Chapter 10
Nick
I told Cat I would call her, but the day was hectic.
I could only manage to send her a text. I found myself thinking about her throughout the day.
Spending the weekend with her and waking up with her has made me miss her more than I could imagine.
I take out my phone and call her when I get home.
She answers on the second ring. Her voice sounds groggy, like she was sleeping.
She must be tired. It’s only seven thirty.
“Hey, babe, you sound tired, did I wake you?”
“No, I was thinking.”
“About what?”
“Us.”
Oh no, this doesn’t sound good. We made a lot of progress. I hope one day apart hasn’t changed her mind again. “What about us?”
“Kate and I had a huge fight over you this morning.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” I put my papers to the side and push my chair away from my desk.
“I knew you were busy.”
“You should have called me or left me a message. I would have found time to call you back. What happened?”
When she’s finished telling me what happened, I’m beyond mad. What the fuck was Kate thinking?
“I’m coming to see you.”
“No! Not tonight.”
“Why not? Is there something else you’re not telling me?”
“I just need some time by myself to think about everything that happened this weekend and today. I’m okay. I’m not pushing you away.”
“Then I’m coming over.”
“No! Look, I’m just tired. This is a lot for me to deal with. I think we should hold off on us and making any decisions until the paternity test comes back.”
“Cat,” I say in a warning tone.
“I’m not shutting you out, Nick.”
“It sounds like you are.”
“I’m not. I’ll call you tomorrow,” she says.
I can’t believe this shit! I’m walking back and forth in my office like a caged animal. Ava takes the phone from Cat before I can say anything else.
“Nick, she’ll be fine. She was caught off guard by the argument with Kate and her mother. Not what she was expecting after spending an incredibly happy weekend with you.”
Damn, we made so much progress. I was finally able to convince her we could work this out together, now it’s all shot to hell because of Kate and her bullshit.
“Put her back on the phone.”
“Nick—”
“Put her back on the damn phone, Ava, or I’m going to be over there in the next twenty minutes!”
Before I can say more, I hear Cat’s voice.
“Nick—”
“Listen to me. I’m sorry you had to go home to that mess. Kate shouldn’t have said anything to you. She knows where we stand. We don’t have a relationship of any kind where she should approach you like that.”
With uncertainty in her voice she asks, “Does she know where you two stand?”
“Yes. I’ve made it very clear.”
“When you’re at the doctor’s office together listening to your child’s heartbeat and seeing it for the first time, how clear can it be?”
Oh damn. I run my hands over my face, back through my hair off my face.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she says. Her voice is low, like she’s far away in her thoughts. The question is, thinking about what?
“I love you,” I tell her, feeling like it’s not enough.
“I know, goodnight.”
I take my phone and fling it into the chair.
What the fuck was Kate doing? Every time Cat and I make some progress and I get her to start trusting and believing me, Kate’s right there to fuck it up.
Beyond heated, I grab my phone and call her.
I don’t even give her a chance to speak beyond a greeting.
“Get your ass over to my house now.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You don’t call me and demand I do anything. I don’t work for you.”
“Get your ass over here, or I’m coming over there. Do you want me over there? Do you want to have this out in front of everyone? Because I can do that. You better be here within an hour.”
I don’t have to wait for a reply—she knows what’s going to happen if she’s not here. I don’t make idle threats and she’s very aware of that.
“You should be concerned about me and your child instead of me hurting poor Cat’s feelings. She’ll get over it. My feelings have been hurt many times, and I put on my big girl panties and suck it up.”
She comes in here with an attitude, as usual, telling me about her feelings. What feelings? She hardly shows a genuine emotion. “I don’t give a damn about your feelings. If the baby is mine, I will do all I can for my child and be a part of its life.”
“You should give more than a damn about me; this baby and I are a package deal. You better play the part of a happy fiancé and don’t embarrass me.”
Is she seriously threatening me? She must have lost her goddamn mind. I back her up against the door and grab her by the wrist.
“I don’t think you want to play games with me.
I will win every time by any means necessary.
” For a second I see a flash of fear in her eyes.
She presses her lips together then holds her head up high.
Calm and cool, she narrows her eyes at me, like the ice-cold bitch she is.
“This is the only time I’m going to tell you—don’t approach Cat again about anything having to do with me or this baby. ”
She wrenches her hand free from my grip and rubs her wrist. I was so mad I didn’t realize how hard I was holding her wrist. I step back from her, and she grabs her bag off the kitchen table. “What are you going to do if I don’t follow your orders, Nick?”
“If this child is mine and you try to use him against me in any way, I’m going to come at you with everything I have. I will do everything possible to prove you unfit and rip my child from your arms. Have your attorneys ready; I’m not leaving anything up to chance with you.”
Chest heaving, she spits from between her teeth. “You’re a heartless bastard.”
“I don’t think I’m that heartless. I was sympathetic enough to have sex with you.”
She whirls around and opens the door to leave.
“Don’t ever threaten me, Kate.”
She gives me the coldest look I have ever seen from a woman—that’s saying a lot, coming from me—and slams the door hard behind her.
For hours after Kate leaves, I sit in my office, trying not to think about Cat, but it’s useless.
She’s the only thing I can think about. She doesn’t know that I already knew Kate and Chris weren’t her father’s biological children.
I was the only one Chris told when he found out.
He took it pretty hard at first. He couldn’t understand how his mother could cheat on his father.
She wasn’t the woman he thought she was, and he felt betrayed.
For a year he hardly spoke to her, and he started spending a lot more time at my house.
He wasn’t sure how or where he fit in anymore, now that the man he thought was his real father wasn’t.
Instead, it was a stranger, a man he would never know, who he could never ask, “Why didn’t you want us?
” One day he had a talk with his father, but he didn’t go into specifics about what they talked about.
He did say after they talked he realized being someone else’s adopted kid didn’t make him any less of his son than Jay.
This was the only father he knew and wanted, because he loved him the same as Jay and Cat from the day he was born.
Over time he started speaking to his mother again.
For me it was an early lesson in understanding that you can’t tell what goes on inside a family by looking at them and what they present for others to see.
In less than two days I get the results of the paternity test back, less than two days my future with Cat could be determined by the results of one test. Will she stay with me if I’m the father? That’s the million dollar question.
The next day I get a call from Cat.
The first thing I ask her is, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m doing much better today.”
“How did you sleep?”
“Not too bad, Ava kept me company.”
“You know I could have done that if you would have let me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you here, but things are getting more complicated. I need to put things on pause for…”
“Till the paternity test comes back?”
“Yes.”
“So if I’m the father, which by now we think most likely I am, what? That’s the end of us?”
“I’m not saying that, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do, you don’t want to think about it but you know.” There’s a call on my office phone. It’s a call from a client I really need to speak to.
“Cat, I have to take this call.”
“Go ahead, I’ll talk to you later or tomorrow.”
“Bye.” Tomorrow. I’ve barely spoken to her since she left my house on Monday. I feel her pulling away from me already.
One day later sitting in my office, I get the answer to my million dollar question.
“Hello.”
“Hello, is this Mr. Nicholas Alexander?”
“Yes, it is.”
“This is Quantum Lab calling with the results of your paternity test.”
This is it, the moment of truth. I take a deep breath and sit back in my chair. I can’t remember a time I was this nervous, my mouth’s drying up and it’s like I’m breathing through a straw.
“Hello? Mr. Alexander, are you still there?”
I blow a puff of air out to calm my nerves. “Shit.”
“Excuse me?” she says, her voice rising.
“I’m sorry, you said you were calling with the test results?”
“Yes.”
“I’m ready, what are the results of the test?”
“The test results are conclusive, 99.99 percent positive you are the father.”
This shouldn’t be a surprise to me. I had an idea of what the results were going to be, but it doesn’t make it any easier to hear. I shake my head, get out of my chair, and walk over to the window.
“Which means there is less than a one in ten thousand chance of me not being the biological father?” I already know the answer to this. I say it more to myself than the woman on the phone.
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Thank you.”