Page 63 of Nanny for the Bikers

“Save it,” she snaps, cutting me off mid-apology. “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”

Her words sting, but I know I deserve them. I should have been honest with her from the beginning. We apologized for past mistakes…we’re supposed to be honest with one another. And I started our newfound relationship with another lie. She deserved the truth.

“You’re right,” I say quietly, forcing myself to meet her accusing stare. “I should have told you. I was just...afraid of what you’d think of me. Of what everyone would think.”

Lila scoffs and shakes her head. “Well, now I know. And let me tell you, it’s not a pretty picture.”

I flinch at the harsh condemnation in her tone. Shame curdles in my gut, mixing with the hurt and confusion swirling inside me. I wrap my arms around myself, wishing I could disappear, wishing none of this was happening.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Lila spits, her eyes flashing with a mixture of disbelief and disgust. “Dating three men at once? What would Mom say if she knew? She’d be so ashamed of you, Ayla. You’re such a hypocrite for judging her decisions and you can’t make the right ones on your own.”

Her words cut deep, each one a sharp blade slicing into my heart. I feel the sting of tears behind my eyes, but I blink them back, refusing to let her see how much she’s hurting me.

“What were you even doing talking to Teller in the first place?” I demand, my voice shaking with a volatile cocktail of emotions - confusion, frustration, and a rising tide of anger.

Lila’s lips curve into a smug smirk, and she tosses her hair over her shoulder with an air of superiority. “I sensed something was off with you, so I decided to do a little investigating. And boy, did I hit the jackpot.”

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper, waving it in front of my face like a trophy. My stomach churns with dread as I wonder what damning evidence she’s managed to uncover.

“Do you have any idea how many women those three have shared?” she asks, her voice dripping with disdain.

My hands tremble as I reach for the paper, but Lila snatches it away, holding it just out of my grasp. “I’m the first,” I insist, my voice quivering with a blend of desperation and defiance. “I’m special to them. They wouldn’t lie to me.”

Lila’s face contorts into a sneer, her eyes glinting with a perverse satisfaction. “Oh, you’re special all right,” she scoffs, her words dripping with sarcasm. “So special that they can’t even keep track of who fathered their child.”

She thrusts the paper at me, and I fumble to unfold it, my fingers clumsy with dread. As I scan the contents, the words blur before my eyes, but one line stands out with sickening clarity: “Paternity inconclusive. One of the three men tested did match the sample.”

The room spins around me, and I grab the wall to steady myself. I had always assumed Clay was the father. Piper looked moreclosely to him than the others. But now, that certainty is ripped away, leaving me adrift in a sea of doubts and betrayal.

“This can’t be right,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the roaring in my ears. “There must be some mistake.”

Lila’s laughter is sharp and cutting, slicing through my feeble defenses. “Face it, Ayla. You’re just another notch on their bedpost, another conquest to be shared and discarded. Did you really think you were anything more to them?”

Her words are like poison, seeping into my veins and spreading a sickening realization through my body. The foundation of my world, the love and trust I thought we had built, crumbles beneath my feet, leaving me teetering on the brink of an abyss. Every word they’ve told me, every touch they’ve caressed me with, every small little act they’ve done for me, making me feel like I was the only one, and they lied to me. Why did I believe them so easily? God, maybe I really was worse than Mom.

I press a hand to my chest, feeling the erratic thud of my heart beneath my palm. The air feels thick and heavy, and I struggle to draw a breath, as if the weight of this revelation is crushing me from the inside out.

Lila watches me with a mixture of pity and triumph, her lips curled in a cruel smile. “Poor little Ayla,” she coos, her voice dripping with false sympathy. “Always so naive, so willing to believe the best in people. When will you learn that the world is a cruel place, and the only person you can trust is yourself?”

I want to argue, to defend the men I love, but the words stick in my throat, choked by the bitter taste of betrayal. How can I trust anything they’ve said, when the evidence of their deceit is staring me in the face?

My mind reels, grasping for some shred of hope, some explanation that could make this all go away. But the cold, hard truth is undeniable, etched in the black and white of the medical records that tremble in my hand. They lied. And I never thought for one second to question them.

The sound of hurried footsteps jolts me from my anguished reverie. I look up, my vision blurred by tears, to see Clay standing in the doorway, his brow furrowed with concern.

“What’s going on here?” he demands, his gaze darting between Lila and me. “I could hear you shouting from outside.”

I struggle to right my self as I push myself off the wall, snatching up the crumpled medical records from the floor. My hand shakes as I thrust the paper towards him, my voice trembling with a volatile mix of anger and hurt.

“What is this, Clay? Lila says you’ve been sharing women before me. That one of you is Piper’s father but you don’t even know which one!”

Clay’s eyes widen as he scans the document, his face paling. He looks up at me, his expression a battleground of guilt and desperation.

“Ayla, I...” He falters, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not what you think.”

“Really?” I laugh bitterly, the sound harsh and grating to my own ears. “Because I think it’s pretty damn clear. You lied to me, Clay. You all did. You said I was special, that I was the only one...”

My voice breaks, the words choking in my throat. I swallow hard, fighting back a fresh wave of tears. All the times I toldmyself after hearing my mother begging for Kyle’s attention that I would never be like that and here I am doing the same thing. Begging for the truth when it’s so clear.

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