Page 29 of Knocked Up By the Silver Fox

"No," I told her, and she sighed.

"Okay so adoption is still out there, or maybe you need counseling…Obviously you haven't spoken to him yet?" she said it as a question and I shook my head. "Then that's your first step, but you can take your time."

I felt how rigid she was, probably upset this happened, but understanding how I felt. She wasn't going to lay into me right now when I was so vulnerable. I knew she was right. I had options, but when she said them, I felt horrible about them. I just failed to see how having and keeping this baby would be good for me. Unless Will wanted it too, and that seemed like astretch. He already had one child, and he was having issues with her because of me. He'd never want a second one.

"I don't know how. What if he blames me? What if he doesn't want it? How am I supposed to do this alone?" I shook and sobbed into my hands again, and Rachel's unwavering support helped me calm down.

"Then you take that job with the other guy. He's gonna pay more, better benefits. He'll understand a baby is coming and hopefully you're good enough at your job it doesn't matter. I'd say based on how this Caldwell guy promoted you he thinks you're worth it. So will the other guy…You have options, babe. Don't fall apart on me."

Rachel was right. Maybe Will and I wouldn't work out, even though we both admitted to loving each other. And I felt like he was my forever love. Maybe it would be too much or he'd dislike the idea of a baby and not want to keep it, and maybe I'd have to take a job elsewhere to support myself. I knew two things: One—I wasn't getting rid of this baby. The universe blessed me to have it, and it was mine to keep and love. And two—now was not the time to self-doubt.

I was a kick-ass analyst and even if Nevil Banks retracted his offer to employ me, I'd have a thousand other job offers. I knew what I was capable of, and Will had talked me up so much, lots of other people knew too. I could count on having a great job if I had to leave this one for any reason, and I had fought through really hard things. If Rachel supported me, I could do this.

I just didn't want to think about the heartbreak if Will didn't want me and this baby. That would hurt.

20

WILL

Ipoured myself a drink when I got home from work and sat on the couch waiting for Abby to get home from school. I never came home this early and I knew she would be shocked to see me at home, but I had to speak with her immediately. What she did was just wrong. Using her social media platform, and the reach of her friends' platforms to make a big deal out of me dating Beth was immature.

While I completely understood that she was just a teenager and that her emotions were probably so big she didn't know how to deal with them, I was still upset. The way teens today handled things was so different from the way I was raised, and I didn't approve of it. I just wished she would talk to me instead of smearing Beth's name.

I sat there brooding, angry about the pressure Carl and the board were putting on me to terminate Beth. I hoped my mention of her public retaliation against the company for wrongful termination might dissuade them, but I couldn't guarantee it. I knew Beth wasn't selling our information but without proof of it, I couldn't shake their suspicion. Thankfullythough, it meant without proof, they wouldn't move forward either. At least not quickly.

I heard the door click open and then closed, and I waited for Abby to walk around the corner and set her backpack down. My temper was in check right now, but only because I'd put some distance between myself and the situation. I shut my apps, and the past twenty minutes I spent thinking of Beth's reaction if she saw things. Placing my thoughts on how Beth would feel had given me a moment to feel compassion instead of anger, but now knowing Abby was right around the corner had me feeling tense again.

"Dad?" she said, as a question. I sat facing forward, staring at the dark television screen mounted on the wall near the hallway that led to her room. My jaw was clenched, my empty whiskey tumbler in my hand. I blinked a few times and tried to release the tension from my shoulders, but it didn't work. "What are you doing home? You're never home early?"

Abby sounded happy, almost as if she was pleased we'd get time together, and any other day under any other circumstances, I'd have been thrilled to have time to take off work and be with her. But today I wasn't happy at all. Today I felt like I had to deal with her causing trouble she never should have caused. She should have spoken to me, not resorted to this.

"Abigail, I'd like you to sit down please," I told her, and her gait slowed. The backpack dropped from her shoulder to her hand and she grasped the strap and dragged it across the floor on her way to the white leather armchair across the coffee table from me.

"Is everything okay?" she asked as she slowly lowered onto the chair, and I realized she had no idea I'd seen the posts on her socials. Or if she did, she really thought it was okay or that I wouldn't be upset by it. She blinked a few times, looking like adeer caught in headlights, and I sat up and placed the glass on the table in front of me gently.

"I'd like you to think about why I might be upset with you, and then you tell me if everything is okay." Leaning forward, I pressed my fingertips together as I rested my elbows on my knees and stared at her. She looked around and I watched her swallow hard as she dropped her backpack strap and put her hands on her knees. She sat straighter and shook her head.

"I don't know, Dad. I'm sorry? Did I do something wrong?" Abby licked her bottom lip and then bit it and blinked a few times. She wasn't playing dumb, and she wasn't acting innocent. It angered me that she really didn't understand this. That her generation truly thought defaming someone on social media was nothing to balk at.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, and risking triggering my rage again, I opened my socials and scrolled to her post, then held my phone up and showed her. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the screen, and then I watched annoyance and anger flash through them.

She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest as she rolled her eyes and looked away. "You're upset about that?" she scoffed and I noticed the way she shook her head slightly. She could tell I was really angry, and I knew this response of hers was tempered too, so I did my best not to lash out.

"Yes, I'm upset about this." I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket, too upset to see the hateful words she put on her post.

"I don't see why. That's exactly what she's doing."

Her attitude was so brutal I almost lost control for a second. I clenched my jaw and bit back my response again, and I too, looked away. Kate would have known how to handle this. She was the master at this sort of thing, and here I was feelinghelpless. Abigail had really crossed a line, and I felt powerless to correct her without shouting.

"You don't know her, and if you did, you'd know she would never do that." I turned back to her as she scoffed and half laughed.

"You're so blind, Dad. She's a horrible person. Elijah said he saw her in a tabloid and?—"

"I told you that kid was bad news." I shot to my feet, unable to stop the outburst. "That Sullivan boy doesn't know what he's talking about. He should know firsthand because tabloids talk about his father all the time. Do you think they always publish the truth? Do you think his father got three women pregnant at once?"

I was out of control and I knew it. Abby's head hung and she crossed one arm across her chest while the other hung at her side. I could see tears welling up in her eyes as she looked away, but she didn't speak. She knew I was right, that tabloids could be wrong, but that wasn't what we were fighting about.

"Abby, I want you to take them down now. Open your phone and take the posts down." Planting my hands on my hips, I glared at her and relented, letting all my anger surface. I was done trying to be the nice father. She had done the wrong thing, the most reprehensible thing I could imagine, and she needed to fix it—now.

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