Page 4 of Getting it Right (Addy's Rollercoaster)

“Done.”

I exhaled my relief, knowing he could fulfill that part of our deal. It was why I’d come to him. I just hadn’t been certain he would be willing.

“That’s not all I want,” I told him. I’d thought this through.

Winston sighed. “What else? And how much will it cost me?” he asked, his cynicism evident.

“I want a contract drawn up by a lawyer. One that gives you full custody.”

His dark eyes widened. “Full custody of what?”

“Your grandchild.”

His jaw dropped, and so did Grace’s as she returned to the room.

“I’m pregnant with Martin’s baby.”

She was my baby, but I couldn’t keep her. I couldn’t protect her or myself from Martin.

But his parents could.

Addy

“Do you understand what you’re doing?” Mr. Reynolds asked, watching me closely from his seat across the conference table from me. “Once you sign the paperwork, it’s not something easily or inexpensively undone.”

“I understand,” I said, my voice strained.

I could barely breathe. My lungs felt as if they were squeezed in a vise. I wanted to crack my breastbone open and pull out the dregs of what was left of my shattered heart inside me.

“I think maybe you do.” His expression softened. He was the only one who seemed to see what this cost me. “I’ll give you a moment.”

Tucking in his red-and-navy tie, the gray-haired, soft-spoken Skellin family lawyer pushed back his chair from the shiny boardroom table that sat twenty, but currently was empty except for us two. “I’ll be just outside if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled as he stood.

“You’re most welcome.” Giving me one last sad look, he moved around the table and closed the door quietly after himself.

I raised my gaze to the wall of windows that had been his backdrop a moment before.

The corporate offices for Skellin Enterprises were at the top of one of the downtown buildings they owned. The sun was out today, the sky a brilliant blue. The buildings surrounding this one were dark, though, like my thoughts so often were lately.

How could the sky be blue? How could the sun shine so brightly when I was signing away the rights to my baby? To my little girl?

An ultrasound had confirmed the date of conception, the health of the baby, and the gender. I was relieved nothing Martin had done to me had harmed her.

A noninvasive prenatal paternity test had already been conducted. The results were ninety-nine percent accurate. A post-paternity test would come as well, but it was just a formality. We all knew the baby was Martin’s.

Even Martin. When he learned where I was and why, he was livid that I’d hidden the pregnancy from him and that his parents harbored me.

I overheard Winston and Grace talking. In a rage, their son had apparently done so much damage to the penthouse that they’d insisted he move. I didn’t care that Martin was homeless or distraught that he lost his pet. What mattered was that he would never have custody of our child. He couldn’t damage her like he’d damaged me.

Touching the platinum collar still encircling my neck, I watched a seagull fly past the large floor-to-ceiling window.

How could birds continue to soar unfettered? How could the world spin as if nothing had changed?

There were times, too many over the span of days that had followed my arrival at the Skellins’ mansion, where I’d imagined sliding off into nothingness. Every beat of my mangled heart was labored. I didn’t know why I bothered to struggle. How I would continue after my baby was gone. It was during moments like these that I faltered from what I knew I must do.

A knock on the door startled me, and I whirled around.

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