—Julian—
“Daughter?” I breathed out, all the air from my lungs vanishing while I stood there unable to move, but for a much different reason this time. My eyes shot to Autumn. “What is he talking about?”
She stared at me with wide eyes and a terrified expression. The blood had drained from her face, and her chest rose and fell while she was frozen in place.
“Autumn.” I stepped toward her. “I won’t ask you again.”
She placed her hand over her heart like she was trying to hold it together, and in two strides I was in her face.
“Julian, please…”
“Please what, Autumn? I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me what the fuck Christian is talking about.” When she didn’t respond fast enough, I ordered, “Now!”
She jolted out of her skin, shuddering. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want the truth.”
“Holy shit.” Kinley jumped in, standing in between all of us. “Everyone needs to take a second and calm down, okay? This isn’t helping anyone.”
I didn’t pay her any mind—my focus was still on the liar in front of me. “Either you answer my question, or you’ll be answering my lawyer, kid.”
“Your lawyer?” she exclaimed, appearing every bit the damsel in distress she was trying to portray. “What do you need to call your lawyer for?”
“For a daughter I didn’t know I fucking had!”
“Stop yelling at me!”
“In a second I’m going to be doing a lot more than yelling at you.”
Christian shoved me back, placing his sister behind him. “You’re going to have to go through me, motherfucker.”
I growled from deep within my chest, not backing down. His threat meant shit to me. “I’m only going to say this once, so you better fucking listen. If you think I won’t go through you or anyone else who is trying to stand in between me and my child, then you have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“You can’t take her away from me!” Autumn shouted, shaking her head. “I swear to God, Julian, I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Keep more secrets? Play more games? Lie to me some more? Tell me, sweatheart, what will you do?”
“You have no right to be angry with me! You left me, remember?”
“Did you know you were pregnant at your brother’s wedding?”
She winced.
“Answer me. Did. You. Know?”
Taking a deep breath, she hesitantly nodded.
“I want to hear you say the words.”
“Julian,” her brother stated. “This isn’t helping—”
“Fuck you, Christian!” I pushed him, needing to take out my frustration. “You have the audacity to stand there and come for me, when you knew I had a daughter, and you couldn’t bother to pick up the damn phone and tell me?”
He jerked back. “I didn’t know she was your daughter—none of us did. She looks nothing like you. She’s Autumn to a T. Besides, Autumn told us it was a one-night stand, and no one knew you guys were fucking around up until a few days ago.”
“Your parents may have not known, I’ll give you that one, but you sure as shit were getting suspicious, so try again.”
Autumn stepped aside him to stand in front of me. “I’ve been telling you this since day one, and I’ll say it again. This is between you and me, it has nothing to do with my brother and family.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“So you kept the truth from all of us then?”
“What was I supposed to do, Julian? Tell them we were sneaking around and you got me pregnant and then took off like a bat out of Hell?”
“If you would have told me you were pregnant, I never would have left you, and you know it.”
“When was I supposed to tell you?” she scoffed out in disgust. “Before or after you told me you screwed someone else at Christian’s bachelor party?
Or would you have rather I waited until after you told me I was nothing more than a fuck to you?
Please tell me when I should have told you I was expecting your baby? Because I just don’t know.”
“You should have told me the second you found out.”
“I was going to tell you the night of the wedding. It’s why I went outside by myself. I knew you’d follow me. But you didn’t give me a chance before breaking my heart and then stomping all over it.”
“How long did you know?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this in front of my brother and his wife. Can you at least give me that?”
“I don’t have to give you shit.”
“I know, okay? I’m asking for mercy.”
Before I went off again, I abruptly walked away.
“Can you guys go please? I need to handle him alone.”
“Fuck no,” I heard Christian retort. “I’m not leaving you alone—”
“We’re a phone call away,” Kinley interrupted him. “Okay?”
My glare shot to Christian when he warned, “We’re not done here, Julian. It’s far from over.” He turned and left with his wife following close behind him.
Once they were gone, I got right down to the point. “Where’s my daughter?”
“None of your business.”
“Oh, trust me, kid. It’s going to be my business when I’m serving you with custody papers.”
“Are you insane? She doesn’t even know you!”
“Whose fucking fault is that?”
“Yours! You left me, asshole! What did you expect me to do? Grovel and beg you to stay for me and a baby you didn’t want?”
“I wanted you, Autumn. I’ve always wanted you.”
“Well, you had a shitty way of showing it. I’ve been trying to tell you—”
“You haven’t been trying shit. You want to know how I know? Because I still don’t know the fucking truth!”
“Oh my God! Will you ever stop?!”
“Do I look like I want to be yelled at?! Do I seem like I want to be fucked with?! Now tell me where my daughter is before I lose the last bit of patience I have with you.”
She pushed me. “Get out of my face! You have no right to make these demands! You told me you’d never love me!”
I stood closer to her. “How could you keep this from me? Christ, kid. After everything, how could you not tell me we made a baby?”
“I thought you would come back, alright? I waited for you. I didn’t think you wouldn’t come back for me and after time went on, I realized you weren’t ever coming home again. By that time it didn’t matter anymore.”
“Oh, it mattered, Autumn. How the fuck could you keep this from me? Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Yes. I was trying to figure out the right time.”
“You expect me to believe your bullshit lies?”
“I’m not lying.”
“Well, I don’t trust you.”
“Great. Don’t trust me. If you want to stand there and pretend like I’m the villain, then go right ahead. I’ll be the bad guy, if that’s what it’s going to take for you to not involve your lawyers in this. Please, Julian…”
I shook my head, eyeing her up and down as I backed away. I had to remove myself from this conversation before I said something she could use against me if we needed to settle this in court.
Unable to hold back, I threatened, “This whole time you’ve been saying I’m an asshole. Well, sweetheart, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Fear replaced the anger in her expression, and for some reason, my mind kicked to another place and time.
Where looking at her didn’t make me hate her.