No you can’t. At least not right away.
You can lie and tell him she’s not his.
With those damn eyes, he wouldn’t believe you.
He’ll demand a paternity test and there’s that. She’s a million percent his…
But he doesn’t want kids, so there’s no way he would show up, right?
Right. Calm the fuck down…
My phone rang and pulled me out of my thoughts and I sighed before I answered Tiana's call.
"Hey, what's going on?" she rushed out.
"I messed up.”
"Messed up how? What’s wrong? Is Avi okay?" I cringed at the panic in her voice. She loved my little muffin.
“Avi is fine. Well, getting over a fever but better now. I saw Omiri and he saw Avi.”
"Oh. Shit. How?"
"At the pharmacy around the corner from the house. Avi had a fever and I went to get medicine. He was there."
"Your house? Damn, what are the odds?" My neighborhood was nice but damn sure not Chandler Heights. There was no reason he should have been on my side of town but who was I kidding? I didn’t know enough about him to know where Omiri would or should be.
"Exactly! But it happened, and he saw Avi, and I think he knows. I also rushed out of there without my wallet which means he has my name and address, shit everything. I’m so fucking screwed, T.”
"Slow down. Did you talk to him? Did he say he knows?"
"No, not really, but you should have seen his face when he looked at her, T. She has his damn eyes. There's no mistaking it and he grabbed my arm, like he was trying to stop me from leaving. If the security guard hadn't been there..."
Tiana was quiet for a minute. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. What can I do? If he has my wallet, he knows where we live. That man is rich, T. If he really wants to know if Avi is his, he can pay a team of lawyers who will be ready to demand a paternity test and visitation rights in the blink of an eye. I can’t compete with that."
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing," Tiana said carefully. "Avi deserves to know her father."
"You don't understand. He's not father material. You've seen the stories about him over the past year. Hell… even before that. The partying, the women, the substance issues. I don't want that for Avi."
"People can change, Makari."
"And people they love get hurt when that change is only temporary. I've worked so hard to build a stable life for her. I can't let him disrupt that."
"You also can't keep running forever. Sooner or later, you'll have to face this."
I knew she was right. I had been living on borrowed time since the moment I decided not to tell Omiri about my pregnancy. Part of me had always known this day was coming.
"I need to think. Can you come over soon to help me figure out what to do next?"
"Of course. My shift ends at seven. I can be there by seven-thirty. Get some rest because I know your ass has been up all night. It's going to be alright."
After we hung up, I checked on Avi who was still sleeping, peacefully unaware that her world was about to change forever. I touched her cheek and smiled, hating how much she looked like him.
"I'm sorry, baby girl. I was just trying to protect you."
I headed back to the living room and curled up on the couch to hopefully get some rest but knowing my mind wouldn't shut down long enough to let me.
