Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
“Absolutely not,” Rachael says as the reality of all of this begins to sink in. Could she be telling the truth? Could her child really be mine? Is my life about to change in the biggest way, and fuck, if it is, have I really missed the first year of my son’s life? Fuck. “Tanner is a murderer. He’ll never get custody of our child.”
“Well, fortunately for us, that decision is not yours to make. It will be decided upon by a judge, and taking into acount your hostile home environment, and the fact that your brother will be charged with three counts of attempted murder, it doesn’t look good for you.” Mom walks to the door, grabs the handle, and yanks it open, her intentions crystal clear. “Now, you have disturbed my night quite enough. See yourself out of my home and expect to hear from our lawyers.”
Rachael fixes me with one last look as my head begins to spin, panic tearing through my chest at the minuscule possibility that she’s telling the truth. Looking back at my mother, Rachael strides out of the house, and the second she can, Mom slams the door behind her before turning her ferocious stare on me.
“Wow, Mom. Manipulative hoe-bag ass. Who knew you had it in ya?”
She storms toward me, her finger poking hard into my chest. “Is it true?” she demands. “Is there any small possibility that the words from that girl’s mouth were truthful? And I swear to God, Tanner Morgan, if you even think about lying to me right now—”
“I don’t know,” I tell her, cutting her off before whatever ridiculous threat she’s cooked up can spew out of her mouth. “I mean, yeah, I slept with her two years ago, but I was safe. I swear, I used a condom.”
“Oh, Tanner,” she groans, putting her fingers to her temples and rubbing. “When was he born?”
I shake my head and shrug. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she demands, her face turning red. “You didn’t think to ask?”
“Excuse me for being too freaked out to think straight.”
Mom lets out a heavy breath, trying to calm herself. “Okay, okay. It’s fine,” she says, her tone getting higher and becoming desperate. “We can back-date it. It’s nothing a little math can’t handle. When did you sleep with her? Was it only once?”
“I don’t know, Mom. It was two years ago, maybe a little less,” I tell her, matching her level of wild panic and desperation. “It was a party and I was drunk. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Think Tanner. When was the party? Surely you have to remember something. I can’t tell if this is all fabricated until I can confirm the dates don’t line up. Do you know anybody who knows her or could tell us when he was born? Brielle is from Hope Falls, maybe she knows someone.”
“Mom,” I say, stepping into her and taking her shoulders. “I’m not about to go and wake Bri over this. There’s nothing we can do about it tonight. We’re not going to get any answers unless you’d like to go back out there and interrogate Rachael. I’ll hold her down while you beat it out of her.”
“Oh, stop,” Mom says, shoving me away, trying not to grin. “That’s not a very good joke.”
“You’re right,” I say, trying to take my own advice and calm down. “It wasn’t, but you needed it.”
Mom lets out a heavy breath, trying to find peace. She’s usually so good at control. Although, at least I know where I get my ability to fly off the rails from now. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen,” she finally says. “Sleep on it tonight, and in the morning I’ll make an appointment for us to go and speak with our lawyer and find out everything we need to know to get this paternity test done. Until then, keep your mouth shut about it. The last thing we need to deal with are misinformed rumors. Can you imagine what those hoity-toity women at the club would say?”
“Just ten minutes ago you were boasting about how cool you were to have a social life with those same hoity-toity bitches.”
Mom rolls her eyes and starts to walk to the stairs before stopping and turning back, fixing me with a hard stare. “I am more than aware of the manwhore you’ve been over the last few years, which is why I’m so thrilled to see you settling down with Brielle. But I swear to you, that better be the only random woman I find on my front doorstep insisting you’re the father of her child.”
“Promise,” I tell her. “I’ll make the others use the back door.”
The glare I get from her is like none other I’ve ever received, and damn, this woman is not happy, but she can’t help but love me anyway. She turns without another word, her glare enough to silence my bullshit.