Page 38 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

I swallowed. This has become more and more of a problem lately. She wants to know so badly it’s becoming a need. And who can blame her? She’s six years old. All she’s ever known is my sisters, her grandfather, and me. “Stella, I told you, it’s a little complicated to–”

“Well, then maybe Jessica and I could trade.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What?”

“Maybe she could have you for a week. And I could have her daddy for a week. And then we’ll both know what it’s like to have a mommy and a daddy.”

It broke my heart. For so many reasons. One, that she had rationalized it in her head that way, that somehow, she can get that thing she so desperately wants if she just tinkers with the system. Two, that she might want to trade me in. She didn’t say it like that, but how else am I supposed to take it? I’ve never been enough for her. And I’ve been a fool to think I ever was.

And three. Three is the hardest one.

That despite wanting to tell her with every fiber of my soul, I can’t. Because her father doesn’t even know he’s her father.

I pawned Stella off on my dad (a job he’s always more than happy to have) and rushed out here.

I’ve been coming to the cove ever since Axel showed it to me seven years ago. Never have I run into him since.

Now, by some hideous stroke of fate, he’s sitting next to me. Stella’s father, Axel Hitchins.

I’ve never had the strength to tell him. Never thought he really deserved it, honestly, after the way everything shook out.

But now, in this place we called our own seven years ago, I want to tell him. I want to tell him so bad. Then maybe I can give Stella what she’s always wanted and what she deserves more than anything.

“Maybe we can call a truce, huh?” Axel says, interrupting the silence left by my pause to think.

“A truce…”

“That we can put everything behind us and be friends again.”

Bringing up his paternal right to Stella would be the exact opposite of putting everything behind us. And I’m so eager to have that relationship with Axel again that I’m not sure I want to spoil it with a bombshell like that.

Stella will have to wait another day. “Okay…what does that entail?”

“Well, no more slander in the media.”

“I haven’t been slandering you.”

Axel smiles cheekily. I want to slap that smile off his face with my lips. “No more interviews, then. No more interfering. The council will decide what it decides and we’ll both back off whatever the answer is. How does that sound?”

I consider. It sounds…bad. But to have Axel back in any capacity that doesn’t involve us always at odds with each other sounds perfect. “Okay. Deal.”

“Wow, that’s it? No negotiating.”

I sigh, shaking my head. “I am so tired of negotiating, Axel.”

“You taking up law, Gillian?”

I scoff. “No, can you imagine? No, it’s more like negotiating bedtime, negotiating dessert, negotiating screen time.”

“Is Stella a tough customer?”

If only he knew how much she was like him. He would be eating his words because he would know just how stubborn she was. I didn’t know hardheadedness was a hereditary trait, and yet here I am. “Tougher than you, Axel.” ‘

“Oooh. Bet. I’d like to see it.”

I’d like that too. “Well, maybe someday soon. We’ll just have to see.”

“Guess so.” Axel’s eyes have never looked more green than right now. I’m trying not to match them with Stella’s in my mind, but I can’t help it. Her eyes are an exact copy of his. He holds out a long, pale hand. “Shake on it?”

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