She swallowed and looked down. “You left.”
I ground my teeth together. “There are phones in Europe, Beth. Mail. Email.”
She looked up. “I did mail you. You sent my letter back unopened.”
“Bullshit. I never got anything from you except silence when I tried to contact you.”
She shook her head, tears streaming down her face, but I wouldn’t let myself be swayed. “I never knew you tried to reach me.”
“I don’t believe you.”
There was a slight flash of anger in her blue eyes. “But you want me to believe that you didn’t get my letter? The one you took one look at, probably rolled your eyes at because you wanted to be rid of this teenager that you fucked and then left—”
“It wasn’t like that I told you.”
“Why should I believe you if you don’t believe me?” She rushed from the room.
“Where are you going?” I wasn’t done yet.
“Just wait.”
I heard her going up the stairs and for a moment I wondered if something was wrong with Hannah. But then she came back down.
She thrust a worn envelope at me. “Here. There’s proof.”
I took the envelope and noted her flowery handwriting of the address of my father’s home where I’d lived while I worked with Ben to open the club. Separate handwriting in dark ink said “Return to Sender.” Was that my father’s writing?
I looked at her. “Can I open it?”
“I wish you would.” She turned from me as if she couldn’t stand to look at me.
I opened the envelope and read the letter dated October six years ago.
Dear Ash,
Don’t worry. I get it now that what we had was just a summer fling. That all those things you said weren’t true. I like to think your interest in me was more than just trying to get into my pants, but considering you left without a word right after that, it’s time I faced the truth.
My gaze jerked to hers. “I meant everything I said that summer.”
She only shrugged.
I turned my attention back to the letter.
I suppose this will be an annoyance beyond having to deal with my teenage crush, but I feel like you need to know.
I’m pregnant. You don’t have to do anything. I’m living with my mother in Europe and she and my father will take care of everything. But in case, you cared, I wanted to let you know.
“In case I cared? What the fuck, Beth?”
“What was I supposed to think?” she cried.
She was right. In her shoes, I might have thought the same thing. But what about now? “Why didn’t you tell me now? When we reconnected?”
She simply stared at me and that was when I realized that she never had any intention of telling me. She put the house on the market and was going to move. She was going to cut her losses with her father’s business and with me, and take my daughter away.
Anger like I’d never felt before erupted. A barrage of spiteful heinous words rattled around on my tongue, but I was able to keep them inside my mouth knowing that a child, my child, was asleep upstairs.
“You’ve completely destroyed me,” I finally managed. “I’ve missed so much. Her birth. Her first smile. Her first step. All of it you stole from me.”
“Ash, please.”
“Does Ben know? Is that why he tried to kick my ass?”
“He found out when I moved back. He hated that you and I were together, but he did feel like you should know the truth.”
I laughed derisively. “So, the guy who hates my guts at least had the decency to think I should know about my child, but the woman I’ve loved for six years planned to steal my child away from me.”
“I…” She looked down because what could she say? Finally, she looked up. “You said that we could overcome anything.”
I stared at her, wondering if I ever really knew her. “Not this, Beth.” I had to get out, but then I remembered Hannah. And then Ben and his drinking. “Where’s Ben?”
“I don’t know. He often sleeps at the office a lot.”
“I don’t want his drunken ass anywhere near my daughter.”
“Ben loves Hannah. He’d never hurt—”
“He tried to kick my ass, Beth. He’s violent and I don’t want him around her.”
She nodded, although I knew now I couldn’t trust her.
I felt completely broken inside. “Why Beth? Why would you do this?”
“I didn’t think you cared after I couldn’t reach you. And now, I worried you’d take her from me.”
I tilted my head up to the ceiling as a new wave of pain washed through me. I finally looked at her. “You never knew me at all, did you? Did it occur to you that I might just want to be a father? Fuck Beth, standing in the hospital all I could think about was the three of us being a family. At that time I thought she was some other man’s child.”