Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Yet. She said not to worry yet. As if there would come a time for worrying soon.
As if I could simply stop worrying that I might lose my daughter.
“Baby,” Tully said, startling me by grabbing my arm and trying to guide me to a chair. “What’s wrong? Who’s on the phone?”
My hands shook as I tried to figure out whether to hand him the phone or try to find the words to explain that this situation had suddenly taken an unexpected and horrific turn.
The kitchen was silent as everyone stared.
Tully didn’t wait to get a response from me. He grabbed the phone and held it to his ear. “This is Tully Bowman. Who am I speaking to?”
The temporary relief in his voice only lasted a moment until Susanna explained the situation. But then his tone was one of anger, not shock and disappointment like I felt.
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” he snapped before lowering his voice. “Anyone with eyeballs can see this child is Devon McKay’s flesh and blood. Hell, Susanna, she looks more like Dev than Katie. What the fuck happened?”
I stared at Lellie as if studying her features would give me some kind of reassurance. I remembered the first moment I saw her—Tully standing defiantly among the crowd at Final Night with her propped on his hip, her little head lifting up from where it had lain on his shoulder, her eyes so instantly familiar to me.
Tully was right.
My rational brain knew there was no possible way she wasn’t my daughter. Not only did she have my eyes, but I knew Katie. Tully knew Katie. Renata knew Katie. And all of us knew that Katie was asexual. She’d planned her fertility journey carefully and had selected me because she knew me well and was comfortable with me.
But the less-rational part of me, the part that had learned the hard way that life was a series of plot twists and fuckups, reminded me that mistakes happened in labs, and there were probably plenty of sperm donors with hazel eyes. That part of me believed every bit of Susanna’s news because it had tapped into my worst fear.
I was going to lose another beloved family member, only this time, the family member was closer and more important to me than Matt had ever been. More important even than my own mother and father.
My daughter was the most important human in my life, and I could not, would not, lose her.
“Tully?” I croaked, trying to blink away the shadows at the edges of my vision.
He murmured something to Susanna before squatting in front of my chair and grabbing my hand. “Yeah, baby?”
“Tell her we’ll go down there and take the test again. It has to be a mistake. I’m not giving Lellie up, so we have to… we have to…” I suddenly realized I couldn’t risk it. Returning to Texas meant putting custody of my daughter in jeopardy. Without proof I was Lellie’s biological father, Katie’s wish to leave her with me was barely worth the paper it was printed on. Not up against a man as powerful as Franklin Scott and the lawyers he had behind him.
I glanced past Tully to my friends, the brotherhood. Silas and Bash both shook their heads frantically behind Tully’s back. I glanced over to Kenji, who was frantically tapping on his phone. He looked up when I went silent and also shook his head at me with a meaningful glance at Lellie.
They were right. I couldn’t take her back to Texas. At least without serious thought and legal consultation. But I also couldn’t ask Tully to be a party to anything that might be illegal or that could get him fired from his job at the firm.
I cleared my throat. Suddenly, my path was clear. “Tully. I need you to go back to Texas and see what you can find out about our options.”
This was a lie. I didn’t need him to figure out my legal situation—I had Susanna and a huge team of attorneys back in New York for that. What I needed was for him to leave so I could speak freely and make a plan to protect and keep my daughter without creating a conflict of interest that might jeopardize the job he loved.
Tully’s eyes, so full of kindness and affection and trust, met mine. “Of course. I’ll figure this out, Dev. You know I will.”
He reached up and stroked my cheek with his hand before leaning forward to press a kiss to the corner of my lips. Then he stood up, all business, and began to arrange a meeting with Susanna for the following morning in Dallas.
I glanced over at Kenji, who nodded and began arranging for the plane to be ready.
And then I got up and crossed the room to take Lellie out of Jo’s arms. I held her to my chest and pressed my lips to her wispy curls. “I love you, sweet girl,” I murmured. “Daddy’s got this.”