“You got sick. I didn’t want to do a car accident or a plane crash because they could look that up someday and try to find a newspaper article or something about it—too conspicuous.”
“How clever of you,” he said wryly.
“I wasn’t wishing you dead, Harvey. I just needed a good explanation as to why you weren’t there. Would you rather I told them you were a drummer who drank too much and hit me, so I ran off?”
“No, I’d rather you told them that their daddy never knew about them, or else he’d have been there for them, dammit,” he said, raking a hand through his hair in disgust.
“I couldn’t do that. Because I was scared. I’m still afraid of what you’ll do,” she said sincerely, hoping her fear would touch him, that he would want to reassure her.
“You should be. Since you’re evidently the kind of woman who keeps secrets, who keeps a man away from his children, I can’t speak for your integrity and trustworthiness with any confidence.”
“I’m a good mother, Harvey.”
“You’ll excuse me for disagreeing. A good mother would want her children to have a father.”
“A good father wouldn’t tell people he’d take custody of any child his girlfriend got pregnant with. A good father wouldn’t pretend to be in love while plotting to take away my baby.”
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“How would you know what sort of father I am? Since you made sure I never got the chance to find out!” he said.
“What else could I have done, Harvey? Tell me what would have made this okay.”
“You could have fucking told me you were pregnant and we would’ve figured it out together.”
“Figured it out as in gotten the lawyers to try and pay me off to get the baby, and then when that didn’t work, bully me with legal action when I couldn’t afford to fight you?”
“You know I wouldn’t have tried to take a baby from its mother. Unlike you, who stole the twins from their father.”
“You had just told me you weren’t ready to get serious! There’s nothing more serious than starting a family.”
“Actually there is. Crossing state lines with a minor child.”
“I was pregnant. With my children. There was no injunction in place to prevent me. As the putative father, you can petition for visitation and offer financial support, but no judge is going to give a stranger custody of two small children, particularly when they have a loving and capable mother who has provided for them financially and emotionally since birth.”
“You can’t keep me from them now that I know. Don’t try to run this time,” he warned, his teeth bared. “Because nothing on earth is going to keep me from them.”
“I’m not running. I’m going to stand here and fight. I’m wiser now, and I know what I’m up against. I have a job and a life here in San Francisco, and my children are in school here. I’m not uprooting them for selfish reasons, like a wish to avoid you.”
“May I remind you that you are the one who came here tonight looking for me,” he said smoothly.
“I was stupid. Because you’re the person I wanted to talk to, the person I needed to see when I was upset, even if the reason I’m upset is that I made a rash decision six years ago and right now it’s hurting everyone I care about including you. Including Caden and Corinne. I hoped we could talk, I could tell you a little about them, and you’d start to see them as little people and not as property I deprived you of. That we could work this out without getting ugly. But it seems like we can’t.”
Bella nodded to him curtly, collected her purse and left before he could say another word. Her idea of showing him photos from her phone’s camera roll and sharing an endearing story or two and winning him over to her way of thinking was pure fantasy.
Chapter 5
Bella went to Max’s house for dinner and politely broke up with him. It was the right thing to do, and she didn’t want to lead him. He was a nice guy and deserved better.
He shook his head distraught. “I can’t believe you’re breaking up with me.”
“I don’t see a future with you.”
“Because you’re in love with the father of your children,” he said flatly.
“You don’t even like kids.”
“I’ve never been a kid person. And yes, I don’t like kids.”