Page 87 of Deal Breaker
Her eyes are shiny now. “I know?—”
“No. Don’t say you know.” I shake my head, my voice sharper now. “Because if you knew, you never would’ve done it. You never would’ve looked at my face all these weeks, kissed me, slept with me, while hiding my daughter from me.”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you—” she says, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“But you did. You have fucking wrecked me.”
“I was scared. I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t even know if I should. And then when I came back to town, everything got complicated?—”
I let out a humorless laugh. “You think this is complicated? No, Landyn. Complicated is figuring out how to co-parent. This is really pretty simple. This is betrayal.”
She flinches. And it guts me. But it’s the truth.
I take another step back, needing space from her and from all of it. From everything I’ve missed out on. From everything this means. From the fact that she didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.
“I missed everything,” I say, my voice breaking at the edges. “Things I can never get back. Her first laugh. Her first word. Her first fucking birthday. You’ve been there for every moment. I wasn’t even a name in her life.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, tears streaming.
“Yeah,” I say hoarsely. “Me too.”
Silence drapes over us like a weighted blanket. She’s crying, and even now part of me wants to move toward her, but I can’t. Not with my whole world cracking in two.
“I want to meet her,” I say finally, anchoring myself with the one thing I know for sure. “I have to meet her. I won’t let you keep her from me. Do you understand me?”
Landyn lifts her eyes to mine. There’s so much pain in her gaze I almost look away. “You will,” she says. “If you still want to after all this?—”
“Don’t,” I cut her off. “Don’t put that on me.”
She blinks.
“I lost six years,” I say. “I’m not losing another moment.”
Every second that ticks by feels like another secondthat’s been stolen away from the little girl I didn’t even know existed until five minutes ago.
My daughter.
I freeze suddenly, heartache rooting itself deeper inside of me. “What’s her name?” I ask, my voice barely audible.
Landyn hesitates, like even this will undo me. “Poppy,” she finally whispers.
My knees nearly give out. Poppy… after my mom.
I stare at her. I can’t even blink. “Poppy,” I repeat, like the word itself is a punch to the gut.
Landyn nods. Her chin trembles. “Even when you weren’t beside me, I couldn’t bring myself to cut you out of her story. I gave her your mom’s name as a piece of you she’d always carry.”
I run both hands over my face, dragging them through my hair before bracing them on my hips. “Jesus Christ, Landyn.”
I walk away from her. I can’t stand still. I can’t breathe.
“What am I supposed to say to that?” I say, turning back. My voice breaks. “You still kept her from me. You lied.”
“I didn’t lie?—”
“Don’t,” I cut in, sharper than I mean to. “Don’t stand there and try to soften it. You kept my kid from me.”
“I was scared.”
