Page 82 of Love and Other Lost Things

Matteo put a hand up to stop his momentum and his palm hit the mirror, cracking it into pieces. A jagged shard sliced through his skin. “Fucking hell!” Matteo yelled, grabbing a scarf off the coat rack and wrapping it around the bleeding gash.

Still dazed from her second collision with a doorframe, Jane could only watch in horror as Nik took another step toward Matteo, his hands curled into fists. But then—thank God—Mom ran in between the angry men.

“That’s enough.” She held up her phone, waving it at Matteo. “My husband was the police chief in this town for over thirty years. If I make a call, we’ll have every deputy within fifty miles at my door in five minutes.”

“And then what?” Matteo snarled. “Are you going to have me arrested?” He hitched his chin at Nik. “I’ll have him arrested.”

“Nobody is going to be arrested if we can all behave like adults,” Mom snapped. “Now, you have my number, and we have a plan for a DNA test.”

Matteo headed for the door, this time keeping a wide berth. But as he passed, Jane could hear him mutter under his breath. “You know this won’t work out for you, Jane. This never works out for you.”

Jane shivered, knowing he was talking about the one time she’d tried to leave him. She’d thought about running away a lot over the years, but there had been one day when she’d finally packed up their things and bought bus tickets to San Diego.

A shelter there had had a couple of beds open. If they took the 8 p.m. bus while Matteo was working at the club, they could have made it there before he noticed they were gone. But she hadn’t counted on Teddy, the bouncer. He’d spotted her trying to lug her suitcase and four-year-old Scarlett down the block. He’d wanted to help, he’d said, so he’d called inside to Matteo and offered to take a short break so he could drive them.

She’d ended up in the hospital, and Matteo had refused to bring Scarlett to see her. Jane had been frantic, desperate to see her daughter, to know she was okay, but Matteo wouldn’t tell her anything. And when Jane came home in a cab a couple of days later, Matteo and Scarlett were just… gone. Gone. She’d called the police, but since Scarlett was with her father, they said there wasn’t much they could do.

Matteo had rolled in three days later, Scarlett by his side in a princess dress and Mickey Mouse ears, like they’d planned a trip to Disneyland all along. Jane had played along for Scarlett’s sake, but inside she’d been screaming. Matteo had never done something like that again, but he hadn’t needed to. The message was clear to Jane that he’d use any means to control her, even their daughter. Jane had never tried to leave again.

But if Scarlett wasn’t biologically his, would that make a difference? Could Jane keep him away from her for good? She truly didn’t know. Scarlett could well be Matteo’s. And not knowing for sure was tearing her apart.

She watched from the front window as Matteo climbed into his Nissan and drove down the block. And then she turned to face Nik.

“Are you okay?” He took her by the arm and looked her over.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“The hell you are.”

He strode down the hall to the kitchen, and Jane could hear him rattling around in the freezer. A moment later, he came back with a bag full of ice wrapped in a paper towel and pressed it to her cheek. “Mrs. McCaffrey? Did he hurt you?” He turned to check Mom over.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said.

“We should call the cops.” Nik adjusted the ice on her cheek. “At the very least, you should have a record of this. A police report.”

“But what about you?” Mom wrung her hands. “If we press charges against him, he’ll do the same to you.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Of course we’re worried about you. You could lose your job. And if you really are Scarlett’s father, we need you here. Not in jail.”

“Nik…” Jane began. But she didn’t know what to say. How to explain this. “We need to talk about Scarlett.”

Nik stepped away from her and headed back down the hall. For a moment she thought he was going back into the kitchen, but then he spun on his heel to face her. “I could get over you taking off for LA without a word. I even understand why you did it. But this. How am I supposed to forgive you if you kept my daughter from me?”

“Nik, you have to believe me that I didn’t know.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know for sure.”

“But you suspect it, at least enough to tell Matteo that I’m Scarlett’s father. Or were you just saying that to get him to go away?”

Jane hesitated. What if she said yes? What if she said it was just a story she’d made up to protect Scarlett from Matteo? Maybe if she did, Nik would stop looking at her like this, like she’d betrayed him in the most unimaginable way. Like she was shattering his heart. But Jane couldn’t lie to him anymore, couldn’t keep him away from his daughter if that’s what Scarlett truly was. “Yes, I think it’s possible.”

He slowly shook his head as if he were trying to process that. “And how long have you suspected?”

“Just a few days.” Jane swiped at her wet cheeks. “When I came home and saw you and Scarlett together… when I saw your baby picture at your mom’s house again… That’s when it started to come together.”

“I don’t know what to say to that. What to think. How could you get this wrong?” Nik raked a hand through his hair, turning to pace down the hall and then back again.

“Please, Nik. You have to understand what it was like for me back then… I was living in a shitty motel in a strange city. I was out of money and hadn’t eaten anything but ramen in days. I didn’t even notice my periods until suddenly I was puking in a night club toilet. Matteo didn’t like condoms. And I was just a kid. I assumed…”

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