Page 23 of Karma
The weather outside has warmed up quicker than normal, and it’s the strange time of year where the public spaces haven’t changed the thermostats yet because it could be cold one day and warm the next two before dipping back down.
“It was kind of scary when he attacked Cole. But, like a good scary.”
Cole Walsh joined the club to become a Prospect with Jace and Gavin, and he thought he was special because he was dating Klaire, Colt’s little sister. It came out the night of the vote that he’d fathered Gracie’s son. The father who wanted nothing to do with his child and said terrible things about Gracie.
When he accused her of being the reason he was getting the boot, he called her easy and a whore. Kent attacked him. Dove for him, and Gavin helped hold him still while Kent beat him bloody. If Colt hadn’t ordered him to stop, he would have murdered Cole. Hurt him enough as it was that Cole spent over a week in the hospital.
“It makes me comfortable when he’s around them. I know he’ll never let anything happen to them, but I never thought I’d be the type of mom who let her daughter’s boyfriend sleep over.”
“Your daughter’s also eighteen, so it’s not that bad. Plus, she has a kid that was conceived at a party, not under your roof,” Hailey says with a laugh.
Snorting, Felicity shakes her head. “I also feel safer with him around, too. He only stays over when Ky’s gone because I think they have an understanding that he’s sleeping with Gracie, but it’s another thing when they’re possibly having sex under the same roof as Ky.”
“Again, he wasn’t the one who knocked her up. In fact, he helped her bring Nolan into the world. That has to count for something.”
Gracie’s seventeenth birthday was memorable for the entire family. Kent planned to take her out to dinner to celebrate, and when he showed up to pick her up, her water had broken, and she was in labor. They barely made it to the hospital in time.
“Do you believe in fate?” Hailey asks out of the blue.
“I guess I don’t really think about it. Why?”
Smiling, she leans her elbows on the table. “It’s just unbelievable to think about how we almost didn’t make it to theplace we are now. You know, like Kent and Gracie being together when she went into labor, and now they’re in a relationship. If he hadn’t been there that day, they might have never started dating.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Felicity says, looking at her water glass.
“And Nancy, too. She wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have my plethora of issues to deal with. And if the waitress wanted to be a mom, we might not be sitting here together right now.”
“Getting philosophical on me?”
She shrugs. “I guess so. It’s just wild to think about how one change could have altered everything. I don’t know how people don’t believe in fate when you sit back and think about it. There’s a bigger plan for all of us.”
Just as she opens her mouth to respond, or maybe laugh, a familiar voice says, “I make cute kids, don’t I?”
The waitress.Hailey whips around, her protective instincts taking over, and she shifts to block Nancy from the woman who decided she couldn’t be a mom.
“What are you doing here?” Felicity asks.
“It’s a restaurant. I came to eat. You know, like people tend to do,” she says with an overly snarky tone.
“No, I meant here, in the presence of the woman who needs very little reason to jump up and rip your face off.”
The waitress leans back, her blonde hair curled and clipped back. “Excuse me?”
Hailey hates how cute she looks. And her body bounced back well after having a baby. No one would ever know, especially because she signed away all of her rights to her child.
“Lex told me she gave you a warning earlier this week, and it seems you didn’t heed her warning. That’s kind of a big fucking mistake,” Felicity says.
Lex talked to the waitress? She didn’t tell me this? Why? What happened? And why didn’t she share?
“I think you’re all overlooking the simple fact thatI’mNancy’s mother.”
“Actually, you’re really not. Not according to the paper you signed,” Hailey says. “You have no parental rights.”
“Yeah? Well, neither do you.”
The words sink in, and Hailey holds back her sob. She’s right. This stupid bitch is right. Hailey has no rights to Nancy, and she doesn’t have any type of quick or witty comeback for her.
“I’ve had some time to think about it, and I think I made a mistake. I want my daughter back.”
