Page 127 of Ace My Heart

“Oh, hi there, mate,” I said, trying to be nice because he was only a little kid, even though he was unzipping my bag as he stared at me totally unabashedly. “Are your parents around?”

“Shaun! Stop that now!” a familiar voice rang out. I winced. I knew that voice and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with its owner. The little boy stood up, a sheepish look on his face, and he trotted away. I unenthusiastically followed his steps with my eyes.

“Oh, hi Mel,” Julie greeted me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked warily.

“I work here,” she replied in a short tone. The child was standing at her feet, tugging on her shorts.

“In the crèche?” I asked in disbelief.

“No,” she replied reluctantly. “I’m the physio here. Joel put in a word for me.” She bent down and picked the child up, resting him on her hip in a very motherly way.

“Oh,” I replied. I actually took a good look at the child then, and I felt my legs start to tremble under me.

“Is that your son?”

Julie looked tenderly down at the child in her arms. He looked about three to me.

“Yep, this is Shaun. Shaun, this is Mel.” The boy looked at me with serious eyes. Serious eyes that were horrifyingly familiar to me. I clutched at the counter as my legs threatened to give way.

“He looks just like his father,” I muttered breathlessly. That’s when the world went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Illegitimate

Icame to in a wave of dizziness. I was on a massage table in a room with ambient lighting and indoor palms and ferns everywhere. Andrew the PT stood over me, looking concerned. I sat up and breathed deeply through a wave of nausea. As my vision began to clear I saw Julie hovering nervously.

“Are you okay, Mel?” she asked cautiously. I nodded, holding my forehead and refusing to look in her direction. I looked down at the floor, where the little boy was playing in the corner with some Lego bricks. That made me feel sick again.

“Andrew, can we have a moment?” I grated out. The trainer left hurriedly. I think he sensed that there was about to be one whopper of a showdown in the room.

Julie took a seat in a chair against the wall. I looked around – everywhere except at the child on the floor.

“This your office?” I asked, buying time while I figured out what I wanted to say. Julie nodded, looking around herself.

“It’s nice,” I commented.

“Mel, listen –” Julie started. I didn’t let her finish. So much for trying to say this diplomatically. I was just going to blurt out the first thing that came into my head.

“No, you listen tome! I don’t like being lied to and it seems thatboth you and DJ … Joel … have been doing exactly that! You have a child together … he’s a fuckingfather!”

“Mel, just let me –”

“Let you what? I thought you two had never met before that day in the change room, but obviously I was wrong. I mean, I knew that you were sleeping with him, but I didn’t know that it has been going on for,” I turned to look at the child, “what, four years? You’re a decade older than him! Oh my God, I can’t believe I slept with him! I can’t believe I actually thought that there might be …” I let that trail off. It was dangerous to go there, especially out loud.

Julie came and stood directly in front of me, staring me straight in the eyes. I pouted childishly at her.

“Have you said your piece, Mel?” Julie asked me in a stern-mum tone. I shrugged belligerently.

“Good,” she continued. “Now before I say anything, I want you to promise not to use the F word, or any other swear word in the presence of my son. You clear on that?”

I nodded grudgingly. I knew better than to swear in front of children. But I had a good excuse: I’d just had a pretty massive shock.

“Okay. I can tell you’re pretty mad right now and I totally understand that. But don’t blame Joel.”

I snorted. How could Inotblame him? He should learn to keep his impressive penis in his pants. He’d told me he’d never had unprotected sex with anyone but me. Well, I was starting to realise how big a liar he was.

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