Page 138 of Fierce-Hyde

“It is. He didn’t even want to tell me what my mother did. I guessed it. It showed me that though he was selfish at one point, he’s not now. He did this for me. What the future holds, I don’t know, but I know it will be short and that is sad.”

“It is,” he said. “But you have this and you need to make the best of it.”

“I plan on it,” she said. “And I learned from it and got a resolution which I didn’t expect. But I’m realistic and know the next several months are going to be hard.”

“You haven’t shied away from anything hard in your life before,” he said. “Don’t stop now.”

“I need you, Hyde. I know I don’t always convey that, but I thought it to myself driving to my father’s when I got that text from you. It was what I needed without even knowing. You promised you’d be here for me and I didn’t doubt it once. I don’t either. I need you to know that. That we are going to have our differences, but I think we can work it out.”

“I know we can,” he said. “One hundred percent.”

42

DID THIS ALL THE TIME

“Hyde. Is that you?”

Two weeks later, she and Hyde went to the mall and just get out of the house.

He turned to look at the woman that called his name.

“Hilary,” he said, looking confused, then looking at Tori. “How are you?”

“I’d be better if it wasn’t for you,” Hilary said.

Oh boy, Tori wasn’t sure she wanted to stand here and witness this. It was probably an ex, but since Hyde just moved back to this area and she knew he had dated no one but her, it couldn’t be recent.

“I’m not sure what you want from me,” he said. “I had no control over anything.”

She didn’t like the way he was looking back and forth between the two of them.

“Yeah, well I’m damaged goods now. No one wants me.”

“What?” he asked.

“I can’t have kids now,” Hilary said, her eyes filling. “Your child ruined me for life.”

Tori’s jaw dropped.

No freaking way this was happening.

“Excuse me,” Tori said and turned to walk away. No way she was listening to this and found the restroom to clear her head.

She came out ten minutes later and saw Hyde standing where she’d left him, this time he was alone.

“Thanks for walking away from me,” he said. “Leaving me standing there having to take her shit.”

“Me?” she asked in a hushed whisper. “We need to leave because I don’t want to scream at you in the mall.”

“Let’s go,” he said. “Because I’ve got a lot to say to you too over that.”

They both marched out to his car. She wasn’t sure why he was so pissedather.

She wasn’t the one that just dropped a bomb like that on him.

“You’ve got a kid?” she asked.

How the hell had she not known that? There was no way it could have been kept a secret.

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