But no, I shouldn't take their money. That would be fraud, which was what my cousin had done, and I would not stoop to his level.
"Jack is a grown man," I said. "I don't think you should try to manipulate his life like this—"
Slam!
We all jumped as the front door to the house was thrown open and banged against the opposite wall.
"What in the world!" Jack's father exclaimed.
Jack swept in, bringing all the anger of a winter storm with him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he roared. He marched over to me and grabbed me by the arm, yanking me up. I yelped, more from the shock of seeing him than from any pain he caused me.
"You had no right," he snarled at me, "I told you—"
"I'm sorry," I cried. "I didn't mean—"
He dragged me towards the front door.
"What were you even doing here, going behind my back like that?" he growled.
"I wanted to surprise you…" I tried to explain, reaching for the boxes of Christmas decorations.
"You're so emotional, Jack," his mother said, shaking her head as she followed us out of the sitting room. "You should be with Hartleigh. She's level headed. She would be good for you, not this baker. All that sugar is bad for your endocrine system."
Jack's father started picking up the boxes, but Jack grabbed them out of his father's hands.
"Come on, Chloe," Jack ordered. "Don't even engage them. They're just trying to manipulate and control you."
"Honestly, Jack," his mother admonished. "You can't act like this around our future grandkids."
"I don’t know why you care. You'll never see your granddaughter." He had a mean look on his face. I didn't like where he was going with this.
"That girl isn't pregnant, is she?" his mother exclaimed in horror as she followed us out of the house to the car.
"Yes, she is," Jack said, turning towards his parents, his teeth bared.
She is?I looked down. Why did people think I was pregnant? With all the walking I was doing, I thought I was actually losing weight.
"We're having a daughter, and you will never see her," he spat at his parents. He shoved his boxes into the back of the car and snatched the one I was carrying.
"We have grandparents' rights," his mother warned, grabbing my shoulder. Jack slapped her hand away and pulled me to the passenger’s side of the SUV.
"You ruined my life, and I'm going to make sure you never have what you want!" he roared, slamming the car door and making me flinch. "You can sit here in this cold house and think about all the awful things you did to make your own son not want you to ever meet your grandchild."
The car peeled away.
"I am not pregnant. This"—I gestured to my general oven area—"is a barren wasteland."
Jack's hands were tightly gripped to the wheel. "You're worse than Hartleigh," he said in a low voice. "You just barged into a part of my life that Itoldyouto stay away from."
"I didn't mean—"
"Let me finish!" Jack yelled.
I cringed and started crying.
"Do you know why I told you to stay the hell away from them? I thought I explained this to you, but clearly you weren't listening."
