Page 20 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

“And you’d be fine with just being called my friend?”

“I would do anything for our daughter. Anything.”

She nodded, and for a moment, it looked like she was considering it. “What happens when the cameras start coming around? What’s your plan to keep her safe?”

“Camille is the best PR person in the city. If there’s anyone that can keep our information offline and keep the pictures from being spread, it’s her.”

“And what if she can’t do it?” Haley asked.

I shrugged. “Everyone has a price. Yes, once the pictures are out there, they’re out there forever, but Camille is good at burying things and making it seem like they never existed. And with my stepping away from the entertainment side of Crestwood Capital, there will be fewer cameras on me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Haley, I can’t know everything, but I can tell you what I do know. That’s what I’ve done. I’m going to make sure our daughter is safe and protected, but at some point, you’re going to have to trust me.”

Haley looked away from me, staring out one of the windows. “That’s the problem, Ty. I don’t trust you.”

It would have been easier to hear that she hated me. Hate was an emotion that I could fix. Trust, well, she had more trust issues than I could count due to her mother. Once her trust was lost, I had never seen her give it back to anyone.

I was going to have to be the first person to win her trust back.

“And why don’t you trust me?”

“Do you remember what you were like in high school?” She looked back at me with those glistening eyes that hardened as she took a trip down memory lane. “You might have been the outcast, but you were arrogant, and you could be cruel.”

I wasn’t proud of the person I had been in high school. I had worked hard to change that person as Clarke, and I worked harder toward building our company. The boy I used to be in high school was long gone. She was judging me based on the person she had known. Although, when I saw her four years ago, I had reverted into that person for a brief period of time.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to show you that I’ve changed.”

The corner of her mouth twitched, but she didn’t look like she believed me. There was a thin line between her eyebrows that I wanted to make disappear. However, there was nothing that I could do to make her believe me in that moment.

“What are your other problems with me?”

Her lips pursed as she ran her hand through her hair again. She wasn’t saying something, and I had a feeling I had already said something about the other problems she had with me.

Her mother’s fame and what it did to her were coloring how she saw me and my career.

“Tyson, I can’t see a version of your life where Trinity and I fit. It doesn’t seem possible at all.”

I stared at her, trying to figure out exactly what she meant by that. Did she think that I would be a horrible father? Could she not see them in my life because she didn’t think I could be somebody’s dad?

Hurt flooded through me as I looked at her. She knew I had always wanted a big family and would have been thrilled to find out I had a daughter. She knew all of this and still chose to keep secrets from me.

“That’s a little hypocritical,” I said, my tone hard as I crossed my arms, my fists clenching. “Don’t you think? You get to know my plan with the media, and based on that. You can reject me from Trinity’s life.”

“Yes,” Haley said, her tone sharp. “That is exactly how it works. But it isn’t hypocritical.”

“I would say that it is, considering your stalker is putting our daughter in harm’s way, and you haven’t shared your plan with me for that.”

She was speechless as she stared at me, her mouth dropping open. Her mouth snapped shut twice before she shook her head.

“That’s different.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, standing up and walking to the front door. I yanked it open and looked back at her. “We both have people following us. You’re just the hypocrite who thinks that only the people following me are a problem.”

“I’m not a hypocrite! What’s happening in my life has nothing to do with how safe my daughter is!”

“Doesn’t it?” I asked. “You have someone following your every move and leaving you threatening notes. That’s dangerous for Trinity.”

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