“After the way he treated me? After he let me go through a pregnancy alone? He—”
“Talk to him.” He puts his tea down and takes one of my hands. “I’ll be with you if you want, but he’s not going away. I don’t know what was going on with him when you told him, but he’s changed his mind. Maybe it’s guilt. Maybe losing his father makes him want to be closer to family. I don’t know, but he wants that boy in his life. This isn’t about you or your feelings. This is about Carter. If that jerk wants to be a father, he has rights. He didn’t sign them over, did he?”
I shake my head and say, “No. I wish he had. I wish I had thought to ask him to. There’s no way he could fake not remembering that. Carter doesn’t need him. He has you and he has our dad.”
“He will always have us, but we’re not his father. He’s going to ask about him in a few years. How do you think he’ll feel when he’s a teenager and learns that you kept his father from him? Don’t do that. Don’t be the bad guy in this because if you do that, that’s what you’ll be. It won’t matter what he did. Carter will be angry at you. Just have one conversation before you decide on fighting him in court. Promise me?”
Ray is the mediator in our family. He always makes sure everything is okay and that everyone is happy. He’s like our mother that way, and I think Carter takes after them. Ray’s rational when I’m not. He’s always been my protective big brother.
I throw my head back and cover my face with my arm. “Just the audacity of him. I can barely stand the sound of his voice. How am I supposed to be in the same room with him and not kill him?”
“Well, that’s why I’ll be there. If he says one word, I’ll beat his ass.”
It’s after ten-thirty when I slip into my bed. I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours and my stomach aches from lack of food. I grab the remote in search of something to put on in the background, but my phone buzzes on the nightstand. A strange number flashes across the screen, and I just know it’s Drake. Remembering my conversation with Ray, I take a deep breath and hit accept. “Hello.”
The line stays quiet. I pull the phone from my face to see if the call was dropped. “Paradise?”
“It’s me,” he says. I can’t determine his tone. He’s definitely not the angry man that was here a little more than twenty-four hours ago, but he doesn’t sound like I remember either. He was intense from our first meeting, but there was always a lightness and playfulness to him. Now that I think about it, most of the world never got to see that part of him. That was reserved for me. “I’m not in the mood for another fight.” He sounds tired, but I shove the thought aside and will myself not to care.
“Then don’t start any shit,” I remind him.
“That’s what you think I’m doing?” His voice has now risen, and some of the guy who barged in here yesterday makes an appearance. “I want access to my damn son,” he nearly thunders.
“Your son? You are delusional. Where was this concern when I came to you three and a half years ago?”
“Stop with the lies. Do you think I’m the type of man who would not be there for my kid? What gives you the right—” I end the call, unable to listen to his revisionist history for another second. He calls back right away, but I shut my phone off.
I stare at the TV screen in front of me unable to absorb anything that’s going on. When I answered the phone, the last thing I wanted to do was get into another fight with Drake, but his entitled attitude triggers me. I didn’t grow up in a house with an angry and yelling man. My dad’s gentle and soft-spoken, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Drake, or any other man, speak to me as if I’m nothing.
I decide to give up and go to sleep, but there’s a knock on my door. My brother comes in holding his phone up.
“Now he’s calling my phone.” He waves it in the air, and I let out a groan.
“Hang up on him.”
“I can hear you,” Drake says.
“I put him on speaker,” Ray explains. “Talk to him and then bring me back my phone.” He drops it on my bed and leaves.
“Why are you bothering my brother with your nonsense? How did you even get his number?” I already know the answer. All he has to do is get one of his minions to do his bidding.
“When can we meet? I’m trying to have a civil conversation before I involve my lawyers and family court.”
“Don’t threaten me.”
“Don’t dismiss me. Tomorrow. I’ll send a car and you can come to the office.”
Like hell.
“Not only am I not available tomorrow, but I’m never stepping foot in your office again. Friday at my house.” If we’re doing this, it will be on my turf. “Ten o’clock in the morning.” My mood sours at the thought of taking one of my sick days for him, but I want to do it at a place where I’m comfortable.
“Fine.”
“Just so you know, my son will not be here.”
“Just soyouknow, I’m going to be part ofmyson’s life soon.”
I end the call without another word. I wait a few minutes, and when he doesn’t call back, I bring the phone to Ray.
