Page 70 of Wild and Bright

“She’s a great kid. She reminds me so much of you at that age.” I smile. “She thinks she knows everything.”

When I lift my hand and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, a small smile tugs at her lips. “I never thought you would like kids, since you don’t like people.”

“I don’t normally, but I adore her.” My eyes grow unfocused as an inchoate thought starts to form—something that sparked the day I found Cadence in my kitchen and has been steadily growing beneath the surface ever since. “I think some primitive part of my brain knows she isn’t just any other kid.”

The moment the words escape my lips, certainty fills me. Certainty I’ve never felt before, not even on that day I took Lauren to Denny’s and made my accusation. A strange exhilaration rushes through my veins, something akin to victory.

A notch forms between her brows. “What do you mean?”

I settle hard eyes on her face, my nostrils flaring. “You know what I mean.”

When her gaze darts from mine, I grab her chin and force her to look at me. “She really is my daughter, isn’t she?”

TWENTY

Lauren

A cold shiver runs down my spine. I shut my eyes for a moment to collect myself, taking a deep breath in through my nose and releasing it slowly out of my mouth. When I finally feel like I have control over myself, I lift my head and meet his gaze. “It’s much more likely that Ryder is her biological father.”

“According to the DNA test, right? The DNA test you told me you got? The results came back and said it’s much more likely that Ryder is her biological father?”

His sarcasm makes me want to shrink into myself. He’s again hard, controlling Cam, and it makes me ache for the tenderness of moments ago, when he held me against his chest and all but forced me to accept that I’m a wonderful mother. But now he wants something, and that makes him ruthless.

I raise my chin, forcing myself to stare at him without flinching. “I never got it done.”

He shakes his head. “I can’t believe you lied to me. Do you have any integrity at all? This is a big fucking deal, Lauren. I may have lost four whole years of my daughter’s life.” His dark eyes look almost hateful, and it makes the last few magical hours we spent together feel like a fading dream. “You’re reckless and careless.”

His words make my skin prickle with apprehension. It’s a visceral reaction I can’t help after so many years of hearing similar things from my mother. I know Cam isn’t a monster. I know he wouldn’t threaten to take her away from me, but co-parenting with him might be difficult.

Especially if we lose this harmony between us.

I narrow my eyes on his face. “I was eighteen fucking years old, and you were a complete asshole to me. You had already cut me out of your life by the time I found out I was pregnant. Is it really so hard to understand why I was more inclined to believe she belonged to someone who cared about me? Someone who was ecstatic about having a baby even after I had broken his heart a few months before?”

He opens his mouth as if he wants to argue with me, but then his face shutters. “But you didn’t know for sure that he was her father, and you didn’t even give me a chance.”

“No, but it was so much more likely she was Ryder’s. I had sex with him multiple times that month…” I’m surprised when he flinches, as if the thought is unpalatable. How the hell could he be jealous of my high school boyfriend after all these years? “And only once with you. But either way, I don’t care about DNA. I’m an IVF baby. If it were up to nature, Logan and I wouldn’t even exist. What makes a father has nothing to do with biology. Ryder is her father, and he’s a good one.”

Cam’s eyes grow a little bewildered. “And I wouldn’t be a good father?”

When I hesitate, the hurt look only grows, and it makes something twinge in my chest. I soften my voice. “It’s not that. It’s just… Everything was so complicated between us back then. And…”

“And what?” His look is eager, probing, which means my next words are very important. I don’t know how to tell him the truth without hurting him. “I didn’t think you would want her. You were so invested in the band. You moved across the whole fucking country. I was sure if you found out I was having your baby, you would feel like she was this huge burden, dragging you back to your boring hometown. And even back then—even when she was a little thing growing in my belly—I hurt for her. It hurt me to think of her having a parent who didn’t really want her.”

“Well, I do want her.” He stares down at me, his face growing hard. “We’re getting that DNA test done. Tomorrow, if I can arrange it.”

“No, we’re not.” I lower my chin. “And if you think you can scare me into doing it by taking me into your lawyer’s fancy office, think again. I’ve researched the hell out of this. You have no rights, even if she really is yours biologically. You can’t make me do anything.”

He huffs, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you. How could you do this to me? How could you do this to her? You might be keeping her real father away from her.”

The hurt in his voice compels me to place my hand on his. Surprisingly, he doesn’t pull it away. “It’s because of her that I’m putting my foot down. Think of how confusing this will be at her age. How would we even explain it in a way that she could understand? She loves Ryder. He’s her daddy…” I swallow when my throat grows tight. “You’ve become part of her life, and she’s bonding with you, but she still doesn’t really know you. I can’t suddenly tell her you’re her real father. That would rock her little world.”

I can see all over his face that he doesn’t agree. “It would only rock her world because of your irresponsibility. If you had done the right thing years ago, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.” His eyes narrow. “Think of everything I could have given her. Think of the life she could have had.”

The implication that I haven’t given her enough makes rage flare through my veins, making me almost dizzy. “She’s never gone without!” My mouth snaps shut when I realize I shouted in his face. I make an effort to soften my voice. “I’ve been getting help from my parents—even when it meant living with my asshole of a mother—so I could give Cadence everything you and I had growing up.”

“And I didn’t even start thinking she might possibly be yours until very recently, like the last few months. How would you have reacted if I called you up three months ago and said, ‘Hey, Cam, remember when you asked me if Cadence might be your baby, way back before you had money? Well, now that you’re a multimillionaire and I’m still living with my parents, I think we should finally get that DNA test.’ What would you have done?” I can’t keep the accusation out of my voice.

He stares at me for a moment before speaking. “We’ll never know, will we?” His voice is hauntingly soft, and it makes my skin prickle.

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