Page 81 of The Devoted Husband

“We have a message from Vanessa, Atlas’s mom.”

“Aw, hell. This can’t wait until after she has the baby?”

“It’s . . . concerning the baby, Dante.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just stop by. We’ll explain everything.”

Barron disconnected the call, and Dante groaned. A part of him wanted to forget what he’d heard and not tell Sade, but he couldn’t do that. It would be best if they took care of this now. He hated that after weeks of peace, it felt like they were about to step into some drama that the man he killed was somehow at the center of.

As Sade approached him with a comfortable smile, Dante hated to tell her something that might wipe it off her face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him.

“Why do you think something is wrong?”

“You’re frowning,” she noticed, rubbing the space between his wrinkled brows.

“Oh. I just got off the phone with your grandpa. He wants us to stop by.” Her eyes rolled as she sighed. “He says it’s important. Something about Vanessa.”

“All right. We can stop by before we eat. I don’t want to obsess over what it is and not be able to enjoy my food.”

“We wouldn’t want that, would we?” Dante teased, grabbing their bags off the nearby bench before leaving the mall.

“Thank you for stopping by,” Ava said with a smile. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” Sade agreed, sitting next to Dante on the couch. “What’s this about?”

Ava and Barron looked at each other, and then Barron spoke first.

“You know we reached a sort of truce with Adam’s family. Because the twins are his only children, we’ve worked out an agreement so that they can spend time with his family.”

“Right,” Sade said.

“Well, when Samantha came to get the girls, her sister was with her. Vanessa would like you to take a DNA test just to prove the baby isn’t Atlas’s.”

Sade stared at them for a while before bursting into laughter. She leaned forward as much as her belly would allow, gripping Dante’s thigh. As serious as the situation was, her level of unbothered amused Dante.

He licked his lips, trying to hide his smile.

“Wow. Are you serious?”

“Very,” Ava said.

“But Atlas told them the baby wasn’t his before he died.”

“Apparently, they are questioning that because he started saying it was,” Ava clarified. “I think they are grasping at straws. He’s gone, and they want this baby to be what they have to remember him by.”

“I get that...especially since the twins are around more. And I can admit that Atlas started to become possessive of the baby and call it his, but it’s not, and they know that. However, I’ll agree if they need a test to put this to rest.”

“Good,” Barron said. “They said you can get it done now. Is that safe?”

Sade smiled. “Yes, Grandpa. They have noninvasive prenatal paternity testing. I’ll talk to Doctor Smith about it and see when I can schedule it. Tell Vanessa and Clay I’ll get the test done as soon as possible.”

“We will,” Ava agreed as Sade stood, causing Dante to do the same. “Are you leaving so soon?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry,” Sade admitted with a smirk.

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