Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“She told me one day, months later, that she was pregnant. It wasn’t possible. But she didn’t try to convince me it was possible or anything. She had a plan, and that plan didn’t involve my innocence or the facts. Only the things that could be perceived as. She went right to my parents and said I’d taken…taken advantage of her. Then, she demanded they pay to keep her quiet. She’d already told her friends and her family that she was having a baby, and I was the father, but she said she’d keep quiet about the other stuff if she got a big payout. The thing about old-money families is that they care primarily about their reputation. Even if we were new money, threats of that nature wouldn’t have just ruined my life and tainted my family. It would have destroyed the business.”
Ugh, that sick feeling is growing more and more legit with every passing second. I’m worried I have gas issues now, and I certainly haven’t eaten any cabbage.
“My parents wanted us to get married, but she refused. She rode it out until Reginald was born and then demanded additional payments to keep her quiet. If I lawyered up to try and fight her, she’d make sure I never saw him again.”
“Oh my god!” I yelp like I just set my palm on a hot burner.
“You believe me?” he asks. His whole body is on lockdown, so tense and stiff that it’s like he’s been cryogenically frozen and would shatter with a single touch. I can tell how much that question costs him. It flays me wide open, seeing the painful vulnerability on his face.
“Why would I not believe you?”
He shrugs like it is nothing. “My own parents didn’t.”
That injustice tears my chest in half. I can’t even imagine something like that happening to me, not just that kind of accusation but any accusation, and having my family not be there for me. There’s nothing they haven’t stood behind me on, including, most recently, almost becoming fish food.
What Warrick is truly saying slowly trickles past my immediate anger and astonishment.
“You’re not Reg’s dad,” I whisper-yell.
He shakes his head. “I’m not. But Candice refused to let anyone know who the father truly was, including the man himself. I’m the only father Reginald is ever going to have. The saddest part is that I always wanted to be a good dad, but she kept me from seeing him.”
“But…but why would she do that?”
I have to stop and remember this is the same woman who repeatedly placed plastic surgery pamphlet suggestions in my bag. A woman who is so superficial that it’s glaringly obvious from the first second of meeting her just how little care and regard she has for anyone else. I thought Reginald was the exception to that, and for his sake, I tolerated her, but now I’m hearing she created an entire world for herself based solely on using and hurting others.
“She saw Reginald as hers. I was just the means to an end. She never wanted to share. I guess in that way, she did have some motherly instincts.”
“She does love Reg to a fault.” I’ll cede to that. But I’m realizing just how unhealthy that is. “I didn’t for a second think Reg and I would ever get married. I think I always knew we were a bad match, but even if we were a great one, I don’t think I could have handled having her as a mother-in-law.”
“She did relent as far as to give me two calls with Reginald a year.”
Two? This man’s own mother and father didn’t believe him. He’s lived his life with this horrible black cloud hanging over his head. He was hurt and used. Even after all of that, he was willing to claim and raise a child that wasn’t his, and then Candice had the lady stones to keep him from seeing Reg? I have no real way to even comprehend something like that.
“As far as anyone knew, Reginald was mine, and I think her family finally got through to her. A boy needs his dad. But she did say if I ever poisoned him against her, I could kiss my comfortable life as I knew it goodbye.”
“That’s horrible. It makes me...oh my god.” I bow my head, drawing in long gulps of air. “I think I’m the one who needs an antacid.” But not really. Nothing is going to touch the nasty sensation burning up my throat.
“I wasn’t afraid for my reputation. My parents were, though. I bowed to their wishes and let them dictate how things went until I had a degree and my own money. By then, I’d settled for two phone calls a year and a few updates and photos from Candice. Reginald appeared to be doing well. He was a happy, healthy child. I didn’t want to fuck up his life, and by then, I don’t know… maybe that’s all I would have done.”