Page 100 of Songbird: Black Kite
“You really are stupid, aren’t you?”
“I’m just a little overwhelmed at the moment,” I snapped, turning on her with a furious glare. “It’s been a long couple of months, so excuse me if I’m a little slow on the uptake, but it’s not every day that the father of your child offers you hush money so that he never has to lay eyes on you again. Now, if you could please lay it all out for me, slowly, I’ll do my very best to keep up, alright?”
“Well,” Tori said, her gaze assessing. “Looks like you’re not a complete waste of skin after all.”
“How kind of you to notice.”
“Here’s the deal then, sweetheart. Hawk will give you and that kid fifty grand, right now, but you are to never speak about who the child’s father is. Ever. You don’t talk to the press, you don’t hint at it in your Tweets, and you sure as fuck never come after him for more. From this moment on, you have never heard ofBlack Kite. They don’t even exist to you. You don’t listen to their music, you don’t know any of their songs. They come on the radio, you change the fucking station. Got it?”
I nodded, swiping angrily at the single tear that managed to escape as I listened to her rant.
Because that’s what I was now.
Angry.
I was angry at Tori, angry at Hawk. But mostly, I was angry at myself for ever believing that I deserved something good in my life.
“If you break any of the clauses laid out here,” she continued, holding up the thick packet of papers I had no hope of understanding, “then Hawk,Black Kite, andCastor Recordswill sue you to within an inch of your pathetic little small-town life. You’ll be so tied up in litigation, not even Johnny Cochran could get you off.”
“Who?”
“Shut up. Now, sign here.” She held out a pen and pointed to a highlighted space on the first page. “And here. Now here.”
I signed everywhere she told me, my hand shaking more with each pass, feeling like I was both protecting my baby and digging a hole we might never get out of at the same time.
But I had no idea what else I could possibly do.
When it was over, Tori had her driver drop me off at the same corner she’d picked me up at earlier, my pathetic grocery bag in one hand, and an envelop full of papers and a check for fifty thousand dollars fromCastor Recordsin the other.
But it was my soul that felt empty.
Chapter fifty-nine
Hawk
Present
Istaredather,my fists clenched in rage as she finished telling her story.
All this time, she’d been hating me, thinking I was a heartless villain who’d abandoned her and Cooper without a second thought.
No wonder she hadn’t wanted to see me.
“Fuck,” I seethed through my clenched teeth. “Fuck!”
Pushing up from where I’d settled against the counter, I paced away from the kitchen, the fury in my veins flowing like a river.
“I knew that Tori was a bitch, but this?” I could feel my heart thrashing in my chest, filled with more anger than I could ever remember. “This is just too fucking far.”
“What are you talking about?” Wren asked, but I ignored her, pulling my phone out of my pocket and hitting Charlie’s contact.
“How can I be of assistance, sir?” he asked sarcastically. I guessed he was still pissed at me, but that shit would just have to wait.
“Tell Mick and the guys to get ready for a video call. We need a band meeting and we need it now.”
“Everything alright, Hawk?” he asked, his tone serious.
“Not in the fucking slightest, Chuck. But it will be.”
