Page 5 of The Tempo of Truth
Lev shoved his phone under my nose and pointed at the jersey the little boy was wearing.“He’s wearing your number from when you played for Brazil.You were no one back then.Why would one of the richest women in the world put something like that on her child when she can afford a designer?And if she’s a fan, why not represent the winning team?She wouldn’t use that particular jersey unless it was sentimental.”
“She probably didn’t plan on having her picture taken.I doubt she planned on telling the world she had a kid in such a flashy manner.That’s not her style.”I lifted my hand and tugged at the end of the tape wrapped around my wrist with my teeth so I could set my palms free.“Maybe I’m wrong.”It seemed I didn’t know Winnie nearly as well as I thought I did.I couldn’t look at her through the filter of what once was.To see her clearly, I needed to view her as someone capable of keeping the truth from me and hiding a secret I had every right to know.“She’s changed.”
“I don’t care if the girl’s morphed into a dinosaur.That boy should know who his father is, especially if it’s you.I know you better than you know yourself, Ky.You might not want the cash, but I know that all you’ve everreallywanted is a family.I know Julie raised you right and did her best on her own when times were tough at the beginning.But you’ve always wanted more than that.There is no way in hell you’re going to walk away from any child who might have your blood running through their veins.”He grunted as he shoved a withered finger in my face.“Don’t make this another regret you can’t let go of.”
I tossed the bloody tape in the trash and pushed off the boxing ring.“That’s good advice, old man, but I think you’ve forgotten that no one can approach a family like the Hallidays just for the hell of it.”
Not even with the history we had.That made it even harder for me to get close.The suspicion that I might be involved with Winnie’s kidnapping still hung over my head.There was no chance they were going to let me near that kid with all the unanswered questions from the past lingering.If anyone thought I might snatch the little boy and leverage him for nefarious means, I didn’t want to imagine what sort of horrible retribution any of the Hallidays would come up with.Winnie didn’t scare me as much as Win Halliday did.The man might be retired and pretty much live the life of a stay-at-home dad, but I would never underestimate him.A sleeping tiger still had all of its teeth and claws.
On top of the societal gap being too vast to bridge, I had ordered Winnie to stay away from me and told her I never wanted to see her again.And I meant every word of it at the time.
After that night, she kept up her end of the bargain.I no longer saw her face in the crowd or felt like someone was following my every move from a distance.She disappeared completely, and so did the feeling of having someone on my side.No matter what.When I pushed her away, I lost the only true teammate I had besides my mother.
Lev clapped a hand on my shoulder and gave me a playful shove.“I can help you get close.A couple of members of the gym are former military.I know one of them is in the private security industry.I can poke around and see if I can get the contact info for someone on Halliday’s detail.We can set up achancemeeting, and you can get a good look at the little boy.”
I shook my head.“No way.I’m not doing anything underhanded when it comes to Winnie.”I’d taken advantage of her fondness for me more than enough.“If she hasn’t changed her number in all these years, I can call her directly.If I try to scheme my way into that child’s life, it’s bound to end badly.”I didn’t want to play any more games with Winnie’s feelings.She deserved better than that.It had taken my epic rise and spectacular fall to realize that.Anyone who showed up for me when I was at my lowest should be exempt from the machinations and misdeeds that fueled my current existence.She didn’t need to be part of the grind I used to stay relevant.
“She kept the boy a secret from you for years.Why would she be honest with you now?You’ve got a blind spot that’s making you soft, Ky.”A heavy thump hit me on the back before the Russian started to lumber in the direction of a young boxer who called him to help spar.“You’ll be lucky if you ever get to meet the boy face to face if you’re going to be weak.You earned yourself that smackdown from a rookie earlier.”
I grunted in response.I picked up my gym bag and went into the locker room to wash the blood off my face.I thought some ice-cold water might stop my head from buzzing, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my mind off the picture of Winnie and the little boy.Every time I looked at it, my heart pounded, and a fuzzy feeling I’d never experienced before filled my gut.I needed to get answers.
I stripped and shoved everything in a locker so I could take a shower and wash away the weak chicken energy I brought with me into the ring today.Typically, I dropped Lev’s trainees to the mat within the first five minutes of squaring off with them.
It was an open secret that I fought unsanctioned and underground.The kids he brought underestimated me until I made them see stars.I was both revered and reviled around the gym.Everyone was going to have a good laugh at my poor showing today when the word that a newbie made me bleed made the rounds.
Fortunately, I had the locker room to myself as I cleaned up and did my best to put the unpleasant round and Lev’s provocation behind me.I needed time to decide the best method to approach Winnie to ask about the kid.
I didn’t remember everything from that night years ago.Things got hazy from the moment Winnie entered the bar.I recalled leaving with her, and I still knew exactly how she tasted and how warm and soft she felt underneath me.My favorite secret was the knowledge that I was the Halliday heiress’s first.Even drunk off my ass, it stayed with me that no one else knew what it was like to make Winnie lose control.All those fuzzy, sex-filled memories swirled together, and there wasn’t a condom or mention of another type of birth control in any of them.I was too inebriated to think about safe sex, and I guessed Winnie was too naïve to consider it.We created a perfect storm, and the weather was just right for leaving her with a living, breathing souvenir.While I forced myself to forget, Winnie was stuck with a reminder of my shitty behavior and blatant disregard, a reminder she obviously loved and cherished.At the same time, I sank deeper into a pit of gratuitous indulgence and predictable self-destruction.
Maybe the kid was better off without me.I knew his mother definitely was.
Only, just as I was about to convince myself to drop the whole thing and let sleeping dogs lie, my phone dinged with an incoming message.There was no name attached to the number, just a black heart.I’d set the image when I was a teenager and knew the cute girl I saved from bullies was way out of my league.I also knew she was going to hate me once she figured out I didn’t protect her out of the goodness of my heart, but because I wanted something from her, just like everyone else in her privileged life.
I looked at the message and felt the world shift under my feet.It seemed neither of us had changed our numbers since we were teens.We’d always been able to contact one another.Something about that felt significant.
~ This is Winnie.We need to meet.I have to talk to you about something important.
The words were simple.And yet, I knew whatever followed them was going to be anything but.
Winnie
I used the tip of my shoe to push myself on the weather-beaten swing.The gold designer emblem got covered in dust as the rusty chains squeaked underneath my weight.The sound reminded me of my younger days spent in the city and gave this late afternoon meeting a sense of nostalgia.
The dark-haired man leaning on the metal frame of the swing set also had shadows of his younger self clinging to him.All Ky was missing was the bleached-blond hair and the ever-present skateboard he used to carry under his arm.Every ounce of his rebellious defiance that I found so fascinating as a young woman was still firmly in place.Even though he agreed to meet me at the park where we used to spend time as teenagers, I could tell he wasn’t happy with the arrangement.It was out in the open, which meant there was no way to completely guard against someone catching sight of us or to prevent sleazy pictures from being taken.
It appeared that Ky still had no interest in being linked with me in the eyes of the public.Reluctance was stamped all over his handsome face and radiated from every line of his athletic build.He kept a pair of mirrored sunglasses over his eyes, and the brim of his baseball cap was pulled low, making it hard to decipher what he was thinking.Not that I’d ever been able to infer his true intentions.If he were easier to read, I wouldn’t have wasted so much of my valuable time trying to figure him out.
“I enrolled Lowe in the primary school around the corner.It’s the same one all the Halliday and DeVere kids go to.Our high schools are only a few blocks away from here.Plus, it’s common knowledge that you still come to this park to play pickup games when you have free time.It makes more sense that we bumped into each other organically and decided to catch up here in the park than if we were to try to have a secret meeting elsewhere and got caught trying to be clandestine.Even with all the security surrounding the entrances and exits, this is the most low-key place I could think of to meet to tell you that, Lowe is your son, Ky.I’m sorry if you feel like you’re on display, and for dropping this on you out of the blue.”He should be more familiar than I was with what it felt like living inside a fishbowl and having spectators watching and judging your every move.Ky was a constant presence in entertainment gossip circles.He’d made more headlines with his chaotic love life and disastrous decisions in the years following our last meeting than I had.He’d gone from being famous to infamous nearly overnight, and now that we were about to be tied together publicly for the foreseeable future, he was going to reach another level of notoriety.Ky’s name was about to make the rounds in both the celebrity and society pages.
“Lowe?You named him after your mother.”It wasn’t a question.Ky’s deep voice was gruff and impatient.
My lips quirked at the corners.I always smiled when talking about Lowe.He was my pride and joy and my most outstanding achievement.He was such a happy and well-adjusted kid—everything I wasn’t while growing up.No one outside of my immediate family knew that the name Lowe was pulled fromWillow.I was pleasantly surprised that Ky picked up the reference with no trouble.He ordered me out of his life, but it looked like he hadn’t forgotten all about me, as I secretly feared.
“Ididname him after my mom.”I pushed the swing with more force.“And after you.Lowe Kent Halliday.”I glanced at him through the chains on the swing.“I don’t expect anything from you, but I thought it was time you should know.I had plans to tell you after I was back home and things were more settled.I didn’t plan on my early arrival leaking to the press and putting Lowe’s face in front of millions of eyes the first day.His resemblance to you is uncanny, which means people are going to connect the dots between the three of us sooner rather than later.If you want to do a paternity test before getting labeled as his father by outsiders, that’s fine.But I’m telling you, it’s not necessary.I know you’re the only one who could be his father, given the time frame, and it’s like my genes didn’t even attempt to make a mark on him; that’s how much Lowe takes after you.I’d rather control the narrative around our entanglements than let wild speculation run out of control right before I’m set to step into the CEO role at Halliday Inc.”
“You didn’t think I had a right to know before now?”There was no missing the condemnation in Ky’s tone.He was pissed.And I knew he had every right to be.“This is so fucked up, Winnie.Even for a Halliday.”
I hummed a light sound of agreement.“I did fuck up.I should’ve told you sooner.Maybe even as soon as I found out I was pregnant.In my defense, I was young and terrified, and so were you.You told me you never wanted to see my face again.You were in no position to care about me and a baby when I saw you last.You couldn’t even take care of yourself.You were so out of it that night; I wondered if you could even remember I was there in Portugal.When I found out I was pregnant, my first thought was that you wouldn’t believe me if I told you getting knocked up was an accident.I didn’t want you to accuse me of trying to trap you into a relationship with me that you clearly never wanted.My Uncle Win has always been big on taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions, so that’s what I did.Lowe was my responsibility; one you never asked for or anticipated sharing.”
