Chapter 15 #2
He was dressed in a way Fallon supposed most lawyers dressed—a white button-up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and black slacks. When he stood, he walked slowly and carefully, stretching his arms for Gage, who leaned into a hug.
“And this must be Fallon?” That was when Fallon noticed the accent. It was slight, but there. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“I don’t even want to imagine what weekly drinkies are like right now,” Gage said, smiling faintly.
Fallon appreciated that Monty didn’t try to hug him or shake his hand. He just gave him a quick up-and-down look before gesturing to his office chairs.
“Sit. Let me see the order.”
Gage handed it over before pulling one chair back for Fallon, then taking the other for himself. The room fell into another disconcerting quiet before Monty set the papers down and looked at Fallon for a long, tense beat.
“Is it true?”
Fallon blinked at him.
“Is he the other father?”
Fallon licked his lips, then shrugged. “I was with two people in the same night, but I didn’t use protection with Charlie.”
Monty hummed, rubbing his chin. “And the other person—”
“We didn’t…” Gage started, then flushed.
Monty’s gaze snapped to him.
“It wasn’t, ah…God, this is so weird saying this to you.” Gage ran a hand down his face and turned to Fallon. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
Fallon’s brows furrowed. He didn’t understand why Gage was bothered. This was all just facts and science. “Gage didn’t ejaculate inside me. Charlie did.”
Gage looked like he wanted to crawl under the floorboards, and in any other circumstances, Fallon might have understood why, but his brain was too full to worry about social situations like that.
Gage cleared his throat. “Uh. What he said.”
Monty hummed and looked back down at the paper. “Considering you two had penetrative intercourse, that might be cause to delay the paternity test until the birth of the child, but considering there was sexual contact between you and Mr. Scott, he has the right to know if the child is his.”
“Even after everything he did?” Gage demanded. He sounded angry now. “After he hurt Lucas?”
Monty sucked in a breath and stiffened. His voice came out a low growl. “This is the one who punched my son?”
Fallon blinked. “Your son? Lucas? Are you the shitty dad who left him?”
Monty coughed. “Ah, no. No, I’m married to his father, so he is my son.
And I didn’t realize…” He trailed off, and his face settled into something more neutral.
Resting his folded hands on the desk, he met Fallon’s gaze.
“As much as I would love to tell you that the crimes he committed make him automatically unfit to be a parent, that’s not how the courts work.
You’ll have a very good case for stuff like supervised visitation, and you can most definitely get a child support case on him… ”
“No, I…I don’t want anything,” Fallon said. His voice was tight and raspy. Pressing a hand to his stomach, he felt Mango squirming. “Not from him.”
“What can we do?” Gage asked.
Monty looked down at the paper again and then back up, gaze darting between both Fallon and Gage. “There are options, but I’m not sure any of them are the solution you’re looking for.”
Gage snorted. “Like what? Getting married?”
The look on Monty’s face said everything.
Fallon laughed before he could stop himself. “I’m not going to marry Gage.” He turned to look at him, feeling a sudden wave of hysteria. “I’m not trapping you in a marriage with me and…and a baby because—”
“Fallon,” Gage said softly.
Shit. He was yelling. His hands started to shake, and he could feel a meltdown coming on. The wall of ice he’d surrounded himself with before coming into the office was cracking. His chin wobbled, and there was a scream stuck in the back of his throat.
Gage looked over at Monty. “Is there a place he and I can go to—”
“Stay here,” Monty said. “I’ll shut the door, okay?”
He was gone before Fallon could muster the words to protest. Fuck, he hated falling apart in public. He hated doing all this in front of strangers. Even if Monty was Lucas’s dad, Fallon didn’t know him. He wasn’t safe. This wasn’t home.
Before he was really aware of it, Gage had him on the floor, pressed in a hug between his legs. Fallon allowed himself to sink into the impossibly tight grip, letting it steal his breath so he no longer wanted to smash his head into the wall until the inside pain was eclipsed by outside pain.
“I can’t,” he gasped after what felt like forever. “I can’t. I can’t…”
“I know.” Gage started rocking from side to side as Fallon shook apart. “I know. This is too fucking much, and you don’t deserve it.”
“I do.”
“Fall—”
“Th-the first thing Frankie ever taught me was…” He gasped for air again, but for now, his meltdown was averted.
It would probably happen later when he felt safe.
When he was home. But he no longer felt like he was going to tear his own skin off.
He took another, deeper breath. “Frankie taught me actions have consequences. For my mom and dad. For him. For Fen. For me. I made a bad decision. I have to own it.”
Gage tilted his head down and buried his nose in Fallon’s hair.
“I understand what you’re saying, but you don’t need to pay some massive cosmic price because some sociopathic asshole knew your vulnerable spots and used them to get you to drop your guard for a night.
He doesn’t want this baby, Fallon. You know he doesn’t. ”
Fallon nodded. Charlie had no interest in children.
“He’s doing this to hurt you. I’m not saying we should get married, but I am saying we don’t just roll over and give Charlie whatever he wants. Let’s talk to Monty about other options, okay?”
Fallon nodded and swiped at his face. There were a few tears, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. His chest ached from holding back his scream, and his stomach was hurting. Mango was doing backflips and shit—shit. Could a meltdown hurt the baby?
“My darling. You’re shaking again,” Gage said.
Fallon shook his head. “Do you think I hurt—”
“No. Mangoes are resilient,” Gage told him.
Fallon almost wanted to laugh. But he also kind of wanted to cry. Pushing up to his hands and knees, he made the slow climb to his feet and straightened his shoulders. “This is always so embarrassing.”
“You’re also in the office of someone with an autistic son who has meltdowns,” Gage reminded him.
Oh. Right. Lucas.
He’d almost forgotten.
That actually did help. Walking back to his chair, he sat down and looked over at his boyfriend. “Can you find him? I want to see what our options are.”
Gage leaned over and kissed Fallon long and slow before pulling back—a slow drag of his hand along Fallon’s jaw. “Don’t move.”
Fallon couldn’t if he wanted to. He was exhausted from head to toe, and he still felt all shaky, but he was also determined. He would not let this happen. He would not let Charlie near his child. He would die first.
He would kill first.
The door opened a few seconds later, and Monty walked in, looking as calm as he did when they first met. He offered Fallon a small smile as he resumed his seat and folded his hands on the desktop.
“Tell me your biggest concerns.”
Fallon liked that. He liked that Monty was going to be straightforward and not try and soothe him with platitudes and bullshit. “I’m trans.”
Monty nodded. “Yes. I was made aware.”
“Will that work against me in custody court? Charlie will absolutely try to use anything against me if he really wants to take it this far.”
Monty’s brow furrowed in thought. “I can think of a couple judges who might have a personal bias, but I don’t think they’re presiding over family court.
There’s nothing illegal about you, Fallon.
You don’t have a record. You have a job and the means to provide for a baby.
There’s no legal reason to interfere with that.
And Charlie’s criminal record will work against him in family court. ”
“But?” Fallon pressed. He knew Monty wasn’t saying everything.
“But most courts also believe that regardless of what the second father’s record might be, he has the right to see and be involved with his child.”
Fallon’s gaze dropped to his lap. His hands fidgeted almost on their own will. “I wasn’t going to tell him. I wasn’t…I was going to keep it to myself. Does that make me a monster?”
“You’re protecting your child. It doesn’t make you a monster,” Monty said. “But it’s a morally grey area.”
Fallon could understand that. “I think I want to do the test. I don’t want to drag it out and force the baby to go through all that crap. What—what do they do? Is it dangerous? Can it hurt them?”
“No,” Monty said. “There’s a blood test they can take from you to analyze the fetal DNA.”
Fallon looked up. “Is it accurate?”
“Very.”
He looked over at Gage for his next question. “Will he be there?”
“Absolutely not.”
He wanted to throw up with relief. “So I don’t have to see him until…court? He doesn’t have to come to the hospital, right?”
“No,” Monty said. “He won’t be there. You have a protective order against him.”
“I violated it,” Fallon whispered. “That night. I let him inside my apartment.”
“It’ll hold,” Monty said. “And if he pushes the issue, we’ll file another one.”
Gage reached over and took his hand. “It’ll be okay. I swear. I won’t let him near you or Mango.”
Monty’s lips curved up into a smile. “Mango?”
“It’s our code word for the baby,” Gage said. “To make it easier on him.”
The lawyer’s face softened. “I understand.” He folded his hands under his chin, and his eyes drooped closed for a second.
It was odd, but Gage didn’t seem bothered.
He continued to stroke over the top of Fallon’s hand until Monty’s eyes opened again.
“If you want to consent to the paternity test, you can go to the lab across the street from the fire station. They’ll file the results with the court. ”
“But they’ll tell me first, right?” Fallon asked.
“They’ll tell you first.”
Fallon looked over at Gage. “Did it feel like this when you did it?”
“Yeah, my darling. It did. It was hell.”
“Until it wasn’t,” Fallon whispered. “But I’m not going to get that lucky.”
Gage shifted closer, taking Fallon by the chin, and he kissed his jawline softly. “Mango is ours. That’s all that matters, okay? Ours.”
Fallon nodded and let himself fall against Gage. This wasn’t how the day was meant to go. He wasn’t supposed to be the one falling apart. But he guessed that was how life went sometimes. As much as he wanted it to, things wouldn’t always go to plan.
And the fact that they had each other made every tiny bit of difference.