorman as always, but stopped short when I saw Jeremiah by the elevators. He leaned against the wall in the same suit from earlier.
