Chapter Eight – Laina
Dad wasn’t happy when I suggested he get a paternity test for Tessa’s baby that Sunday at dinner, but once he realized it’d been five long months since he’d seen her, there was plenty enough time for her to have gotten pregnant by someone else and play it off as his, he came around.
He assumed he’d hear from her doctor on Monday, and I did not ask him to contact me once he had the papers.
No, I didn’t want him to know I was going to do my own little investigation into Tessa and her pregnancy.
My dad was eager to believe her. He’d always wanted more kids, along with a family that he was never able to provide me when I was growing up.
Even though it’s unconventional, this was sort of like a redo.
I wasn’t going to be so blind when it came to Tessa.
I knew her games, knew what she was capable of.
In the past, I might have underestimated her, but I wouldn’t do so again.
Kieran thought she had something else tucked up her sleeve, that the pregnancy wasn’t the only part of her plan, so I had to keep my eyes peeled.
What a weird saying that was. Keep my eyes peeled. It didn’t even make sense when you thought about it, but whatever.
“If it is mine,” my dad said, carefully setting down his fork, “I would really appreciate it if you were on board.”
All I could do was stare at him.
“I know what Tessa did was unforgivable—and I’ll never forget it, either—but I don’t want to raise a child in that kind of hate.”
“I wouldn’t hate the kid, Dad,” I slowly said, already having been long since done with my dinner. “Tessa, though—”
“Tessa has a lot to prove. If she proves she’s a different person than she was—”
“It’s only been five months. Someone who’s okay with killing me and killing her own brother won’t change that fast.” I sounded like I was laughing when I said it, and that’s because I kind of was. Who did my dad think Tessa was? A brand-new person? Please.
“And what would you know about a person’s ability to change?”
“And how would you? Dad, she tried to—”
“I’m very aware of what she tried to have done,” he said, sounding so goddamn confident, and yet still so wrong. “Do you think this is easy for me, Laina? Do you think I want that woman back in my life after what she orchestrated? No, but a baby changes things.”
With a shake of my head, I muttered, “It shouldn’t change that much.”
He didn’t have any response to that; all he did was sigh.
Sigh and look away, and just like that, I knew he was done with this conversation.
More than fine, because I was, too. We were going around and around in circles, not really saying anything new.
He had a position he would not budge from, and I was the same.
I knew if I asked him to see the proof that she was pregnant, he wouldn’t show it to me.
He knew I’d dig into it. It’s why I had to get creative, come here during the week, during the day, to snoop around his office when he was downtown, at work.
I’d have to skip classes, but I had three guys who would drop anything to bring me home whenever I wanted.
“Just,” I started, “call me when you know it’s true, please? I need to know.” As soon as he called me, I’d start planning my midweek trip home. It might turn out to be a dead-end, but I’d deal with that when and if the time came.
“Sure, I can do that.” Then the conversation devolved into our typical: how was school, how Kelly was, blah, blah, blah. His heart wasn’t really in it, and for a while I thought it was because he was thinking about Tessa and that possible baby, but eventually I came to a different conclusion.
Now it was my turn to sigh. “Dad, if you want to ask, just ask.”
My dad didn’t miss a beat: “You’re really dating Big Mike? While still seeing Fang?”
“Yes.”
“And do they… know about each other?”
I figured this would be hard for my dad to wrap his head around, so I tried to sound patient when I told him, “Yes, they know about each other.”
The way my dad looked at me right then made it clear he still didn’t quite understand. “And they’re okay with it?”
With a nod, I said, “Yes, they’re okay with it. Times are changing, Dad. Relationships like that might not be normal in the mainstream, but I’m not the first girl to have more than one boyfriend.”
My dad let out a soft chuckle. “I get that, I do. It’s just… you couldn’t have found two boys closer to your own age?”
“They understand me in ways boys my age don’t.
Believe it or not, I’m not the typical nineteen-year-old.
” Hell, I was almost twenty, but that didn’t pertain to this conversation too much.
The fact of the matter was, there was a darkness in me, a quiet rage that set me apart from my peers.
I wasn’t like Kelly. I wasn’t like anyone I went to classes with.
I was me. I was Laina fucking Hawkins, and I daydreamed about torture and murder.
So, no, boys who thought the highlight of their week was going to frat parties and getting wasted weren’t my kind of guys. I much preferred men with a dark side of their own.
“How?” my dad asked. “How can men in their thirties understand you at all?”
I shrugged. “You know I’ve lived through a lot most people don’t.
Most people live their whole lives and are never kidnapped once.
Besides, who are you to judge? You want me to accept the fact that Tessa might be a part of our lives thanks to that baby.
If I have to accept that, then you have to accept that I have more than one older boyfriend. ”
What a great way to prime him for number three, but I definitely didn’t think my dad was ready to hear I was also seeing Kieran.
He leaned back in his chair and thought it over.
I could see the wheels turning in his head as he stared at me, heavy bags beneath his eyes.
After a few moments, he relented and said, “Fine. You’re right.
If I’m asking you to do that, it’s only fair I accept your choices, even if they are unconventional, to say the least. I’ll never say I understand, but…
as you said, it is your dating life. You’re almost twenty. I can’t control who you see.”
He was basically admitting his helplessness, and he didn’t sound too happy about it.
Thankfully, we left the talk of my dating life there, and we didn’t get into anything deeper. Soon enough, Fang was outside, ready to pick me up and take me back. My dad, weirdly, made it a point to come outside with me and wave at us both as we pull away.
“Odd,” Fang said, but he smiled and waved to my dad nonetheless.
“I think he’s just trying to distract himself from the whole baby thing by focusing on my dating life. He still doesn’t really understand why I’m seeing you and Mike.”
“He may never fully understand it, but I think that’s probably because he’ll never fully understand you.
” He looked at me, and though it had gotten dark out, the passing streetlights still illuminated his gray, silvery eyes.
“It’s not a bad thing, not necessarily. You’ve gone through things someone like him will never.
Those situations made you who you are, helped shape you. ”
I nodded once. “Yeah, I kind of told him that. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I don’t need his approval. I’m happy with you guys, and I wouldn’t change a thing.” I paused as something came to mind. “Well, maybe one thing.”
“What thing is that?”
A grin tugged at my mouth. “I think you already know.”
Fang matched my grin with one of his own. “I think I do. I did mention something to Kieran when he came over yesterday, so the seed is planted.” His matter-of-fact way of saying it made me giggle.
“I may have planted the seed with Mike, too,” I admitted, and then I lifted both hands and tapped my fingertips together like I was an evil mastermind in a movie. “My plan is slowly coming together.”
He laughed. “I think it might be, yeah.”
Fang was always able to lift my spirits.
Something about him just made me so… content.
Content and happy. It was what pulled me to him in the beginning.
The man intrigued me from day one, and he was basically instantly obsessed.
You couldn’t ask for anything more from a man. Instant obsession was such a turn on.
During the drive back to my place with Kelly, I tried not to think about Tessa or that baby.
Thoughts of having all three of my men simultaneously were enough to distract me—and make my cheeks blush furiously.
When we pulled into the short driveway of our rental house, I undid my seatbelt and leaned over to Fang, kissing him before thanking him and getting out.
“Keep me updated,” he said. “Sweet dreams, Princess.” And then he shot me a half smirk that went straight to the butterflies in my stomach.
I adjusted the strap of my bag over my shoulder and turned toward the front door. Fang waited until I was safely inside before he left, and it was only as I locked the front door behind me that I realized: I didn’t hear a single thing.
Not only that, but I also didn’t see any lights on.
I fumbled through the darkness until I found the switch to the hallway, and I turned it on, hesitantly stepping deeper into the house.
“Kelly? You home?” By now, Kelly was always on the couch, either watching some mindless reality TV or working on something that was due at midnight.
Sunday was never a go out and party night.
No TV on in the living room. No Kelly to be seen.
I ventured up the stairs, the silence of the house absolutely unnerving to me.
Maybe she was in the shower? But, no—when I reached the second floor, I saw the bathroom door hanging wide open.
I tossed my bag in my room and went to Kelly’s room, my hand roaming on the wall for the light switch.
My fingers found the switch and I flicked the light on.
Kelly was here. Oh, she was here. She was on her bed, her limbs splayed every which way, fast asleep in the most uncomfortable-looking position known to mankind. A position that, the longer I looked at her, didn’t appear to be natural by any means.
My heart skipped a beat as I waited to get confirmation by a rising chest that she was, indeed, still alive. And thank God, her chest rose and fell evenly, as if she was lost in a deep sleep with not a care in the world.
Drugged? That was my first thought. I pulled out my phone and hurried across the hall to check out my room and make sure there were no intruders.
I nearly tripped on my bag, of course, since I threw it in there without turning the light on first. Once the light was on, I went to call emergency services and noticed my closet was open.
It was a small closet, not at all like the one at my dad’s house. Still, it was a weird sense of déjà vu that overtook me right then, as I hesitated on calling and I inched across the room to make sure no one was inside.
My claw was in that closet, in a shoe box, at the very bottom. I wouldn’t have time to find it and put it on if someone was here.
Turned out, my closet was only a distraction. Someone was indeed in my room, but they were hiding behind my open door. The moment I was past the door, so focused on the open closet I didn’t anticipate it, the intruder made his move.
I saw flashes of all black before a strong arm wrapped itself around me and pinned my arms to my sides—just like they did when Kieran took me that night.
A gloved hand brought a cloth to my face, and when I inhaled, I detected a fruity scent right before my world went black and I lost consciousness and the will to fight.
Shit.