Her cheeks puff out as she blows out a measured exhale, making a curl on her forehead bounce. “That’s open to interpretation.”
“Why?”
She ignores me as she thinks of a way to put her answer.
“Give it all to me, no fluff. Spit it out,” I insist, biting my lip so I don’t start needling her further or else we’ll be arguing.
I feel like the world stops turning as I wait.
“Hayes is infertile.”
Wow. I did not expect that. I was expecting her to say he was ADV negative.
“ADV negative too, but we all knew that was going to be the case.”
I thought I was surprised coming to Birdie instead of going dress shopping, but clearly I was not. Not compared to how I feel now. “He can’t be infertile,” I stammer, the shock and instant realisation making me feel sick to my stomach.
“Sadly, he can. And he is. The most recent modification to our testing kits provides results on fertility. There’s no link to ADV being a genetic disorder but no matter how much marketing we do, people refuse to believe us. And because it was cheaper than trying to keep educating the stubborn fools, we’ve met the market and added it to our tests. The new test’s results show if you’re positive or negative but it also provides a definitive result on the person being tested having DNA clear of the disease. In Hayes’s case he is not, nor has he ever been afflicted with ADV, but he is also sterile.”
Heidi gives me a moment, which goes against Scorned rules, but this revelation is pretty fucking huge. She waits patiently while my thoughts race as I sort through the implications and the consequences before my emotions catch up. Hayes never had ADV; I bloody knew it! But Hayes being infertile clearly means the kid is not his too. What the fuck did the Anders family do to him, and why? They drugged and supposedly filmed him, blackmailed him for years, why?
But in a way none of that matters, that’s easy stuff to fix. Hayes is such a deep well of goodness, finding out a child he has poured love and support into is not his, makes my heart split for him.
I rub my chest. It actually does ache. “He’s going to be devastated.”
“Or he’s going to be released from shackles that were not his own.”
I shake my head, disagreeing. Sure, the shackles might go, but in their place are going to be scars until the day he dies. A simple test and everything changes. It’s like a pebble rolling down a snow-covered mountain, getting bigger and bigger the further it rolls. And despite a small voice in my head telling me this could have been resolved years ago, I mute it. We all have reasons for making decisions, and I’m a firm believer of doing what you need to do, to survive.
“I need to see him,” I say, jumping up from my seat.
“What about packing?” Heidi asks, nodding her head like she’s agreeing to what I just said.
“I’m adding him to my pack now.”
“You weren’t sure before!”
“I was being honourable and breaking my goddamn heart at the same time. That stops now!” I answer, raising my chin and stomping my good leg down for extra emphasis.
Heidi stands there, her mouth open, her hands slapped on her cheeks. She doesn’t need to say a word, I can scent her stirring disbelief from here.
“What?”
“You can see why I’m shocked, right? It’s not the time to be honourable!”
And then it’s my turn to open my mouth, stunned at her not getting it. “It was so. The man was responsible for a tiny human.”
“Raney, this is perfect actually, it clears things up. Not the baby part because that is some serious malicious, evil shit, but Hayes and Talon… you’ve got your dream pack happening!” She stalks closer to me with each word she takes, looking a lot like a sleek jaguar coming in for the pounce, and I ready myself. She launches at me, her arms holding me so tight. And in them, I feel and scent the depth of her pure happiness and excitement that matches my own.
“I know, right? And then we go clean up the mess before we go home.” I stop my rant mid word again.
“Don’t you even consider for a second they won’t pack up and move across the country to be with you,” Tris says softly, her sugary cotton candy scent bringing a sweeter smile to my face.
“It’s not that, actually.” I shake my head and laugh. “I don’t even have an address to send everything we’ve ordered today.”
Tris lays her head on my shoulder. “I don’t know… I can’t imagine Koz not having all that sorted out. You guys didn’t talk about it?”
I shrug, not at all bothered that I never did sort this out with Koz, because where we live is almost an afterthought. “All I wanted was to pack with him. That’s all I was coming home to do.”
