The ER's Newest Dad

His daddy.

Justice’s father.

Tears burned her eyes, blurring her vision. Not that it mattered that she couldn’t see. It didn’t because she refused to look at Ross, refused to see whatever was on his face.

Her mind was doing a bang-up job of filling in the blanks anyway. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Disgust. Disbelief.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.” His voice broke into her imaginary cocoon. He grabbed her hand. His grip didn’t hurt, but he wasn’t gentle either as he pulled her towards the living room, away from where their son slept.

Tension bubbled so hot she was amazed the paint didn’t peel from the walls as they passed by.

“When is my son’s birthday?”

His angry tone triggered a hundred old hurts, a thousand wishes of Ross being there to share Justice’s birth and each year’s celebration of that special day, a thousand moments of feeling so abandoned without the man she’d given her heart to without reserve. Every protective wall she had flew up.

“Perhaps if you’d stuck around you’d know the answer to that question.” Sarcasm was so thick on her tongue that it left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she dug her feet in, putting a halt to their trip down the hallway. She jutted her chin and glared straight into Ross’s vivid blue eyes.

Eyes that were so like her son’s.

His gaze narrowed. His jaw tightened then worked back and forth once. “When was he born? How long after I left was it before my son was born?”

She told him Justice’s birth date.

She watched him do the math in his head. “That’s just...” His gaze grew darker, more accusing. “You knew you were pregnant when I left, didn’t you?”

“He was a couple of months early.” Her chin went up another notch. “But so what if I knew? What difference does that make? Either way, you left.”

His jaw dropped as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. “You were pregnant with my child and didn’t tell me? Don’t you think that’s something I had a right to know?”

Anger and hurt swelled her chest. Lifting her shoulders, she repeated words that had haunted her time and again over the years since he’d carelessly tossed them at her. “You gave up your rights when you told me you didn’t want anything to do with me or anything that involved me. My son involves me. I took you at your word.”

His jaw began working back and forth again, then he tugged on her arm, pulling her the rest of the way into the living room. She let him for the sole reason of hoping they didn’t wake Justice.

Again without hurting her but with some force, he pushed her toward the sofa. “Sit.”

With pleasure, she thought, flopping onto the sofa. Much better to sit than to end up falling on her face because of her wobbly, nervous legs.

Ross didn’t sit. He stood next to the sofa, staring at her as if he were looking at a stranger. “Let me get this straight. You think my saying I wanted our relationship to end gave you the right to keep my son from me?”

I wanted our relationship to end.

Hearing him say the words sliced way too deep for five years to have passed. Maybe some blows never stopped wounding no matter how many times they’d pierced your soul.

Then again, Ross sounded pierced as well. Would he really have wanted her to tell him? To have interfered in his life?

“It’s not as if I hid him, Ross.” She went for flippant, but knew her attempt fell flat. “You were the one who left us.”

“I didn’t leave him,” he thundered. “I didn’t even know he existed.”

She flinched at his harshness, at the searing truth of his claim. “Fine. You left me and he was a part of me. Same difference.”

“Wrong!” As if he could no longer stand still, he paced across the room, tu

rning and meeting her gaze. “I wouldn’t have left if I’d known you were pregnant. You know I wouldn’t have.”

There it was. The truth she’d known and avoided so thoroughly because a man staying with her because she’d been pregnant had been the last thing she’d wanted. She’d wanted him to stay because of her, because he’d loved her and wanted her in his life for ever. She’d believed Ross had, but she’d been wrong. Never would she have trapped him into staying. She wasn’t her mother.

“You think I would have let you stay if the only reason you were staying was because I was pregnant? Hardly.”