Page 141 of Scores Of The Heart

“You said you’d been with nobody else but me!” I bellow.

“Ty, I didn’t do this on purpose. You have to believe me!”

“I don’t have to believe anything. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? What if we’d waited and I’d been there for the birth?”

“If I wasn’t certain it was your baby, do you really think I’d have gone to get the paternity test done with you?”

Fuck knows what she thinks and I’m through with trying to figure it out.

“You’re disgusting. Do you know that? How could you do this?”

“I honestly thought…”

“When you fuck with people’s lives, Stacey, you really do a number on them, don’t you? And because I have plenty of money and you know I’d do the right thing, you thought you’d just tell me I was the father without even knowing. I bet you were never going to adopt the kid out, were you?”

“Tyler, please! I know you’re angry, and I’m just as shocked, believe me!”

“I don’t believe anything! Not one word that comes out of your mouth, and I don’t want to hear anymore lies. Goodbye, Stacey. We’re done.”

I hang up the phone and throw it across the car. I feel sick to my fucking stomach.

I don’t even feel the tears behind my eyes until they’re falling. I press my palms to the back of my eyes and try to get a grip on myself.

My friends may say it’s a good thing, and that I dodged a bullet, but why does it feel like I’ve just had my heart ripped out of my chest? I went to my goddamned parents for fuck’s sake and asked them to help me raise my daughter I didn’t know was about to be born.

Now there is no daughter…

This feels like torture, the worst kind. I don’t know how someone could be so cruel.

I swipe a hand over my face unsure of what to do next.

I know I need Cindy, more than ever before but I can’t go home feeling like this.

I need to let off some steam first. I don’t want to go home angry and take anything out on her.

So I call Jay. He lives close by, hopefully he’s home and will know what to do.

CHAPTER 28

Cindy

I pace like a maniac for most of the time that he’s gone. I wished he hadn’t gone alone, but I know it’s something he needed to do.

I’m shocked by what he told me and how this could even be happening.

I’m sure his ex didn’t suddenly forget that she slept with someone else after she told him she hadn’t. None of it makes sense, and it seems the perfect blend of emotional blackmail and cruelty. I know Tyler was really coming around to the idea and doing everything he could to make sure he was in the baby’s life, and that she’d have a good life. He was willing to take sole custody of her! That’s the most upsetting part.

Now that has been wrenched away from him too. I’m sure it can’t get any worse for him right now.

Nightfall approaches and there’s still no sign of him. He’s been gone for hours and I’m starting to worry. He took off so fast I couldn’t even talk to him before he was backing out of the driveway.

I’ve been navigating around his very impressive chef’s kitchen after taking Henry for a long walk by the lake, but I can’t clear my head. I hoped that cooking us a meal might take our mind off things. We went to the grocery store earlier and got enough supplies for the next few days.

I try calling him again after I’ve chopped all the vegetables for the stir-fry I’m making, and I have the rice cooking. He doesn’t pick up, so I shoot another text.

Me

Ty, I’m getting worried. Please call me

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