Page 58 of A Bossy Surprise

He leans forward, puts his elbows on the table, and intertwines his fingers in front of his face. “I’m curious as to why I had to learn about this from your mother as opposed to from you. I understand you’ve known about the existence of this child for over a month?”

“I didn’t tell you about him because I’m still figuring things out where he is concerned. I wanted to wait until I had answers to all the questions I’m sure you’re going to ask.”

“But you told your mother?”

It’s laughable that he would liken my relationship with him to the one I have with Mom.

“Seeing as she wasn’t able to keep her mouth shut, perhaps I shouldn’t have even told her.”

“You weren’t wrong to tell her. You were wrong, however, to not tell me.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I told you the reason I kept Brady’s existence from you.”

He huffs. “To be honest, I’m less upset about the fact that you didn’t tell me about your son and more upset that you have a son and didn’t know about him for years. I’ve always known you to be responsible, but this is the height of it. How do you father a child and not know about it?”

Here we go.

“It’s not as if I chose to not be made aware of my son’s existence. His mother made that decision on her own.”

“Still, I don’t understand how a person has a child walking around out there in the world and doesn’t know about it.”

“From the stories I’ve heard about you and Mom’s marriage and your multiple mistresses, I wouldn’t be surprised if you also had a few extra kids roaming the Earth.”

He sits back in his chair and stares at me in silence for a long while. I’ve caught him off guard. That’s never happened before.

He breathes heavily. “So what are you going to do about all of this?” he finally asks.

“What do you mean?”

“How are you going to move forward with your son?”

“Like I said, most of the details are still up in the air. For now, Kayla and I are co-parenting. My lawyer and hers are going to sit down and hammer out a custody agreement. That’s as far as we’ve gone.

“Shared custody? That’s what you want?” I nod and he continues, “Don’t you think you should be going for full custody?”

I laugh. “Why would I do that? Why would I want to take Brady away from his mother? She is the only parent he’s ever known. Also, no sane court would take a child from his stable mother.”

“How stable is she, really?”

“What kind of a question is that?”

“It’s just that for a woman to keep a child from his father for six years, she can’t be all that sane. I think you should go for full custody.”

“No.”

“If you’re worried about not winning, you shouldn’t be.” He picks up the file he was reading when I walked into the office and tosses it at me. “My private investigator has been able to dig up some dirt on her already, and that’s within only a few hours. Imagine what he can come up with when given the time. It would be a piece of cake for our lawyers to make her look like an unfit mother.”

“Woah!” I shoot to my feet and rip the file in half before getting a chance to peek at its contents. I throw the pieces in the general direction of the trashcan. “I don’t want to know what you and your PI have managed to dig up on Kayla. I said I don’t want full custody, and I don’t want to drag my son’s mother through the mud. So stop.”

Dad gives a slight shrug. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is what I want.”

We stare at each other, both of us breathing heavily. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to Cleveland. This little impromptu trip has set me back at work.”

I start to walk out of the room, but before I leave, I turn around. “Dad, I’m serious. Leave Kayla alone.”

He almost sneers as he nods.