Page 65 of Huge Games

"When's that?"

"Five months." Lina stands and makes her way closer, and I'm reminded of the school tarantula I looked after in the summer holidays. It had a way of walking that gave me the creeps.

She touches my arm and peers down her nose at Celine as though she's hoping she'll just disappear by wishing. "I know this is a lot to understand, but it's a good thing, yes? We were happy once. We can be happy again. I made some mistakes, I know. But with a baby, I won't make the same mistakes again." Her smile, that's all teeth and thin lips, could turn me into dust.

The audacity of her to give me this speech while I'm holding another woman's hand isn't lost on Celine. Herfingers tighten around mine, and I feel she's ready to unleash. I squeeze her hand gently, urging her to keep calm.

"That isn't going to happen." I shift on my feet, my fight-or-flight instinct telling me to run as far away from this toxic woman as I can. She touches her stomach again, and the panic I feel that it could be my child contained inside her sends a trickle of sweat down my back.

Her eyes narrow into the same slits that I remember so well from when I confronted her about the rumors. There was no shame. No apology for sleeping with another man. There was just anger that I found out and rage that I dared to ask her about it.

"I can go back to Germany, and you won't hear from me again." She tips her head to one side, smiling again like she didn't just threaten to take a child that might be mine and disappear. "Or you can come back to Germany with me, and you'll have a chance of spending time with your child when it's born. Those are the options, Travis. There are no others."

"Now hang on a minute," Mom says, her hand reaching out towards Lina. "Don't you think that's a little radical? Travis has a life here, and if he's not certain the baby is his, shouldn't you be willing to take some time and work at things? I don't understand why you're treating this as a black-and-white situation."

Lina cuts my mom a withering stare. "Travis should understand that this situation is very difficult for me. I need to prepare for this baby. The preparation can be with him or without him. If it's without him, then me and the baby won't need him."

"A child always needs a father."

"A father doesn't have to be genetic."

Mom's face reddens at the idea that I could so easily be replaced in my child's life. Celine is still holding hertongue, but I don't know how. She's conscious of overstepping, maybe. Conscious that this is a family matter, and the stakes are high.

Feet pound down the stairs, and Gabriella appears in the doorway, dressed in purple gym gear with her hair braided into two long blonde strands. "I thought I heard voices." She looks between us all, waiting for a response, but no one says a word.

"I'll come to Germany if the paternity test proves the baby's mine."

Lina shakes her head. She puts up two fingers. "Two options, Travis. You don't have to decide now. I'm flying back tomorrow. Come with me or don't. It's your choice."

She turns to my mom. "I'm sorry we met under these difficult circumstances."

Mom grimaces, a flush settling high over her cheeks. "It seems to me that you are making the circumstances more difficult than they need to be."

With a blasé shrug of her shoulders that indicates zero remorse, Lina walks past Gab, down the hallway, and out of the front door, slamming it behind her for effect.

It's only when the lock clicks into place that I slump into the chair behind me. I clutch at my chest. I can't fucking breathe.

"Jesus." Celine drops to her knees in front of me and takes my face in her hands. "That woman is awful." I close my eyes, inhaling slowly to the count of four, and exhaling at the same speed until I have some control over myself again.

"What am I going to do?" I ask the question even though I don't expect Celine to have an answer. Even hearing advice at this moment won't help. I just need time to decompress and face up to what's just exploded in my face.

Gab steps into the room and takes a seat next to me.Celine drops her hands, defeat etched into her expression. Gab's arm drapes over my shoulder and she gives me a fierce hug. "Trav. She's pregnant?"

"So she says."

Mom slumps onto the opposite sofa, resting her face in her hands. It looks like she might cry and I couldn't deal with that, knowing that the impact of my decisions are the cause.

"I don't know what to do," I admit. "I don't know what I believe."

"She wouldn't have flown all this way if she wasn't pregnant. If she gets you to go back with her, she'll need to be showing within four weeks, or it'll be pretty obvious she's lying." I meet Mom's eyes and she shakes her head. "Do you believe what she said about not letting you have any contact if you don't go immediately?"

"Yes."

She blanches, twisting her hands in her lap. "So, you either go now, or you have to fight a foreign legal system to get a paternity test and access to a baby in five months."

"Or the baby isn't his, and he doesn't have to do anything." Gab leans into me and rests her forehead against my temple.

"He can't plan for that." Mom straightens. "He can't take that risk. He has to plan as though the baby is his."

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