Pompous Player (Cocky Hero Club)

His expression is somehow baffled and adoring at the same time. Like he wants to hold her but is afraid to. Not that I’m planning to let him.

I keep trying to offer Avery her bottle, but she continues to cry. Worst timing ever. I’m already unhinged over the idea that Harry wants a paternity test and custody, and now our meeting has been halted because I can’t calm Avery down.

“Why is she crying so much? Do you even know what you’re doing?” Harry demands. “Have you ever taken care of a baby before?”

I turn to him with narrowed eyes. “Are you fucking serious? Eat a bag of dicks, you narcissistic pig.”

Avery’s next wail is a high-pitched ear-piercer. I turn and give Helen a pleading look.

“Can I step out for just a minute?” I ask her. “I need to check her diaper and walk with her a little bit.”

“Of course. I’ll take care of the details in here. Take your time.”

Grabbing the diaper bag, I give Harry one more disgusted glare before leaving the room with Avery.

As I walk to the bathroom, she finally starts to settle down. I pull down the changing table and cover it with a disposable changing pad and quickly change her diaper, my hands shaking the whole time as tears drip from my cheeks onto the pad.

I don’t want to go back into that conference room. I want to run—out of this building, and then out of this city altogether.

I can’t lose Avery. Mal wanted me to raise her.

And to lose her to Harry? The man who broke Mal’s heart? My stomach churns with a sick, sad feeling as I pick Avery up, pack the diaper bag and carry her out to a sitting area to feed her.

After I’ve fed and burped her, I can’t procrastinate any longer. I go back into the conference room. Helen, John and Harry are all standing, ending the meeting.

I’m glad I don’t have to look at Harry’s asshole face anymore, but I’m also confused as I buckle Avery into her carrier and Helen says goodbye to Harry and John.

It’s not until we get outside that Helen explains things to me. I have to take Avery to a doctor within the next twenty-four hours so they can swab a sample for the paternity test. The test results will be ready in a few days. And if Harry is Avery’s father, I have no chance of keeping her.

“We can try to fight it if you want to, but it’ll be a long and expensive battle,” she warns me. “And the court is likely to give him custody in the interim.” She glances at her watch. “I have a hearing to get to. I’ll be in touch.”

I’m absolutely stunned as I watch Helen walk away. I thought Mal’s death was rock bottom, but then I got evicted. Homelessness seemed like the worst-case scenario, but now I know it’s not.

Hurried pedestrians maneuver around me as I slowly walk away from the law firm’s tall, shiny building, the heavy car seat carrier in hand. I’ll be damned if I’ll let Harry see me crying when he walks outside.

He’ll go back to his office, smug and victorious, while I stretch the meager funds I received from selling my last handbag to a friend earlier today—enough for an Uber home, some diapers, and a few essentials from the store.

Harry Stone is a vile, disgusting jerk. I don’t know how I’ll be able to give sweet little Avery over to him.

There’s only one person left I can talk to. She’s many states away, but I’ve never needed to hear my sister’s voice as much as I do right now.

Chapter Four

Winter

“Hey,” Aubrey says when she answers my call.

“Hey,” I choke out. “How are you?”

“Winter, are you okay? What’s going on?”

My sister knows Mallory passed away and that I’ve been raising Avery. I haven’t told her about my dire financial situation, though. And I don’t plan to. She’s a newlywed living in California, pregnant with her first child. Aubrey has always been there for me, but I can’t bring myself to ask anyone for money—even my sister.

She’s really my half sister—we have the same father, who passed away a few years ago, and she’s the only sibling I have. The only family I have, really.

I recount my meeting at the attorney’s office for her, crying through most of it.

“That’s tough,” she says softly. “Both emotionally and legally, I mean.”

“Yeah, my attorney said I probably wouldn’t win if this goes to court.”

“Though I hate to say it, that’s probably true.”

It’s a hard blow coming from Aubrey, a former family law attorney. My sister’s a fighter, and if there was a chance I could get custody of Avery, she’d tell me.

“I’m the only one she’s ever really known,” I say, wiping tears from my cheeks. “And she’s my whole world already.”