Page 57 of Love In The Spotlight

“In your mind that couldn’t be possible, right?”

“Exactly. I didn’t even know who Mercedes was when he threw the name at me. Then when he told me the rest I was stunned. I gave her money to shut her mouth until we knew. At this point, she was starting to get a little curve to her belly and realized what it might be.”

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah. We had the DNA test done and it was confirmed.” He wouldn’t say how he felt during that time when they waited on the results. His world was crashing down around him on every level and it’s not like he had anyone he could talk to about it. Definitely not his parents. “I was livid. All I could think of was this couldn’t be happening and it was a joke.”

“But it wasn’t?” she asked.

“No. The minute I knew the baby was mine, we got attorneys involved. Mercedes didn’t want the kid. Those were her words. ‘This is yours and you figure it out.’”

“Probably for the best,” she said.

“It was,” he said. “I won’t bore you with getting her a nicer place to stay and making her quit her job and paying for everything and all the legal documents.”

“She obviously wasn’t going to be able to work,” she said.

“No,” he said. “But she was watched. She was an addict.”

With Laken’s torso leaning against his chest, he could feel her shoulders drop after hearing that. “And you worried about the pregnancy and Penelope.”

“Randy hired someone and never told them who he worked for. This person checked in on Mercedes daily, brought her to her appointments and other things. Almost like a hired friend to keep her straight. And Mercedes stayed clean. Thankfully. I just don’t think she was prior to finding out she was pregnant.”

Which was a burden he carried for years wondering if that was going to cause developmental issues with Penelope.

When he realized how bad Penelope’s eyes were, it was guilt on his shoulders that he brought a child into this world that might struggle.

But the doctors had said there were no signs that Penelope’s vision was going to get worse and he’d have to believe them. He’d brought her to enough specialists.

“And when Penelope was born?” she asked.

“Mercedes gave birth and walked out of the hospital. Literally discharged herself the next day. I hadn’t even known. I made sure she gave birth in a private suite with all sorts of security. She signed everything, keeping her out of Penelope’s life and making no claims in the future.”

He felt her head move over and rest on his arm some more. “That had to be a relief in some ways and sad in another.”

“More relief than you can imagine,” he said. “I didn’t want anything ugly in the news. Nothing that Penelope could go back and find when she was older. It was all about her at this point.”

The minute he found out he had a child coming, all the focus changed in his life.

“Which is why you gave up wanting to continue with your football career and went to broadcasting?” she asked.

“I didn’t know what kind of career I would have even had if she hadn’t come into my life. I told myself it was better to go out on my terms. I feel I went out on a high even if it was forced on me because of the injury. But broadcasting was still somewhat the same season. I do have to fill in and do other things and events too, but I wasn’t traveling as much. Wasn’t gone several days a week at training camp and practice. I do most of my work from home and am gone one to two days a week.”

It was the life he always knew he’d have but just not this early in his career.

And he sure the hell didn’t think he’d be a single parent on top of it.

“You never heard from Mercedes again?” she asked.

“No. There was a fire at the club where she went back to work a few months after Penelope was born. Several people died in it.”

“I remember now,” she said. “It made the news. Some electrical issues and exits were blocked.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’d heard about it too but wasn’t in town when it happened. It was days before the names of everyone were released. Mercedes was on it.”

“And now you will never have to worry about her disrupting your life,” she said. “Unless you worried she’d told people who the father of her child was.”

“I don’t think she did,” he said. “She was too hungry for the money. The person who was watching her all that time said she’d struggled to stay clean, but she did it. My guess is she got out as fast as she could to get back to her old lifestyle.”

---