Page 12 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

Now, seeing him in front of me, a bit of guilt started to creep through my body. I knew in high school that Tyson wanted a large family. Being a father had been something he talked about frequently as we neared the end of our relationship. It was one of the things that pushed me further away from him. I wasn’t ready to have his child back then.

Irony is a cruel bitch,I thought as I stared at Tyson, torn between slamming the door on him and trying to explain everything.

“I have a hard time believing that, but I also don’t know what you were doing four years ago,” he said, tensing as he stared down at me.

At times like these, I wished we were closer to the same height so I could stare him down without tilting my head slightly back.

“So, you think I just sleep around then?” I asked, bitterness in my voice. “You knew me better than anyone else, and you’re suggesting I would just get knocked up by some random man?”

“Christ, Haley. You’re the one that suggested it! What do you want me to say?”

Tyson threw his hands up and paced away from the door. If I was going to lock him out of my life again, now would be the moment when he wasn’t standing close enough to stop me.

Instead, I shut the door behind me as I stepped onto the front porch. “You need to leave, Tyson.”

“Like hell. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck is happening and how I have a daughter that I’ve never even heard about. Are you kidding me, Haley? Do you know how messed up that is?”

“You think I don’t know that?” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “We’re not doing this right now. You need to leave.”

“And I already told you I’m not going anywhere until we talk about this. I’m serious, Haley. I will get my lawyers involved if I have to. I’d rather just hear the truth from you. It’ll be a nice change.”

In that moment, I considered telling him exactly where to go. After taking a deep breath, I tried to put myself in his position. I knew that there was a possibility that one day he would find out he had a daughter. I just wasn’t expecting it to be this soon. If I were him and found out I had a daughter—even thinking I might have one—I would be pissed off as well.

“We’re not going to talk about it here,” I said as I looked toward the front door. “Trinity is inside with Bret, and I don’t want her coming out here and seeing this. She’s young.”

“I know she’s young,” he said, his tone biting. “It’s a damn shame I didn’t get to meet her before now, though. If you want to go somewhere else to talk, we’ll go, but it’s about damn time you start telling me the truth.”

***

We walked in silence to the high school down the street. There had been countless times in high school when we had taken the same walk, trying to escape the demons in my home for a few hours. Tyson had been the constant in my life back then. I had been able to rely on him for anything.

As we crossed the parking lot and walked to the old concession stand, I wondered what was going through his mind. I doubted I would ever be able to make him understand my position. Even though he knew everything that happened with my mom growing up, I knew he would see this as a betrayal.

“Start talking,” he said as he leaned against the crumbling wall of the old concession stand. “And I want the truth. Don’t try and argue your way out of this or only tell me certain things. I don’t care how bad it is. I want to know everything that’s happened.”

I didn’t know where to start. There was so much that I hadn’t told him. A story that spanned years of secrets and countless opportunities in which I could have gotten in contact with him and told him about Trinity.

What will he think when he finds out about the stalker? Will he try and take Trinity away from me?

Panic started rising to the surface again as I considered what would happen if he tried to take Trinity away. Of course, there was another option as well. If I still knew Tyson like I thought I did, he would protect his daughter. He had enough money to help with the stalker situation and would likely be more willing to investigate where the police wouldn’t.

In that moment, I hated myself for trying to figure out how I could twist this situation to my benefit. All I wanted to do was protect my daughter, but it never crossed my mind that I would be doing more damage than good by keeping her away from Tyson.

“What do you want to know?” I asked, the energy seeming to leave my body as I slumped against the wall beside him.

“Everything, Haley.” He ran a hand down his face, and for the first time, I noticed the fine wrinkles that seemed to have deepened in the last few weeks. I wondered if finding out about his daughter had anything to do with that.

“What if everything isn’t good?”

“I don’t care,” he said as he turned to look at me. “I want to know everything if she’s my daughter. Why you kept her from me? Where do we go from here? I want to know it all.”

“Alright,” I said with a sigh, hating how the hurt in his eyes ripped my heart from my chest. “I’ll tell you everything.”

“Is she my daughter?”

I ran a hand through my hair, staring at those hurt hazel brown eyes. A lump rose in my throat as I tried to form the words that seemed to keep escaping me.

“Haley, is Trinity, my daughter?”

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