Page 53 of The Omega's Secret Baby
“I know.” Matt rubbed his temples. “God, why do there have to be so many gossips in this town?”
“They’re just bored.” I fastened my own seat belt and started the car. I wasn’t looking forward to getting home, but we couldn’t drag the inevitable out forever either.
It was time to face the music and own up to what we’d done.
* * *
We reachedthe house a few minutes before Griff and Jake came in. Griff gave us a helpless shrug while Jake tried to march up to his room. I stopped him on the stairs. “Jake. Wait. We have to talk.”
“I don’t wanna talk!” He looked at me with all the fury of a seven year old alpha. “Is he my dad?” He pointed at Matt, disregarding his own claim that he didn’t want to talk.
I took a deep breath, regarding my little boy and wishing that I could tell him something different. But I couldn’t. “Yes, he is.”
Jake stared at me as if he couldn’t believe that I wasn’t denying this. “You told me my dad was a hero! That he was out on adventures!”
“I’m sorry.” It was all I could think to say, faced with my son’s rage. I deserved this, and if screaming at me was going to make Jake feel better, I was going to let him scream it out. This wasn’t how I’d planned this conversation to go, but life didn’t often care for my plans.
Unfortunately, screaming wasn’t all Jake had in mind. He stomped down the stairs, walked up to Matt and stood on his toes as if to make himself bigger. Then he drummed on Matt’s chest with his little fists. “You made my daddy sad!”
What?
Of all the reactions I’d expected Jake to have, this wasn’t it. And I wasn’t sure how to deal with it.
Matt grabbed Jake’s fists and held them in his hands easily. Jake might be a fierce little alpha for his age, but he couldn’t quite take it up with a grown one yet. “I know,” Matt said, kneeling to be on eye-level with the kid. “I’m so sorry about that. But I didn’t know you existed. I would have come back for you. Can you forgive me?”
“No! I hate you!” Jake pulled his hands out of Matt’s grip and ran back up the stairs, past me, and into his room.
I didn’t try to go after him.
Matt looked like he wanted to, but I stopped him. “Let him calm down. This is a lot for him to take in right now.”
“You’re probably right.” Matt sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “You think he really hates me?”
“No.” I walked down the stairs. “Don’t listen to that. He told me that he hated me just a week ago. Kids are like that. They say hurtful things without meaning them because their emotions get the better of them. He doesn’t hate you, he’s just angry. And he has every right to be, you know? We lied to him. And we probably made him look stupid at school too.”
“Yeah, I get it. It’s just hard.” His eyes wandered in the direction of the stairs and I knew exactly what he was thinking.
“You won’t achieve anything by going up there right now.”
“But—”
“Please trust me on this. I know him better than you do.”
“Only because I wasn’t given the chance to know him until recently.”
Ouch. The hurt must have registered on my face, because Matt immediately apologized.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just frustrated. I guess I’m acting like a kid now too.”
“It’s okay. You’re right. I didn’t give you a chance to know him. But you will. You’ll have so much time with him once you’ve moved back here.”
“Maybe I should postpone the whole moving thing. I feel like I shouldn’t leave right now. Not with the way things are.”
“No, it’s fine.” I ran my hands down his arms in what I hoped was a comforting gesture. “He needs time to digest this anyway. I’ll talk to him. I promise things are going to look better by the time you come back.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and I could almost detect his frustration in his scent. My alpha didn’t like being passive, but I hoped he could trust me in this. “Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll go.”
“Thank you.” I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, knowing just how difficult this was for him. That he was willing to follow my lead meant a lot to me.
