Page 55 of The Omega's Secret Baby
“Why did you do that?”
“Just…” I shook my head at myself. How was I going to say this? Ever since Matt left earlier, I’d spent all day thinking about how to have this conversation with Jake, and yet here I was, struggling with the words. “I wanted you to havesomeoneto look up to, even if I had to make them up.” Would he understand that? He looked at me with eyes slightly narrowed in thought. “You know how people always say these means thing about me? I thought it would help you to know that your other dad wasn’t like me. I wanted that for you. I wanted you to have a really cool dad.”
“Because people are mean to you?”
I nodded. “I thought you deserved another parent who was a hero.”
He tilted his head, looking at me. “But I have you and Uncle Griff. I don’t need another parent.” And then, as I’d hoped he would at some point, he crawled into my lap and put his arms around my neck. “I hate the mean people.”
Aww.“Me too, sweetie.” I hugged him to myself like he was the most precious thing in the world—which hewas. “I’m so sorry.”
He was quiet for a moment, then he leaned back and asked, “Can I have ice cream?”
“Ice cream?” I raised an eye brow at him.
“Because you’re sorry and I’m sad.”
Oh, he was definitely going to be a handful when he grew up. “You haven’t finished your chili dogs.”
“But today’s special.’
He got me there. “Okay. You can have ice cream if you’ll come down with me.”
His eyes lit up. “Okay!”
“But first we have to finish talking.”
“About what?”
“About your other dad.”
He jumped off my lap. “I don’t need another dad. C’mon, let’s get the ice cream!” And before I could even argue, he was out the door. “Uncle Griff!” I heard him calling on his way downstairs. “Daddy said I could have ice cream! You want ice cream too?”
I sighed to myself. It seemed this was long from over.
* * *
As promised, Matt gave me a call that evening. His timing was good too—I’d just put Jake to sleep. Not an easy feat, considering the boy had had way too much sugar.
“Hey there,” Matt greeted me as I answered the phone, and the sound of his voice washed some of the troubles of the day away.
“Hey, you. You back in Boston?”
“Yeah. Actually, I should probably tell you that I ran into my ex-wife up here.”
What? His ex-wife… I remembered her. And just hearing her name filled me with cold dread. “How did you run into her?”
“It’s nothing you need to worry about, okay? She came over to get some of her things from the house, and since I wasn’t here, she decided to use the place for a few days while she finished some business in town. I guess she’s in much the same position I am. Trying to move back to her home town.”
“She’s staying with you?” That was all I took away from what he’d just said.
“Eli, please. Don’t worry about it. I’m only telling you because I’m tired of secrecy, and there’s nothing to hide here.”
“I’m not worrying,” I lied as I started pacing the living room.
“You know I never loved her, right?”
Didn’t stop you from marrying her.I bit my lip, mostly because I couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t sound passive-aggressive. “How would I know?” I found myself asking in the end, because really. He’d left me to marry this woman. And that hadhurt.I still had the cracks on my heart to prove just how much.
