But I had to take it. If she’d hand over the college fund, I could study something practical, get to earning and creating a stable life for the bundle of mayhem cooking in my stomach.
Fuck, the baby was 100% Harry’s. Noah had told me I didn’t have to do anything I was uncomfortable with, but he handed over all the information he had about him before sending me on my way. I hadn’t looked at it yet.
Bailey and Noah both agreed that a pregnant woman couldn’t work on the floor. With the clientele. They had me in the office for now, or cleaning up, but I was superfluous. They were just being nice.
Hence, late night googling and frantic planning to get myself set up for life. It would be a tough few years, but I wanted to do it. Had the resources too, if my parents would stop being such dicks. At twenty-seven, I was well above the age to go to college, but that didn’t matter. When I was eighteen and decided a career waiting tables and bars sounded much more fun, I’d faced a lot of flack from them.
And at twenty-five, when I started working in the club and Mom had found out, she’d told me to quit. Called me a whore and a waste of the family’s good name. The one time she saw me after that, I bumped into her in the street with Bellamy at my side. The text messages I received from her afterward ended any hope of reconciliation on my part.
“They’d be mad not to hand it over,” Victoria said, bringing me back to the present. Back to the place where I’d been paid to fuck her future husband and have him suck my tits dry.
Jesus fucking Christ, she was the woman he was pretending to cheat with. Not pretending at all. Holy shit. This was too much. I needed to go.
“You gonna make it home okay?” Victoria asked. “I can get Harry to drive you?”
“Harry who’s half unconscious in your bed?” I raised my eyebrow. “I’ll manage.”
Victoria winced and nodded, and we said our goodbyes.
As I climbed down the stairs, I contemplated what other ways this evening could have fucked up.
I think realizing the man who’d impregnated you was your sister’s beloved fiancé was a pretty safe bet for number one.
And I was coming back tomorrow to ruin her life.
Chapter Six
Harry
“Potassium,”Igrumbled.“Theanswer is potassium.”
A simple pop quiz, a hand-raising exercise to get the kids through the last few minutes of the day, and not one of them was engaged. We were all flagging, tired after a busy Monday to Friday in this hormone-ravaged building.
I was so glad it was Friday, and I’d be done with this for two days.
While I did love my job, sometimes it did not love me back. Sometimes it made me feel like shit, drained and ready for a damn break. This was one of those times. I’d been running on autopilot all week after that nightmare of a dinner, and my brain still hadn’t caught up with it all. A baby. A sister. A disaster.
“Mr Fitch?” one of my more… intellectually challenged students asked. He was a good kid, just, well, annoying sometimes. Mouthy.
“Yes, Gage?”
He scrunched up his nose, looking above me at the clock ticking closer to the end of the day. “Can we just, like, go?”
“Go?”
“Yeah, go home.”
Like I’d just injected them with pure sugar, the rest of the class perked up, looking at me with renewed interest. Now, if only I could get them this interested in chemical bonds. I checked my watch; it would only be five minutes. For once, a solid idea from Gage.
“You know what, sure.” I leaned back in my chair. “Have a good weekend, guys.” I gestured for them to leave, waving my hand toward the door. Damn done with it all. I’d be fleeing like them if I didn’t have admin.
A flurry of excited voices and quick activity flooded the room, a smattering of goodbyes directed my way before, in a flash, I was alone. The sophomores were dust in the wind.
“Well, shit,” I muttered to myself. “Just my thoughts now.”
“You talking to yourself?” a voice came from the doorway. Mr Lorenzo Perez leaned against the frame, grinning at me.
I nodded, not even a little ashamed to have been caught by the man. “Gotta talk to someone.”
