Page 6 of A Secret Baby for Christmas
“Where have you been?” I ask too harshly. But I’ve been trying to chase down this woman for the past year.
Allie turns to me with a frown. “Dad, that sounds harsh.”
My innocent daughter doesn’t know what I got up to with her best friend. And if she did, she wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
Maybe it’s for the best that Chloe’s feelings seem to have changed. I tried to message her after our night together.
Her grandma fell ill, and she went to France to be with her mom. She’s always been close to that side of the family. In the first few weeks, we messaged each other. I called her most days, and we chatted long into the night.
But then it stopped. The texts became less frequent until they dried up completely. I thought she must have met a French man there. Someone her age and more appropriate. The thought made me wild with jealousy.
Many times I thought about jumping on a plane and going to see her. But for what? She’s half my age. She should be with someone young. I told myself it was for the best. That she’d forget me and I would move on.
But seeing her here with my baby changes everything.
Allie has hustled Chloe into the cabin and out of the cold. She’s fussing over the baby, unaware that it’s her half-sibling.
“What’s her name?” I ask, staring intently at the tiny bundle.
“Hisname,” Chloe corrects me, and a flare of pride punctures my chest. I have a son. “It’s Hugo.”
“Hugo.” I roll the name of my son on my tongue. It’s a strong name with reference to her French heritage. I like it.
“How old is he?” Allie asks, holding Hugo up and making funny faces at him.
Chloe’s eyes dart to mine before she answers. “Three months.”
Three months. I knew it. She had Hugo nine months after our hook up.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
Allie sounds a little annoyed at her friend, and I can’t blame her. I’m just as annoyed. But how could Chloe tell Allie she got pregnant by her dad?
“I didn’t tell anyone,” Chloe says. “You know what my papa’s like. He wanted to keep me in France for the rest of my life. If it was up to him, I’d have given the baby up for adoption and joined a nunnery.”
She says it jokingly, but my blood chills. I might have never known about Hugo if her father had his way.
There are so many things going on in my head and my heart, and I retreat to the living room and pour myself a finger of bourbon. It goes down in one swallow, and I pour another.
Ever since I saw Chloe with my baby in her arms, memories of our night together have surfaced. I’ve spent a year dreaming about this woman and imagining a future with her. Now here she is, and she’s bought my future right to me.
Allie holds Hugo a little too comfortably, and I wonder how long it will be until I’m a grandad. The thought has me reaching for another drink. I’m old enough to be a granddad, not start another family. And yet…
Seeing Chloe with my baby in her arms leaves no doubt in my mind what I want. I want her, and I want my son.
I’m angry she didn’t tell me she was pregnant. I’ve known Chloe since she was a girl, and I thought she would’ve come to me with this. She kept my son from me, and worse she went through a pregnancy all on her own, with only her weak mother and overbearing father. I shudder at the thought of what her last year must have been like.
I want to shake her and demand to know why she ran from me instead of coming to me. I want to take her in my arms, to claim the child as mine, and to tell her she doesn’t have to go through this alone.
But as I watch her with my daughter, the two girls laughing together, I realize now isn’t the time.
They need time to catch up, and I need time to clear my head. I’ll get my answers later.
“I’m going for a walk.”
Chloe looks at me, but I can’t bear to meet her gaze. I can’t bear the coldness there. If she’s not here for me, then my heart will break. But why else would she come back?
Grabbing my coat, I go out into the cold air.
