Page 53 of Breakaway Daddies

I get to work, organizing my closet, packing up my clothing. Then I move to the bathroom, grabbing my soaps, my toothbrush, my shampoo, and my conditioner.

It feels so strange leaving like this, without closure, but I don’t think I need any. I shove all of my stuff into the bag, zipping it up before moving on to the few dressers I’d forgotten.

Suddenly, the front door slams open, reverberating off the living room wall downstairs.

I freeze mid-fold, gripping the sweater in my hands as I hear their footsteps gallop up the steps. Bruno, Rowan, and Thomas barrel into the room, their faces contorted and red.

“You’re just leaving?” Bruno snaps, arms crossed over his broad chest. His eyes burn with an anger I haven’t seen yet, and it pisses me off instantly.

How dare you think you have a right to be angry!

“You didn’t tell us you were pregnant.” Rowan’s voice is quieter, but there’s a deep pain there that I don’t like.

I roll my eyes, turning back to my packing. “I did. I texted you.”

Thomas scoffs. “Oh, yeah, great way to break life-changing news. You really think you can just throw us away like this? You think you have the right to get us all attached to you and then just toss us like we’re leftover pizza?”

I exhale through my nose. “I’m not throwing anyone away. I just—” I shake my head. “I’ve never been the relationship type, okay? I’m independent. That’s not going to change just because there’s a kid in the mix.”

Bruno steps forward, jaw tight. “That’s not fair, Jinx. You don’t get to make this decision for all of us. You don’t get to meet our families and?—”

“That’s not fair, Bruno,” I retort, feeling myself rising with anger. “I didn’t ask to meet your grandma, you took me to meet her. In fact, you told her about me when we were just sleeping together—we weren’t serious!”

The admission sets them all off, each one of them sputtering over each other, trying to make points about shared breakfasts and intimacy, walks we took, and conversations we had.

I feel myself welling up with emotion at their words, my eyes filling with tears as I see the hurt expressions on their faces. I didn’t know how seriously they felt for me before this…

Thomas runs a hand through his hair. “And what if we want to be involved? What if we still want you?”

“Still want me?” I ask, my voice incredulous. “Hasn’t all of this proven to us we shouldn’t be together, I don’t… I don’t even know if I could be with one man, let alone three! What do I know about being a girlfriend, a wife? Now I’m going to be a mother, and that’s another thing I don’t even know how to do!”

Rowan steps forward and looks me dead in the eyes. “We’re in love with you, Jinx. Can’t you see that?”

The air is sucked out of the room.

I can’t handle this.

I won’t, and I don’t have to.

They’re ganging up on me, trying to clip my wings and pressure me into something I’m not ready for.

Something that frankly, terrifies the fuck out of me.

So I grab my bag, the one closest to me, with half of my closet and all of my toiletries.

I shove past them, storming out and slamming the door myself on the way.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

Rowan

The house is unbearably quiet,an oppressive silence that feels as though the very walls are closing in on me, suffocating with their stillness.

I awaken to a grim emptiness, the kind that wraps itself around my chest and tightens with each breath.

Thomas has been coping by immersing himself in relentless drills, his skates slicing through the ice as if his life depends on it, driving his body beyond its limits with a fervor that borders on obsession.

Meanwhile, Bruno, ever the brooding soul, has sought solace in the bottom of a glass, his nights stretching into the wee hours, leaving him to rise long after the morning skate has come and gone.

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