Page 45 of Imperfections Forbidden
Is she seriously threatening me?She must have lost her goddamn mind.I back her up against the door and grab her by the wrist.
“I don’t think you want to play games with me.I will win every time by any means necessary.”For a second I see a flash of fear in her eyes.She presses her lips together then holds her head up high.Calm and cool, she narrows her eyes at me, like the ice-cold bitch she is.“This is the only time I’m going to tell you—don’t approach Cat again about anything having to do with me or this baby.”
She wrenches her hand free from my grip and rubs her wrist.I was so mad I didn’t realize how hard I was holding her wrist.I step back from her, and she grabs her bag off the kitchen table.“What are you going to do if I don’t follow your orders, Nick?”
“If this child is mine and you try to use him against me in any way, I’m going to come at you with everything I have.I will do everything possible to prove you unfit and rip my child from your arms.Have your attorneys ready; I’m not leaving anything up to chance with you.”
Chest heaving, she spits from between her teeth.“You’re a heartless bastard.”
“I don’t think I’m that heartless.I was sympathetic enough to have sex with you.”
She whirls around and opens the door to leave.
“Don’t ever threaten me, Kate.”
She gives me the coldest look I have ever seen from a woman—that’s saying a lot, coming from me—and slams the door hard behind her.
For hours after Kate leaves, I sit in my office, trying not to think about Cat, but it’s useless.She’s theonlything I can think about.She doesn’t know that I already knew Kate and Chris weren’t her father’s biological children.I was the only one Chris told when he found out.He took it pretty hard at first.He couldn’t understand how his mother could cheat on his father.She wasn’t the woman he thought she was, and he felt betrayed.For a year he hardly spoke to her, and he started spending a lot more time at my house.
He wasn’t sure how or where he fit in anymore, now that the man he thought was his real father wasn’t.Instead, it was a stranger, a man he would never know, who he could never ask, “Why didn’t you want us?”One day he had a talk with his father, but he didn’t go into specifics about what they talked about.He did say after they talked he realized being someone else’s adopted kid didn’t make him any less of his son than Jay.This was the only father he knew and wanted, because he loved him the same as Jay and Cat from the day he was born.Over time he started speaking to his mother again.For me it was an early lesson in understanding that you can’t tell what goes on inside a family by looking at them and what they present for others to see.
In less than two days I get the results of the paternity test back, less than two days my future with Cat could be determined by the results of one test.Will she stay with me if I’m the father?That’s the million dollar question.
The next dayI get a call from Cat.
The first thing I ask her is, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m doing much better today.”
“How did you sleep?”
“Not too bad, Ava kept me company.”
“You know I could have done that if you would have let me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you here, but things are getting more complicated.I need to put things on pause for…”
“Till the paternity test comes back?”
“Yes.”
“So if I’m the father, which by now we think most likely I am, what?That’s the end of us?”
“I’m not saying that, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do, you don’t want to think about it but you know.”There’s a call on my office phone.It’s a call from a client I really need to speak to.
“Cat, I have to take this call.”
“Go ahead, I’ll talk to you later or tomorrow.”
“Bye.”Tomorrow.I’ve barely spoken to her since she left my house on Monday.I feel her pulling away from me already.
One daylater sitting in my office, I get the answer to my million dollar question.
“Hello.”
“Hello, is this Mr.Nicholas Alexander?”
