Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“He can’t make that decision, though, can he? You can’t just sign away your parental rights.”
“No, but he could make my life hell.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me I could either terminate the pregnancy or have it and raise it entirely without him, or he was going to… make up some lies and feed them to my boss.”
“He blackmailed you into letting him walk away from his responsibilities?”
“That’s about right, yeah.”
“But you have just as much dirt on him, don’t you? He overstepped by sleeping with a subordinate.”
“Yeah. But you forget one thing about my work…”
“The boys’ club.”
“Yep. Who are they going to side with if Chase came to them and said I was lying or trying to trap him and take all his money?”
“Wow. That is… something else.”
“Yeah, I really picked a winner there.”
“So you decided to let him go.”
“It wasn’t about my work, not really. I could find another job. Half of my family own their own businesses. But I didn’t want him in my life—or Adelaide’s life—if he didn’t want to be there.”
“I understand that.”
“I could have gone nuclear. Blown up my career, his, and his personal life. Just for him to be forced to claim heredity. But what would that accomplish? He would just be furious with me. Would maybe take it out on the baby. Or try to take her just to punish me.”
“None of your options were ideal,” Owen said.
“Exactly. I chose the one that felt the safest for Adelaide. I didn’t leave it on terrible terms, so if one day she is interested, and he is interested, they can work out a relationship. But until then, I’m fine with keeping my mouth shut and letting him pretend he doesn’t have a kid.”
“It put a lot on you, though.”
“Yeah, but I knew what choice I was making when I decided to have her. I knew that I had my family. A good job with great benefits. I could make it work.”
“You have been. Really well, too.”
“The more I think about it, though, the more I think I need out of that company. I’ve managed to avoid Chase up until now, but I won’t be able to forever. And I really don’t want to keep working at a place where I’m not respected the same as my colleagues.”
“I met your clients at that library event. They love you. You are clearly really good at your job.”
“Thanks. I am.”
“You should have no problem finding something new when the time is right.”
“Yeah, I’m going to finish my maternity leave, dip my toe in remote work just to be able to get my yearly bonus. Then I will start looking.”
“And Chase?”
“I know I probably shouldn’t say this because he is her father, but I kind of hope I don’t have to see him again.”
“And if he changes his mind?”
“I guess I’ll have to figure out how to be okay with him being in her life.”
“He doesn’t deserve her or to be around you, but I get what you’re saying.”
“I think we all deserve to know where we came from, even if it isn’t the ideal situation. But I’d be okay with her not meeting him until she is older and can talk and make her wishes known.”
“Well, it’s been over a year now, hasn’t it, since you’ve heard from him?”
“Yeah. Wow. A year already. Feels like it was just yesterday I was buying my first bottle of prenatal vitamins.”
“Feels like just yesterday I was fixing that leak in your basement,” he agreed, since that was around the same time.
I looked over.
“A lot has changed.”
“In my humble opinion, for the better,” he said, wrapping his free arm around me as Adelaide made a sweet mewling sound.
Yeah, definitely for the better.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Willa
I felt like a thousand-pound weight had lifted from my shoulders after telling Owen everything about Adelaide, her father, and the situation as a whole.
I should have known he would be his usual understanding self. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him get worked up about anything. Or become judgmental about the circumstances someone found themselves in.
It took me a long time not to immediately see myself as at fault for the whole situation. For sleeping with someone at work. For not looking into Chase. For ignoring red flags. For not doubling up on protection methods.
Yes, I could have done many things differently.
But I wasn’t to blame for the fact that he deliberately kept so much from me: a whole wife, kids, life.
Maybe part of it was a form of self-preservation. I knew that as far as we had gotten in society, there were still many people who viewed single mothers through a different lens, who judged them for doing it all. When, in reality, the men in their lives often gave them no choice. So if I prejudged myself for all the things I could have changed, everyone else’s judgment or scorn wouldn’t sting as much.