Page 146 of On the Double

“You could have fucking told me last night.”

“I…I didn’t know how.”

I huffed out a laugh. “It’s fucking simple. You say,Edu, I’m knocked up.Four simple words, but you couldn’t even do that.”

“I didn’t?—”

“I fucking told you I wasn’t doing this with you!” I shouted, losing my cool. “I fucking told you I didn’t want kids or marriage. How fucking hard is that to understand?”

Tears filled her eyes. Fake fucking tears that she probably had sitting on the back burner if things didn’t go her way. “Edu, it wasn’t like that.”

“Wasn’t it? Isn’t this exactly what you dreamed of in that fucking grocery store? You were off in La La Land, dreaming of snagging someone to take care of you—to marry you. And the whole fucking time,every single fucking timeI told you I didn’t want more, you played it off like you were totally cool with it. And then just when you know I’m gonna end it, you find a way to get pregnant. Is that baby even mine?”

Someone sucked in a harsh breath. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was someone else. I didn’t fucking know. All I knew was that I had been played. She knew I didn’t want a kid, and she found a way to make it happen.

“You’re on birth control,” I snapped. “So either you fucking suck at remembering something as simple as taking your fucking pills, or that kid isn’t mine. So, which is it?”

Tears threatened to spill down her face. She ducked her head inembarrassment, which she should, and then straightened her shoulders and looked up at me.

“Goodbye, Edu.”

She set down the glass and carefully wove her way through the crowd of spectators until she vanished from my sight. That was it? She wasn’t going to fight her corner? She was just leaving?

I shook my head and walked over to her drink, picking it up and swallowing it all. Slamming it down, I turned around and found everyone at OPS staring at me.

Lock shook his head and walked away. Brock and Scottie gave me disapproving looks, but it was Fox who walked over to me. “You’re a fucking dick, and you don’t deserve her.”

37

HARPER

Shoving through the door,I didn’t think as I rushed back to my room and grabbed a suitcase from the closet.

“Harper!”

Tears streamed down my face as I replayed all the accusations that came out of his mouth. I knew he wouldn’t be happy with me, but I didn’t think he would be quite so brutal in front of all his friends.

“Harper, what happened?”

I rushed to my dresser and yanked the top drawer open, grabbing all my underwear and bras. After stuffing them in my suitcase, I went back for my tops.

“Harper, talk to me!”

But I couldn’t. If I opened my mouth, I would say things, horrible things that could never be taken back. And I didn’t want to think that way about the father of my child. The wounds were still too raw to talk about. I felt like I was bleeding out on the floor.

My brother grabbed my arm as I went back for more clothes, forcing me to face him. The anguish and horror on his face was my undoing. I didn’t have to explain to him that things had gone horribly wrong. It was more than clear by my state of distress.

I crumpled in his arms, letting the tears fall as I poured my heart out to him. “He didn’t want me.”

“Hey,” he said soothingly, running his hand up and down my back. “Maybe it was just the shock of finding out.”

I shook my head, looking up at my brother. “The things he said…he accused me of sleeping with someone else.”

“He what?”

A laugh slipped through my lips as I remembered his cruel words. “He said the baby had to belong to someone else. Either that or I sucked at remembering to take my pills.”

“That fucking asshole.”

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