Page 138 of Eternally Yours
Once we finally get all our giggles out, we both sigh at the same time, then smile.This is ridiculous and super cheesy.I look down at my feet, where Milo is currently lying, and shake my head, still with a smile on my lips while I try to come up with something to say.
Silas clears his throat, grabbing my attention. “Do you want to... come inside?”
I look up to see hope in his eyes, a tender smile forming when I nod. “I’d like that.”
He nods back once and bends to pick up Milo’s leash, tugging on it a bit to get him moving. “Come on, bud. Time to head in.” Silas takes a step to my side and passes me, but then waits to see if I’m following. I turn around quickly and catch up to him as we walk side by side into the house.
I’m instantly hit with nostalgia the second I step foot through the threshold. I slip out of my flats and walk into my home for the first time in over two months, grazing my fingers along the top of the couch while I look around. Nothing seems different.
“I didn’t change anything,” Silas says from behind me. He always had a way of knowing what’s going through my mind.
He walks over to the kitchen, filling Milo’s bowls with food and water as I leave the living room and join them.This is awkward.We clearly don’t know how to handle this moment.
“Did you eat today?” He gives me a look that tells me he already knows I didn’t but wants me to admit it.
So I do. I shake my head and bite my lip.
He sighs heavily, then turns to the fridge and grabs a few different things. “You should be eating, Cecilia.” He rebukes me with a scowl, and suddenly I feel like a kid who stole the last cookie from the cookie jar and got caught.
“I do normally. I’ve been careful and I eat all my meals. Today was just... harder. I tried. I made myself an omelet this morning, but I couldn’t stomach it. So I threwit out.”Jesus, now I even sound like said child trying to explain themselves.
He studies me for a moment, then nods and turns back to the stove. “I know...”
I wait a few minutes to see if he’ll say something or tell me himself what I want to know.He’s not stupid, he must know that’s why I’m here.But after five minutes of absolute silence, I break.
“Is it true?”
His body goes rigid, and his hands freeze over the pan. Slowly, he turns to me, and I don’t understand the expression I’m greeted with. Part relieved yet saddened.
“It’s true.” He doesn’t offer more as he keeps looking at me.
“Talk to me, Silas. How? I thought they did a paternity test?”
He lets out a deep breath and takes the pan off the stove, then comes to sit beside me at the island. “They did, but it turns out it was all falsified. It was honestly out of pure luck that we found out. There was an error with the dates on one of the papers.”
My eyes widen and Silas nods. “When I told Greyson about it, he looked up the doctor. That’s when we found out that her OB-GYN was one of her friends. It could have been nothing, but I still mentioned it to my lawyer. He sent out a request that Lisa be checked by a different doctor of our choosing to make sure everything was accurate and that I wanted to be present for the exam.” He leans back against the barstool, looking down at his fingers that glide back and forth over the countertop.
“So the next morning, instead of flying home with the team, I flew over to Dallas with my lawyer. We managed to get a doctor that could see her that afternoon, it was all perfect timing. But then about an hour before the appointment, my lawyer got a call from hers requesting a meeting immediately.” He takes a moment to gather himself. I can tell he’s still digesting everything.
“Anyway, we go to the meeting spot and find Lisa in tears in a conference room with her lawyer. She confessed to everything. How she had just found out a couple of days before that she was pregnant from a one-night stand. That she and her friend, Bridgette the doctor, came up with a plan to trick one of the hockey players into sleeping with her and thinking they knocked her up.” He gets this look of disgust on his face, and I don’t blame him.
“Then Bridgette, being her OB, handled all the paperwork and scans. So she was able to change the dates and information on the paternity test to make it look like it was right. But on the last scan she did, she messed up the date, which is what tipped us off.”
“Wow... I don’t even know what to say. That’s a bit crazy. So what? She was hoping you’d give her money?” My eyes have turned to saucers as I take in everythingthat happened to him in the last week. I’m in complete shock that someone would even think about doing that to an innocent person.
“From what I understood, she was just hoping I’d pay her child support until the kid was eighteen. She was even willing to have shared custody of a child that wasn’t mine. For a second, I kind of felt bad that she was willing to do all of that and let a stranger raise her kid simply to be able to support her child.” I can tell he still does, but then he shakes his head and it’s gone. “But then I remembered everything she made me go through since the beginning of the year, and that feeling quickly faded. She even admitted that we never slept together.”
“What!?” I lean in, afraid I may have heard him wrong.
“Yup. Apparently, she convinced me to bring her back to my room. But once inside, I freaked out and told her to leave. She asked to use the bathroom first, and while she was in there, I passed out on the bed.” He shrugs, still not seeming to recall the moment himself.
“So, she took advantage of the situation and undressed me down to my boxers and got herself completely naked. Then she got in bed to make it look like we slept together. She’s even the one who kissed me, and Bridgette was there to take pictures of it all and post them online.” Silas lets out a deep, angry breath, trying to remain in control of his emotions. “The whole thing was staged from top to bottom, and I was the poor sucker who got picked.” His shoulders sag like a weight was just lifted off them.
“Wow... just, wow. I can’t believe she did all of that.”
“Yeah, me either. I’m just glad it’s all over. Although my lawyer is taking them to court for a long list of offenses. So not completely over, but at least now I know I didn’t fuck up as badly as I thought. I mean, I’m still at fault in some ways, but it feels good to know I didn’t totally screw up.” He averts his eyes from mine, looking down at his hands once more.
“It’s why you called this morning? Isn’t it?” I ask softly.
