Chapter 45
Shit about to hit the fans.
“What the fuck do you mean she’s mine?” Grey whispered. His expressive eyes glowed amber in the orangish sky. “I thought you had twins.”
We faced each other, sitting on his patio floor silently, while the darkening of the evening slowly drifted over us.
“Apparently, I got pregnant on my 21st birthday. I thought the baby was Carter’s.” My quiet voice battled with the sounds of the beach.
He corrected me tersely, “No, you wanted the baby to be Carter’s.”
I sighed, “I did because he was ready to step up, and you didn’t want children back then, remember?”
“So, the fuck what?” Grey smacked the back of his hand with his palm. “What twenty-one-year-old man wants a baby? You don’t think I would’ve stepped up and taken care of you and my baby when I’ve always been there for you?”
“I know you would’ve. You would’ve given up your dream to be there for me.” I pressed my hand against my heart. “I couldn’t and didn’t want to get in the way of you going to the Olympics.”
“And the only solution is to pass my baby off as St. Patrick’s?” He started rocking. “I have a daughter who doesn’t know me, by a woman who supposedly loved me and would never ever lie to me. So, you didn’t have twins?”
“They are twins. It’s very rare, but two sperm can fertilize two different eggs simultaneously. You were already gone whenI realized I was having twins. Carter still wanted to be with me, even if the babies were yours. We had Ethyn first, who looked just like Carter, so we assumed the twins were his. When Elle came with your eyes five minutes later, we knew she was yours. I wanted to tell you, even planned to once you’d finished the first Olympics. Carter bonded and loved Elle from birth, and he asked me to let him be the father, and we decided that we could keep the secret.”
His brows dipped fiercely. “How could you do that to me? To me? Where’s your fucking loyalty to me? You threw Chelsea out of your life because of Carter, and you did the same to me because of a man who ain’t fucking worth it.” He suddenly stood up and put on his shirt. “Let’s go.”
I scrambled to my feet. “Wait, Grey, what do you mean?”
He yelled, “I want to see my daughter.”
Timidly, I stepped closer to him. “All she knows is Carter. We need to be careful -”
Grey’s eyes blazed, and he pushed past me. “I want to see her. Now.” He stormed into the house, and I rushed after him.
I tried to jump in front of him again. “I can’t let you do that to Elle.”
Grey moved around me and grabbed his keys off the table on his way out the door. “I’m not fucking around with you. Take me to see my daughter, or I swear the whole fucking world will know you kept my baby from me.” He pulled out his cell from his back pocket. “All I have to do is hit this button, and I’m speaking to my IG with over five million followers that Carter St. Patrick of the Los Angeles Rams stole my baby.”
“Grey, we didn’t steal your baby. Listen, I’d already planned to tell you on Tuesday after I spoke with Carter to let him know that it was time for you to know the truth.”
“Bullshit, or even if that was your plan, the minute he said ‘no,’ your weak ass would have obeyed.” He bit out as he stalked through the door. “Get in the car, now.”
Wringing my hands with worry, I followed behind him and eased into the jeep as he jumped into the other side.
“Can you at least bring me to my car first?” I needed to stall him and get him to change his mind about going to my house and blowing it up.
“Get Carter to take you.” He snarled before he punched the steering wheel. “She’s a little girl. I missed everything. Her birth, her taking her first step. The first day of school. And she thinks St. Patrick is her damn father.” Grey started the car and peeled off so fast I had to grab the seatbelt. “I’m so fucking pissed, I can’t think straight.”
“Please...it’s going to be okay, like you told me about Carter. I want her to know you.” I soothed him, though he didn’t seem to respond to my words.
Grey uttered, “Danielle knew you were pregnant, and she stopped me from seeing you. I wanted to marry you and would’ve been happy to know you were having my baby.” He slanted a glare at me. “I’ve known you for years, and my fucking feelings didn’t matter. I didn’t matter.” Angry tears graced his cheeks. “Did I fucking matter to anyone?”
Hearing him say that wounded my soul. When we were teens, he’d once told me that he didn’t matter to his family. That he was unwanted and was only an obligation because he was never entirely accepted on either side of his family. My secret took away his sun and brought back his cloud. Nothing I would say about why we kept Elle from him would be received, so I hugged the door, stared out the window, and gave him my address. I had forty minutes to make him understand that telling Elle what he seemed intent on doing could permanently damage any chance of a relationship between them.
“I never thought leaving you would make you think of me so horribly.” He entered the highway, speeding. “You really believed you would never see me again. Wow.”
“Grey...please. Slow down.” How could he possibly understand that he would always be my weakness, and I stayed away for my own sanity and the sake of my marriage?
He scoffed and accelerated. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
I silently prayed that we would survive the drive or not be pulled over by the police. “You have to believe that secret stained me and our marriage. I’ve never been truly happy because you didn’t know. I was young and trying to hold on to the man there with me, who promised not to leave me. I didn’t know where your head would be.”
