Page 112 of Songbird: Black Kite
Myheartwasinmy throat, my brain literally stalled as I processed her brutally honest question. Turning my head, I looked at Cooper, the setting sun lighting her dark hair with streaks of copper and gold, and as she stared back at me, her blue eyes, so much like mine, shining in the dying light of the evening, I could see how desperate she was for my answer. The words I said next would likely make or break my relationship with my daughter, and for that reason, I considered them very carefully.
“Cooper, there is nothing in this world that I want more than you.”
“Then where have youbeen?” she asked, her voice rough as she tried to control her emotions, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Why did it take you so long to decide you wanted to see me?”
Blowing out a breath, I rubbed my hand across my mouth, knowing Wren was probably going to murder me if I did this wrong, but in my heart, I felt that I owed Cooper the truth.
“I know you know about my ex-wife. I know you know about the bad things that I’ve done and the crap I’ve been going through in the last few years.” She nodded, but didn’t speak. “Well, the truth is that I didn’t know about you until just a few weeks ago.”
“What?” Cooper turned, her body facing mine as she lifted onto her knees. “How can that be? You signed all those papers.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I saw them!” she insisted.
“I know, kiddo. But what you saw was a fake. Those papers? They were never signed by me. Your mom was lied to. I had no idea she was pregnant. Not until recently.”
Cooper sat back, her shoulders sagging as she seemed to deflate.
“Who would lie about something like that?”
A vindictive, manipulative bitch.
“Someone who thought that having a child would be bad for the band, I think. I don’t really have all the details right now. As soon as I learned about you, I dropped everything and came here. Because I needed to see you. To talk to you and your mom and figure out what to do.”
“Do about what?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Well, everything, I guess. Getting to know you, for one thing. Seeing if you want to get to know me.” I grinned at her. “Outside of myWikipediapage, that is.”
“It’s super informative, you know,” she countered, offering me the first hint of a smile I’d seen from her, and I could have sworn my heart squeezed in response.
“I bet it is.”
“You don’t look at it? Don’t you want to know what it says?”
“Kid, I learned a long time ago that I didn’t really care for most of what was said about me on the internet.”
“Why? If I was famous, I’d be looking myself up, like, daily.”
Yeah, she might feel differently about that one day.
“Well, for the most part, the majority of what gets written about me is wrong. Or they’ve taken something that was true and twisted it to mean something else entirely. Fame is a monster that you really can’t control, Cooper.”
“So you didn’t punch that photographer?”
“Oh, no. I totally punched him,” I said with a laugh, then covered it with a cough. “Which was wrong and should never have happened.”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes. I hoped I’d never get tired of watching my kid roll her eyes at me. “I see people get punched all the time. The jocks at school treat fist fights like an official school sport most days.”
“What do they fight over?” It surprised me that there were fights at her small school. Somehow, I had thought that the small-town vibe meant that everyone got along like one of those cheesy shows on TV.
“Dumb stuff,” she said, tilting her head as she thought. “Sometimes sports, or girls or whatever, but mostly just stupid boys saying stupid things and getting all butthurt about it.”
“Sounds about right.”
“So why did you punch that guy?” she pressed.
“Because he was a stupid guy who said a stupid thing and I got all butthurt about it.” Cooper laughed, and I felt like a fuckin’ hero because it was me that had made it happen. “He said something rude about my mom. I was young and reacted badly, and because I am who I am, there were a lot of people around to see it. I ended up paying the price.”
