Page 103 of Changing Tides

Anson throws himself in between the man and us as I turn and walk us toward the charter’s office.

I glance at the boat dock and see Amiya seated beside my grandparents, a sobbing Leia clinging to her. Nana’s confused eyes follow us until we make it to the door. I set Avie down and punch in the code. Then, I sling the door open and thrust her inside.

“Is it true?” I ask as I prowl toward her.

“Sebastian,” she whimpers as she tries to cup my face.

I grab her wrist and push her away.

“Is it fucking true?” I repeat.

“Yes. She’s yours,” she whispers through tears.

My hands fist into my hair as I try not to lay my hands on her. “What?”

She takes a deep breath.

“Leia is yours,” she repeats.

“Mine.”

“Yes. I found out I was pregnant six weeks after I joined Conrad in New York. He and I were college sweethearts. We shared an apartment off campus and Hawaii was supposed to be a romantic getaway for the two of us before he started working and I started my senior year, but he was offered an internship in New York right before we were scheduled to leave. He decided to skip out on our vacation and accept the job, then he proceeded to tell me that we needed a break. I was heartbroken. That’s how I ended up bringing Amiya along with me to the island. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone there. I just wanted to lay on a beach and lick my wounds. But then I met you and I liked you, so I threw caution to wind. The day after our incredible night together, Conrad began calling and texting me from the city saying he missed me and that he had made a mistake. He asked me to join him in New York as soon as I returned.”

“And you did,” I surmise.

“Yes. I loved him. I wanted to be with him.”

“So, you two married right away?”

“When I told him I was expecting, he proposed. We got married the next month on a Tuesday at two forty-five in the afternoon at the city clerk’s office in Manhattan.”

Not exactly the wedding every girl dreams of.

“I’m guessing you told him about Hawaii,” I snap.

“I did. I mean, not the details, obviously, but I told him I’d been with someone while I was there.”

“Been with someone. And he was okay with that?”

She shrugs. “Turns out, he had been with someone, too, so he really couldn’t hold it against me. We both assumed the baby was his. I mean, you and I only shared one night together. One reckless night. Conrad and I had been together for three years. What were the odds the baby was yours and not his? We convinced ourselves it just wasn’t possible.”

“Oh, it was possible. I was there, remember?” I yell.

“I meant, probable. It wasn’t probable that it was yours, and we decided there was no reason to find out. We were getting married, and we were raising the baby together. She was our little girl.”

“Except she wasn’t,” I shout.

She winces. “We didn’t know that, and everything was amazing at first. He loved her, and she loved him so much.”

“But?”

“But … I don’t know. We got busy, and he and I started fighting a lot. I finished school while I was pregnant, and when Leia came, I wanted to go to work, and he didn’t want me having a job. So, I started working toward my doctorate, and even that irritated him. He wanted a stay-at-home wife to keep his life and home running smoothly. One who lunched and had play dates with the wives of his buddies at the office and who looked pretty when on his arm at company events. I tried. I really did, but I felt like a prisoner in that skyscraper. Then, he suddenly began staying out late, wining and dining clients. Out of nowhere, he grew so distant, and I started getting suspicious. One day, he was in the shower, and his phone started pinging, and something told me to pick it up. They were messages from his secretary. They weren’t work-related.”

I snort. “He was fucking his secretary? How very unoriginal.”

“Yeah, I confronted him, and at first, he tried to deny it. Turned it around and made me seem paranoid and crazy.”

“He wanted to have his cake and eat it too.”

---