Page 159 of Forgot to Tell You Something

There she is, the bitch I spent so many years of my life beside. “She looks beautiful.”

“It all makes sense now.”

“What does?”

“Your insistence on staying with Tallulah; it’s your dedication to yourchild.” She taps her nails against the desk, glaring in my direction. “Are you so certain that you’re the father? You hardly know this woman.”

Hell, no. She isnotpulling that card. “I know Tally intimately, in every sense of the word. She’s also not the type of woman to sleep around, unlike other people in my past.”

I try to rise above insolent arguments, but Charlotte is pushing every one of my buttons. If she wants to get dirty, I have buckets of mud to sling in her direction. After all, she’s the one who screwed at least one other person during our relationship, but I guarantee the list is far longer that she’s willing to admit.

“I’m only looking out for your best interests.”

What a load of garbage.

I push myself away from the desk. Much more of this discussion and I’ll personally escort Charlotte off hospital property. “I’m going to Jessop’s office. I have a few calls to make.”

Charlotte sighs, leaning back in the chair. “I’ll leave, Owen. But try to understand my side. Here we are, a few months separated, and you’re having a child with someone else. How do you think that makes me feel?”

“I have no idea, Charlotte, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”

She picks at an imaginary thread on her skirt. “We never even discussed children in all our years together. I want a family, too.”

I hit the desk with such force that I make the pens and papers dance.

Wow. I can’t believe she’s going there.

There are certain statements that people should never utter. Statements that open up wounds, often still festering beneath the layers of bandages applied to staunch the bleeding. Charlotte’s statement about wanting a family rips apart the last purulent boil I have from our time together. “Then I guess you shouldn’t have gotten an abortion, Charlotte.”

She blanches as white as the side chair. She didn’t realize that I knew, but I was friends with the doctor who performed the procedure. He let it slip one evening, after a few drinks and rounds of pool. He thought I was privy to the information.

He was wrong.

“Who told you?”

“It certainly wasn’t you.” I hold up my hand, halting her rebuttal. “It doesn’t matter who told me. What matters is that you terminated the pregnancy and never said a word to me. So, don’t sit there and proclaim your desire for us to have had a family. You passed on that opportunity when you aborted my child!”

A tear slip past her lids, but I feel no pity. Not for this act. Not for what she took from me without any discussion. “It…it…”

“What, Charlotte?” I snap, letting the months of anger flow from every pore.

She lifts her head, her eyes full of tears. “I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t your baby. It happened on my trip to Greece. The father—”

“It wasn’t my baby?” It might sound twisted, but the relief flowing through my veins is palpable. Charlotte has admitted to another tryst, but I couldn’t care less about her infidelities at this point. Now, I can move on from our relationship, leaving behind the intense anger that I carried with me from San Francisco.

“I wish it had been yours. I thought about keeping the baby, but I knew you’d leave when you discovered you weren’t the father.” She offers a mirthless chuckle. “But you left, anyway. So, I lost you both.”

I shake my head, walking around the desk and leaning against it, my expression stern. “You lost me because you lied and cheated for years. I don’t even want to know how many other men there were during our relationship. But I now know of two, one of which resulted in a pregnancy. That you failed to mention having unprotected sex with someone else also blows my mind. You could have picked up any number of diseases and passed them to me. But I’m sure that concept never crossed your mind as important. And you didn’t lose your baby, you terminated the pregnancy. Stop looking for sympathy in this situation. You were the one in the wrong. Not me.”

“I know, Owen! When you left, I did some soul searching. I knew my actions had caused the breakup, but I was so mixed up that I didn’t know if you leaving was a blessing or a curse.” She dabs at her eyes, in a futile attempt to keep her makeup from smearing down her face. “I realized how much I missed you, and made a beeline for Florida, intent on winning you back. Imagine my surprise when I discover that you’d already moved on. You want to talk about unprotected sex? Apparently you weren’t practicing it, either.”

I lean in closer, my anger near boiling point. “Don’t you ever intimate that my relationship with Tally is even remotely similar to your affairs. My life with Tally is none of your damn business. I assure you we’re both thrilled about this baby. I can’t wait to spend my life with them.”

“Are you trying to be cruel?”

“No, I’m trying to be honest.” I watch the tears slide down her cheeks and finally take some pity on her. Maybe she has a heart, after all. “Charlotte, if I was the right guy, you wouldn’t have cheated countless times. If you were the right woman, I wouldn’t have left San Francisco. We finally woke up to the fact that we don’t belong together. I found the woman I’m meant to be with, and I plan on keeping her happy for the rest of my life.”

“So that’s it, then?” Charlotte asks, blotting her eyes with the tissue I offer.

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