Page 29 of The Forever Play

She should have told me! And I deserve to know why she didn’t.

Crossing her arms, she hunches over on herself while I keep pushing Zoey. Thankfully, the little girl—mylittle girl—is oblivious to the angst going on behind her.

“You just took off.” My voice catches, and I have to clear my throat. “I tried to get in touch with you, and you never replied.”

Sienna sniffs, raising her chin and looking away fromme. She squints at something in the distance while her long fingers squeeze her bicep. “My parents and I were on the road. We didn’t always have good connections. We?—”

“Bullshit,” I hiss. “You ghosted me. You ghosted everyone. Why?”

She whips around to face me, her blue eyes flashing dangerously when she hisses right back, “You try being pregnant your senior year of high school!”

My gut plummets as I quickly picture the scene. What did she go through when she found out she was pregnant? I can only imagine her shock and fear. And then my mind starts conjuring up images of her cradling a distended belly, growing our baby inside her and me being clueless. Me fucking up my freshman year while she produced our child.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

“Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice actually breaks. I have to grit my teeth to keep my emotions in check.

Her headshake is more of a jerky twitch, the grip on her arm only tightening.

“I would have been there for you.”

She scoffs and starts to laugh like I just said the stupidest thing ever.

“What?” I frown at her. “You don’t believe me? I was missing you like crazy. I would have dropped everything to?—”

“Yeah, right. You were missing me?” Her look is so scathing I’m taken aback.

Zoey’s swing swoops toward me, and I don’t push it this time. I just stand there staring down at my first love and wondering where this hate-fire is coming from.

Her blue gaze is sparkling in all the wrong ways right now. She looks like she wants to burn me alive.

“What?” I whisper. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

She shakes her head, shutting me out with a little sniff and muttering, “No reason.”

“Talk to me.”

“No!” she shouts, frightening Zoey, who looks over her shoulder with a worried frown. “Zoey, we have to go.”

“No,” Zoey complains. “Sing! Sing!”

“No, baby. We’ve got to get home.” Sienna pulls her out of the swing, battling the kicking legs and cries of complaint. Securing Zoey against her side like she obviously has a thousand times before, Sienna starts marching back to the sandpit.

I should follow her, keep arguing, but I just stand there, holding the swing chain and staring after them.

Sienna’s venom is like nothing I’ve seen before. I don’t know what to do with it. That woman I was just talking to was not the carefree, playful girl I fell in love with in high school.

Yeah, because she’s had a kid and has been raising her on her own.

“She wouldn’t have had to do that if she’d told me,” I mutter under my breath, trying not to seethe as I watch Sienna placate Zoey with a snack from her bag, then buckle her into the stroller.

Zoey distracts herself, sucking on a yogurt pouch while I stand there like the world’s biggest douche, watching them walk away from me.

Should I chase them again?

Should I demand answers?

Probably. But I don’t know if I can handle that look on Sienna’s face again.

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