Page 10 of Almost Paradise

With the wind taken out of me, I sit. Lord knows I haven’t done anything else. I haven’t eaten. I haven’t slept. All I’ve done is obsess about the fact that I have a son and I know nothing about him. It’s been less than twenty-four hours since I left Nia’s house. Since then, I’ve called her twelve times. She answered the first time, and when she realized it was me, she promptly hung up. She hasn’t taken any of my calls since. I’m pretty sure I’ve been blocked.

“I’m not feeling very rational right now.”

“I can tell. Listen, you’re not going to sue her for custody. You’re not going to sue her for anything. Under no circumstances are you to threaten to sue her.”

“Too late,” I mutter.

“Well, that was a dumb move. Tell her you didn’t mean it. All that will do is hurt the child you say you want to get to know. She’s the only parent he knows. Do you really want to take him from her?”

I clench my jaw and refuse to answer him. The last thing I want to do is hurt my child, but his mother is a whole other issue. I want to crush her, but even in my fury, I know I can’t hurt her without hurting him.

“Wyatt, she—”

Wyatt holds his hand up. “I heard everything you said. I also think you can clear this up with one conversation. From what you told me, she thinks you abandoned them, but you claim she never told you. Both of those things can’t be true. There’s a big piece of the story missing.”

“Or she’s a pathological liar,” I add.

“Have you told Scarlett?” The change of subject strikes me speechless. I hang my head down and refuse to answer. “I’ll take that as a no. What about your mother? Does she know she has a grandson?”

“My mother is a basket case. She hasn’t even accepted that my father is dead yet. My brother, before you ask about him, drinks himself silly every day. My sister is off in her own world. And how do you tell the woman you’re going to marry that she’s signing up to be a stepmother?” I put my head in both hands in despair.

Scarlett wants to start a family as soon as we get married. I still haven’t agreed to a wedding date despite being engaged for over a year. She’s been more than patient. I can’t possibly throw this at her too.

“You need to tell your fiancée that you have a child, Drake. You need to sit her down and tell her everything first. Then talk to Nia. Leave your Paradise Heir persona at home. Take it down several notches because if you approach her like you run the world, she’s not going to take it well. I’ll come with you as a friend and mediator, not as your lawyer.”

He opens the folder and looks through the pictures. I grab one and look at the beautiful face of my son. “I’ll tell you one thing, this kid is your spitting image, but you should still get a paternity test. If the worst happens and you need to go to court to get visitation, you’re going to need proof of paternity anyway.”

“I already got one done.” His head snaps up at my admission. “He goes to a shitty daycare. My private eye figured out a way to get one. He’s mine.” Not that I needed a test. I felt the connection between me and the kid. And his face is another dead giveaway.

Chapter 8

Nia

I run my hand through Carter’s curly hair. He sighs peacefully in his sleep and purses his pink, full lips. I run my thumb along his bottom lip. My heart swells whenever I look at his sleeping face. He’s an angel when he’s sleeping and a tornado when he’s awake.

I kiss his cheek one more time, close the book, and tiptoe away from his bed. I kiss Kyle too. He’s in the bed on the other side of the room. He fell asleep as soon as I started reading, but it always takes Carter longer. I leave the door cracked and make sure the nightlight is on in the hallway before I return to the living room.

“Go to bed, sweetie,” I tell my nephew, Mason. He gets up from the couch and walks down the hall to his room, leaving me alone with Ray.

“Sit,” he orders, and I do. “Has he called again?”

“I don’t know. I blocked him, and I haven’t answered any strange numbers.”

Ray lets out a breath and runs his hands over his face. “First, stop doing that. You have to talk to him,” he tells me.

“I tried to talk to him. Three years and eight months ago, I reached out to him. He told me he wanted nothing to do with me or the child. That’s what he said. The child. It’s as if he didn’t help create him. So, now he wants to waltz back into my life and pretend he didn’t turn his back on me? Fuck that.” Ray leaves me on the couch in the living room and goes to the kitchen when the tea kettle starts to whistle. He puts tea bags in two mugs and pours hot water over them.

He hands me my favorite mug and sits across from me.

“You need to think about what you’re doing, Nia. If he makes good on his threat and takes you to court, you can’t beat him. He has infinite money, and you don’t. Besides, he’s the father and he has rights.”

“Screw him and his rights. He and his rights can go straight to hell. I talked to Audrey, and she’s agreed to represent me if it comes to that.” The words get stuck in my throat. The idea of fighting to keep my baby is so upsetting, I haven’t slept or eaten since yesterday afternoon. I’ve always been scared of this scenario. I’ve played it in my mind a million times, but I never thought it would come true.

“Audrey has been practicing law for less than six months. I love our cousin, but she doesn’t have the experience or resources to handle what Paradise will throw your way. He’ll have an entire team. He’s probably not above blackmailing or bribing a judge. You can’t—"

“Then I’ll go back to my first plan and kill him,” I say. “There’s no death penalty in Massachusetts,” I shrug. “What do I have to lose?”

“Do that and you go to prison for life, and you lose your freedom and your son. Be serious, Ni. You need to talk to him.”

---