Page 21 of Fire

Brows draw together.

He swallows hard and turns to me and I swear to God, you’d think he didn’t know he was a father.

CHAPTER NINE

Micah

Time stops. My smile disintegrates. My stomach twists, my heart roars, my jaw twitches, and my hands ball into fists.

The little girl sitting next to Ivy is mine.

There’s no denying.

Her eyes. Her smile. The cut of her cheekbones. It’s like looking in a funhouse mirror, where I’m younger, feminine, and have blonde hair, but still me.

That’s my daughter.

I have a daughter.

That’s the only explanation.

And Ivy…kept her from me.

What the actual fuck kind of bullshit is this?

Nell glances up from her coloring book and waves, cocking her head and frowning under the weight of my stare. I smile because, how could I not? She’s so beautiful, so innocent, so clearly mine…I love her instantly. A love that knows no bounds. No limits. I’d do anything for this little girl I’ve only just met. The daughter I wasn’t given the chance to know.

A fissure appears along the surface of my heart. This giant seething crack, simmering with heat and pain.

Nell seems more uncomfortable the longer I look at her. And who can blame her? There’s no hiding what I’m feeling, and it’s aimed directly at her because I can’t tear my eyes from her sweet face. I force myself to smile. It isn’t her fault I didn’t know about her. It isn’t her fault my entire world tilted on its axis. It isn’t her fault I’ve missed the first six years of my daughter’s existence.

It’s Ivy’s.

I turn my attention to the woman I spent years pining over, the love of my fucking life.

The betrayal…

It’s crushing me.

My breath bolts through my lungs. My adrenaline’s up. Fight or flight. And I’ve never been one to run away.

Ivy’s nostrils are flared. Her chin lifted. She’s daring me to say something. Daring me to make a scene. Daring me to announce to the world that I have a daughter she kept from me for who the fuck knows why?

Nathan pokes his head into the room, unaware my sweet little surprise turned into a monster fucking shock the second I walked through the door.

“I hope this wasn’t too much of an overstep…” His voice fades as he takes in the charged atmosphere and his jaw drops when his gaze lands on Ivy’s daughter.

Our daughter.

Fuck…

A sharp exhalation says Nathan sees it as clearly as I do. And how could he not? The resemblance is undeniable. My face with Ivy’s hair.

I turn to my cousin like the calmest fucker that ever was. Peaceful. Reasonable. Like I don’t want to slam my fists through walls.

“Is there somewhere private I could speak to Ivy alone?” My voice is surprisingly level, doing nothing to betray the storm brewing in my heart. Though for anyone who knows me, it’s in the pulsing of my jaw, the clench of my fists, the measured breaths, and the whites of my eyes.

“Yeah. Um, definitely.” Nathan looks to the poor caseworker, dazed by the sudden tension. And who can blame him? I thought I was doing a good deed, and here I am faced with the kind of treachery that turns good men into villains.

---