“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t even think of that.”
Todd sighed dramatically. “Of course. You’re a creative type like me. We don’t do science. Only crystals, incense, and tarot cards.”
“Oh, gosh,” I said, wiping my eyes and taking a fortifying sip of my hot chocolate. “I need to tell Mark. He was so freaked out.”
Beau laughed. “I bet!”
“My reputation is still ruined though,” I warned them. “I may have to move.”
“We’ll move together then,” Todd assured me.
Beau nodded in agreement. “We’ve been thinking about buying a barn and renovating it. You could live in the hayloft!”
* * *
I madea copy of the paternity test on my all-in-one scanner then put on my jacket to go find Mark. I knew where he would be. He would be doing what I would be doing in his situation—working to distract himself from what had happened.
The lights in his office were on when the Uber dropped me off. I bribed the security guard with a chocolate chip cookie, and he buzzed me in the elevator up to Mark’s office. Mark was visible through the glass partition.
“Mark. Mark!” I yelled, trotting down the row of empty desks toward him.
His nostrils flared when he saw me. His face was dark, his eyes a brewing storm.
I stopped a couple paces outside his door. Beowulf went crazy when he saw me.
But Mark did not share the puppy’s enthusiasm. “Get out,” Mark said in a monotone.
“But we’re not related,” I said. “My dads did a paternity test. My dad is my dad. So Memphis Eve was lying.” I shoved the papers at him.
Mark took them, scanned them, then said, “I don’t believe you.”
“How can you not?”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Brea?” he growled, taking a step toward me. “You humiliated me, you lied to me, and then you showed up to threaten me at Wes’s reception dinner. You and Memphis Eve were clearly in cahoots.”
“I tried to stop it,” I said, wiping at my nose. I always wanted to be the pretty Scarlett O’Hara crier, but I was an ugly crier, and snot leaked down my face. “I did this because I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t lie to people and then tell them you’re just doing it to help them,” Mark said flatly. “That’s gaslighting.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I said, trying to dig in my purse for a tissue.
“You didn’t even try. You knew something was going on. Yet you hid everything from me until it blew up.”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” I pleaded.
“It’s not good enough,” Mark said decisively. He looked away, turning his body away from me. “I know you’re in the wedding because of Liz, but after that, I better not see or hear anything from you,” he said. “You’re dead to me.”
I sobbed quietly in front of him.
“Get out of my office.”
51
Mark
Ididn’t know how I was going to survive the wedding the next afternoon. I felt terrible that Brea had been upset. But what could I do? I looked at the copy of the paternity test. I didn’t know what to believe.
“Mark!” my father called from across the office.
