Page 102 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

The way he says it is a punch to the gut.

“I… It won’t be forever. Just until I can get a decent job so that I can support him myself.”

He looks at me, utterly unconvinced.

This is now how I imagined a reunion between us. Of course, those fantasies—when I was weak enough to allow them—were always fraught with unrealistic undertones. This is the real world, not a fairy tale.

But then, deep down, I’m the same naïve girl who ran from a place that had secluded itself from the real world. So what do I know about anything?

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I repeat, amazed that he is agreeing to this so easily.

“If the child is mine, I will provide for him,” Phoenix says quietly.

Wait.“If?”

He raises his eyebrows. “You claim the boy is mine. But I’m going to need more than your word.”

“You don’t believe me?”

I shouldn’t take that so personally. But I do.

“You’re a complete stranger to me,” he says, his eyes turning cold and distant. “I don’t even know your last name. I fucked you once over a year ago, and now I’m supposed to take your word for it that your child is mine?”

I flinch at the crude way he spells it out for me. And that’s it—my personal tipping point. Forget what I told Charity. This isn’t worth it.

I turn and start walking away from him.

“Stop.”

The commanding tone shoots through my body like a bolt of electricity. And despite myself, I do as he orders.

“Turn around.”

It’s like he’s got control of my body. Like he’s in my head, controlling me like some sort of expert puppeteer. I turn around, even while hating myself for doing it.

“This conversation is not over.”

“I say it is.”

“Why?” he presses. “Because it’s making you uncomfortable?”

“Yes.”

“Tough. Life is fucking uncomfortable,” he says. “And you’re the one who brought it up.”

“Because I thought you’d be a gentleman about it!”

He barks out a harsh laugh. “What the fuck gave you that impression?”

I twitch automatically at his language, but I don’t mention it. “You were different with me that night.”

He stills momentarily. “Because I thought you needed help.”

“I did.”

“If that were true, you would have shown up at the diner like I told you to.”

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