Page 7 of Half of My Heart

ChapterThree

The soundsof laughter fill the air as my family and I enjoy my nephew Jack telling us about his day at school. While being home in England during my time off, I try to make as many family dinners as possible since they’re one of my favorite parts about being home. My sisters and their families live within thirty minutes of my parents and every Friday night they have dinner together. It’s the best time to try to catch up with everyone’s daily schedules and helps me not feel so left out. Since I’ll be leaving again for the States in a couple of days, each minute with my family is special. I look around the table with a smile on my face, hoping that one day I will have a family of my own at this dinner table.

Jenna would fit right in here. Her bubbly personality and eagerness to talk to anyone will make her a family favorite.But what about children?My smile turns down into a frown.Does Jenna even want kids?Memories from our time in Las Vegas together remind me that Jenna said she didn’t think she could have children due to an abnormal uterus she discovered when trying with her ex-husband.We could always adopt.I shake my head at getting ahead of myself at the thoughts of Jenna becoming mine. Besides, it doesn’t matter to me if Jenna wants kids or not.

All I want is her.

The vibration of my cell phone brings me out of my thoughts. I retrieve it out of my pocket to see Philip calling. I ignore his call and put it back, not wanting to talk during family dinner. Not ten seconds later, Bridget is pulling her phone out of her pocket and giving me a questionable look.

“Philip is calling me. Should I answer?” she inquires, and I shake my head no, especially with my mother giving us the evil eye for even looking at our phones. She has a strict no phone rule at family dinners and I try to be respectful of her request.

But then I get a text from Philip, saying it’s an emergency and I need to call him back as soon as possible. “I need to take this call. Seems there is some sort of emergency,” I tell my family before leaving the dining room. I walk through the living room and head toward my father’s study. I’m just about to shut the door when I see Bridget down the hall, coming my way. I leave the door ajar for her and immediately call Philip back.

“What’s wrong?” I demand when he picks up. I’ve never had Philip text me with an emergency before and my heart is racing with adrenaline. My immediate thoughts go to Sean, wondering if he’s hurt, but I’ve gotten zero notifications from him or his family.

“Hold on while I conference in Thomas.”

Before I can ask why, Philip puts me on hold. Dread starts slithering into my veins because this call can only be about one person: Jenna.

“Thomas, I finally got a hold of him.” Philip announces, alerting me that they’re back on the line. “Go ahead and tell him what you’ve uncovered.”

“Is something wrong with Jenna, Thomas?” I interrupt, needing to know if she’s all right.

“Mr. Harrington, have you seen any articles about yourself today?”

“No, Thomas, I try to avoid any news about myself,” I tell him dryly. “You didn’t answer my question about Jenna.”

“Ms. Pruitt seems to be just fine, sir.”

“So what is this about?”

“An article has started circulating about you. And sir, it seems to be picking up traction.”

“Okay,” I respond slowly, still not understanding why Thomas is involved. I don’t give the tabloids the time of day with all the misinformation they report, so something must be wrong if both Philip and Thomas are calling me about this. “What is the article about?”

“The article is about you and your lack of involvement in your child’s life.”

I stop dead in my tracks, not realizing that I was pacing. “What did you just say?” Surely, I couldn’t have heard him correctly.A child?“You know damn fucking well I don’t have a child. Someone better explain to me what the hell is going on,” I growl in a low, menacing voice, not believing what I just heard.

“Are you near a computer, Cal?” Philip asks and I answer yes while rounding the corner of my father’s desk. “I just emailed you the link to one of the articles.”

I sit down in his chair and start typing out my father’s password that I created for him. I go to the internet and log into my email. I open the email from Philip and click on the link. The link takes me to the National Mail, a British tabloid website, and the headline in big, bold letters reads“CAL HARRINGTON IS A DEADBEAT DAD!”

What. The. Fuck.

I scroll down and my eyes don’t focus on the article or the picture of me, but on the photo of Jenna carrying a small child. Jenna is smiling at the girl and I’m momentarily hypnotized. I drink that photo in for a minute before clicking on it to see if I can get a better look at the child. I zoom in on her face, but it’s only a side view. I minimize the photo and go back to the article. I scroll down some more and that’s when I discover another photo in the article. This time the child is holding onto Jenna’s neck, her face looking directly at the camera. I click on the photo and when it enlarges on my screen, I suck in my breath.

She looks just like me.

“Is it possible, Cal?” Philip must have heard my gasp and I try to focus on his question, but my mind is reeling.

“Thomas, tell me who this is,” I demand because my gut is telling me that Thomas has done some research before alerting Philip to the article.

“Birth records are not public in the state of Illinois, Cal, so I don’t have all the answers for you. I called the news agency where this article originated from and couldn’t get much information. The only thing my source was able to tell me is that these photos were taken last week, and the photographer and source are anonymous. They wouldn’t reveal where they got the information from. I’m in Chicago and just followed Ms. Pruitt. She dropped off the same little girl at this pre-school that is near her condo. The girl looks to be around three or four years old, which is close to the timeline of when you were with Ms. Pruitt in Las Vegas.”

“How do we know this?” I question my mind on autopilot while I try to digest that Jenna has a child.

Imight have a child.

---