Zach’s tongue caught in his throat. At least it felt that way. He held Tessa’s determined gaze, unable, unwilling to look down at any more evidence he was involved in that whole…that whole…pregnant thing. God, he even hated the word—pregnant. What kind of word was that anyway?
After a moment of thick silence, Tess exhaled heavily. “Look, I don’t want anything from you, okay? In fact, I want to make all this go away.”
Another dose of dread washed through his belly. Zach slowly straightened, prepping for whatever fraudulent scam she was selling. It just figured, didn’t it? The first woman who’d spiked his interest in way too long, and she was a scam artist.
“All I need is your signatur
e on these papers.” She pulled a few more sheets from the envelope and added them to the pile, but Zach didn’t even glance at them. “And I’ll walk away. You’ll never have to hear from me or see me again. This birth certificate becomes null and void. You’re free—no ties, no obligations.”
“This has to be the most convoluted, ridiculous scam I’ve ever heard of. You’re either the lousiest con artist or the most corrupt lawyer on the planet.”
“Watch it.” Her chin dipped, and her eyes flashed. “I know I made a mistake in the beginning by sleeping with you, but I’m doing my best to right that. I’m doing my best to make this as easy as possible on you.”
“Yeah. I’m just one big fucking mistake, aren’t I?” Story of his life. “That’s the perfect cherry on this pile of bullshit.” He waved at the papers. “I’m not signing shit—”
“You will if you don’t want to be held legally responsible for a three-year-old girl.”
An image popped into his head—the darling little face in the picture on her phone. His gut tweaked, but he pushed the fear aside. She could have gotten that image from anywhere.
He looked at the papers. “What is this? No, never mind. I don’t care—”
“It’s a release of your parental rights.”
Zach’s mouth hung open mid-sentence. Icy heat speared his gut. He straightened, dropped his head back, and stared at the ceiling for a couple of heartbeats, caught between shaking this woman until she stopped spewing bullshit and running as fast as he could. He turned in a circle and threaded both hands into his hair. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“It’s best for everyone involved.” Tessa’s voice softened, infused with compassion and edged with urgency, but she remained as grounded as Zach was frantic. “I’m the only constant in her life. I’m her legal guardian. I’ve been with her since before she was born, and I want to adopt her, Zach. I want to make it legal and move on with our lives. I know you’re pissed at me, and I know you don’t want to be a father, but please work this out with me outside of court—for Sophia.”
Outside of court? Another shaft of fear cut through him. He stopped pacing and dropped his hands to his hips. This was a man’s worst nightmare—being as careful as humanly possible while sleeping around, yet getting a chick pregnant.
Sophia. He felt sick. Now this lie had a face. Had a name. And for a reason he didn’t understand yet, he was still fucking standing here.
Zach dropped to a seat across from her again. “Why are you her legal guardian? Where’s this Corinne woman?”
A look passed through Tessa’s eyes. Pain? Sadness? Something. Then she said, “She died.”
This story was going off the rails. “How?”
“Cancer.”
Zach’s breath whooshed out. He propped his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands, raking his fingers through his hair, over and over. Then he reached across the table, shoved the last set of papers she’d set down to the side, and pulled the supposed birth certificate toward him.
Corinne’s name was on the line for the mother. And Zach Ellis was on the line for the father.
Good God.
Seeing his name associated with the word father lit a fire in his gut. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and he rubbed his face with both hands, holding denial like a lifeline. “Do you realize how many Zach Ellises there must be in the world?”
“Believe me, I know exactly how many. Research is a significant part of my daily life.”
He dropped his hands, and they slapped against the table. “This from the woman who slept with me thinking I was someone else?”
“Stop it,” she ordered with motherly annoyance. “I know this is stressful, but I also know you’re not a bad guy. You’re not Ian, so stop acting like him.”
Fucking A. As if he couldn’t feel any worse right now. “My legal name is Zachary, not Zach.”
“I doubt a woman who slept with you once would know that. And after exhaustive research, I know there is only one Zach Ellis in the Surfers’ Hall of Fame. Corinne met you at the party celebrating your induction.”
“You could have learned that on the internet. The party was for the three of us who were inducted that year and the bar where the party was held was wall-to-wall people.”