Page 19 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Just what I said.”

“She was going to tell him in a really cool way the day she came home to him leaving her,” Ryker cut in. “When he refused to even talk to her beyond telling her he was done, she sent him a text.” Ryker sent a scathing glare toward the twins then. “After today, I have a funny feeling that text might have been intercepted because the response Opal got back didn’t sound like Marsh at all.”

“Let me see it,” Mr. Kennedy demanded. I opened my phone, pulled up the text messages, and handed it over. He turned his head toward the twins. “What in the hell have the two of you done? We knew you were pushing him to go experience things, but this is beyond the fucking pale.”

“I thought she was just bullshitting him to get him to come back,” Brixton admitted and immediately my legs could no longer hold my weight. Thankfully, Ryker still had a good hold around my waist.

“Ryker, son, what on earth is your place in all this?” His father asked, ignoring Brix.

“I accidentally ran into Opal coming out of a pizza shop a little over a month ago. When I realized she was pregnant, we talked, and I begged her to let me go to her doctor appointments. She needed someone there and Bethany can’t go to all of them. I got to see my nephew on that ultrasound thing. It was wild.” The previously angry boy beamed with his elation over the fact that he got to witness his nephew moving around inside me.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” His mother asked in a hurt tone.

“Opal asked me not to,” he admitted.

“And why the hell not?” She shot at me angrily.

“Whoa! If you’re going to be mean to her, then we’ll leave right now,” Ryker stepped up. It only made his mother angrier, but his father beamed with pride.

“Son, while I appreciate your protectiveness over your brother’s girlfriend-”

“I’m not.”

“What?” Mr. Kennedy asked.

“I’m not his brother’s girlfriend. In fact, he’s out on a date, right now, with the woman who schedules my doctor appointments. So, if you think he doesn’t know about the baby, just because your other sons are complete assholes, then you’re wrong because Monica James can’t keep a secret to save her life – or her job.”

“Okay, let’s all sit down and talk through this,” Mr. Kennedy tried to be the voice of reason again. “Kath, I think you need to take a breath and calm down. From what I’m hearing, Opal has been through it, and at the hands of our family. If I were the girl, I wouldn’t have told any of us either.” His eyes drifted to his twin sons and the sheer outrage and disappointment in that look had both of them cowering on the couch, despite the fact that they were both full-grown men at twenty-six years old.

“Now, how about you walk us through everything from start to finish, Opal, so we know exactly what we’re all dealing with here.”

So, I explained that the pregnancy hadn’t been a huge worry, when I found out, because I’d been expecting a proposal from their son. Nothing that came after me learning I was pregnant was left out. Instead, I laid the entire awful series of events out for my ex-boyfriend’s family. What I didn’t realize, at the time, was that Bastion was filming me the whole time.

When I was done, Mrs. Kennedy got up and came to sit beside me on the couch, on the opposite side from where her youngest son sat, offering me comfort as I spilled my heart out. She threw her arms around me in a hug so tight, I couldn’t breathe.

“I’m so sorry for what my boys have done to you, Opal. I don’t know how you could ever forgive them. Any of them, besides Ryker. I swear to you that Ed and I didn’t know any of this was going on. We thought things had just run their course, and when you never called or…” she stopped and waved those words away. “No, that’s an excuse. I know your parents aren’t around, and I’m just as guilty for not checking on you myself. I just didn’t think you’d want to see me since my son left you.”

What could I really say to that? She was both right and wrong. Everyone sat quietly for a minute before Ryker spoke up.

“We have bigger problems, that Opal didn’t add to her story,” he informed everyone. Damn it, this kid.

“What kind of problems? Is everything okay with the baby?”

“He’s fine,” I said at the same time Ryker said, “No.”

“Well, which is it?” His father asked.

“The baby has no way to get home from the hospital when he’s born, for starters.”

I sighed. “That’s not true.”

“Yeah?” He asked. “So, you get a ride that day, then what? You can barely carry groceries home now. What about next month when you’re even bigger and shouldn’t be walking that far? What about when you have an infant to carry too and you’re exhausted from being up all night? Are you going to be able to walk to the grocery store and get everything you need, plus all the things he needs, and get them back to your apartment?”

“Why in the hell are you walking to the grocery store?” Brixton asked, sounding irate for the first time since… Hell, since my ex-boyfriend was still refusing to break up with me like he wanted.

“Because I don’t have a car.”

“Or money to get one because Marsh took off with all their joint savings they had set aside to buy a house with,” Ryker tattled.

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