I snatch the envelope. “Can you do that?”
“You can read it over with your lawyer,” he sneers. “But I’m within my limits. You shouldn’t have any problems with the increase. I hear you’re making a lot of money.”
Dennis’ obsession with Leeyan is at an all-time high. She’s using it to her advantage. I know Dennis was the one who helped her get the Air BNB the night she took Lulu. He would do anything for her.
“You can tell Leeyan I’m getting a new job. She has one less thing to hold against me.”
Dennis starts down the stairs then stops. “Maybe you should’ve told your boss you were quitting before he invested in that huge billboard.”
I slam the door and dial Giovanni’s number.
“What’s wrong?” he answers. I never call unless it’s an emergency.
“Do I have a billboard?”
Gio sighs. “I told Jim it was a waste of money, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“Where is it?” I pace the living room, wondering how many people have seen me in those spandex shorts.
“It’s right off the Bay Bridge; you can’t miss it. I took a picture; I’ll text it to you.”
We hang up, and fifteen seconds later, I get the text.
“HOLY FUCK!”
Sylvie comes running into the room. “What’s wrong now?”
I hold my phone for her to see. Her eyes widen, and she covers her mouth to hide her smile.
“It’s not funny.” I pull the phone back and force myself to look again.
“I know, but…” she trails off. “Oh shit, do you think Leeyan has seen it?”
“I’m pretty sure since Dennis is the one who told me about it.” I walk to my room and lie on the bed. This is bad, really bad.
The billboard is a picture of me in the spandex shorts I wear in my MMA routine. In the original photo, my head is resting against my forearm. and I’m leaning against a wall. The billboard shows me lying on a cheetah-patterned couch in front of a fireplace. The words “That’s what I like” float in a bubble over my head. It’s cheesy as fuck, and it’s going to make me look so bad in court.
Sylvie sits on the bed and kisses my cheek. “Is that the only reason Dennis came by?”
“No, he’s raising the rent again.” I hand her the envelope.
She opens it and gasps. “We definitely have to move.” She folds the paper and places it back into the envelope. “With my new salary, I can afford a pretty decent apartment. If we go in together…”
“Don’t forget Aaron’s child support.” I put my phone down and take Sylvie’s hand.
“Oh yeah.” She pulls her hand free. “I hate depending on his money.”
“Aaron is Reese’s father; he has to pay his share.”
Sylvie stands and moves to the dresser. She fidgets with something on top then turns around. “What if he wasn’t Reese’s father?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if I knew there was a chance that Aaron wasn’t Reese’s father, and I told him he was anyway? Would that make me a bad person?” She looks at her feet.
I think about the swab test I had to take for Lulu. “Didn’t you get a paternity test?”
“No,” she says. “We didn’t go to court for custody. We have an informal agreement. It was easier that way, and it kept lawyers and the state out of our business. His business.”
Aaron and Sylvie were only together a few months when she found out she was pregnant. He left her when Reese was a month old. Their entire relationship lasted about a year, and she was pregnant for nine months of it. As far as I know, Sylvie was dating one person before she met Aaron.
Me.
“What are you saying, Sylvie?”
“You made it very clear that we were just having fun. After everything you’d been through, I didn’t want to spring a surprise baby on you.”
She is saying exactly what I think she’s saying.
“I found out I was pregnant the day after you lost your job at UPS. You were already stressed about supporting Lulu.” She sits beside me. “I met Aaron a few weeks earlier at the club. He had been coming in every night trying to get me to go out with him. So I did.”
I remember the day she’s talking about. Lulu caught a respiratory virus at daycare, and I had to take off work for a week. Even after she was better, the daycare wouldn’t allow her back without a doctor’s note. I couldn’t get an appointment for another three days. At that point, my supervisor had enough. I was at my lowest. Sylvie is right; if she told me I was the father of her baby, I would’ve lost it. Then again, it might have been great news. Maybe learning I was going to have another child would have motivated me to do something else with my life. Finding out Sylvie was having my baby could have made me a better man.
“Come here.” I pull Sylvie onto my lap. “You know I love Reese like a son.”
“I know,” she cries softly on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Theo. I should’ve told you sooner.”
I hear Reese squawking in the other room, followed by Lulu yelling for Sylvie. We smile at the sound of our kids fighting.
“Before I get excited, and before we tell Lulu, I want to confirm it.” I feel bad asking Sylvie for a paternity test, but given the circumstances, I think she understands.
“I already have.” She stands and walks to her drawer. We don’t officially live together, but she has her own space in my room. In my life. She takes out a sheet of paper
“Remember the swab I took and said it was a souvenir?”
She places the paper on the bed. The results show there is a 99.8% probability that Reese is my son.
“I also tested Lulu in case there was any contamination with your swab. They are definitely related.” She sighs as if the weight of the world has been lifted from her shoulders.
I take Sylvie in my arms and hold her, wishing time could stop. Even though the kids are crying and we’ll most likely be evicted, I soak in this moment. These feelings. Feelings like this are the only thing keeping me together.
I wake up with a sweaty foot in my face.
I move Reese and roll over.
“You’re squishing me, Daddy,” Lulu says from behind my back.
“Sorry, baby.” I sit up and climb over the bed, kissing Sylvie as I go. “We’re gonna need a bigger bed.”
She moans and pulls the covers over her head. “What time is it?”
“Time to get up.” I slap her ass. “Come on; we have to meet Aaron before court.”
Aaron is supposed to meet Sylvie at her place to see Reese and give her a child support check. She doesn’t want to face him alone when she breaks the news. I don’t want that fucker anywhere near Sylvie or my son. I look at Reese sleeping on my pillow. That chubby little dude is mine. I lean down and kiss his head. Lulu sits up and kisses him too.
“He never lets me kiss him when he’s awake,” she says. “He’s a butthole.”
“That’s not a nice word,” I tell her. “Don’t call your…”
“Go take a shower, Theo.” Sylvie comes to my rescue. We also agreed to wait until the custody hearing is over to tell Lulu about Reese.
I’m ready to share the news with the world, but Leeyan will use it against me. I barely make ends meet to support Lulu.
***
Dain’s little sister is going to babysit the kids while we’re at court. She’s only seventeen, but she helped Dain’s parents raise her nephew. I trust Dain’s judgment. He knows what’s happening with Leeyan, and he was here the night Aaron knocked Sylvie around.
When Dain arrives, I give him the short version of how I came to be Reese’s father.
“Congrats, man.” Dain hugs me. “It’s a gift.” He holds me a few seconds longer than your typical bro hug. His words seem to have a lot more meaning.
“Thanks.” I break away. “You don’t have kids, do you?”
Dain sighs and looks past me towards the park. “No, just my nephew.” He shrugs like there’s more to it, but this isn’t the ti
me. “You guys better get out of here. I’ll stay with Kira for a bit. I don’t have to meet Ivy until later.” He makes a face. “This new choreography is killing me.”
“Good luck with that.”
We walk eleven blocks to Sylvie’s apartment. I catch a glimpse of us in a shop window and realize how grown up we look. I’m in my suit, and she’s wearing a black maxi skirt, a white shirt, and a blue cardigan.
“If I saw us walking down the street a year ago, I’d hate us.”
“I know,” Sylvie laughs. “Me too. I’m sure Aaron is going to feel the same way.” She takes my hand as we stop in front of her building. She unlocks the door, and someone pulls her inside. He tries to slam the door in my face, but my foot prevents it.
“Theo!” Sylvie yells.
“Shut the fuck up, slut.” Aaron smashes my foot with the door, and I feel a bone crack. “Get the fuck out of here, fag. This is between Sylvie and me.”
“There is no you and Sylvie.” I push against the door with my shoulder, and suddenly it gives. I fall into the entryway and hit my head on a table. My vision turns blurry in my right eye and blood trickles down my face.
“Sylvie?” I stand up and gain my bearings.
Aaron has her in the corner. “Where’s my son?” He punches the wall next to her head. “I want my fucking son, you bitch!”
Sylvie sees me behind Aaron and begs me not to say anything. It will only fuel Aaron’s rage. Of course she’s right, but I don’t care.
“He’s not your son.” The words are simple, yet so powerful.
Aaron doesn’t turn around at first. It takes half a minute for his dumb ass to process what I’ve said. When he realizes what I’ve told him, he turns slowly to face me.
“What did you say, fag?” Aaron is a big guy, more in girth than muscle. He bounces at a few clubs in the city. Mostly, he just sells Oxy.
“Why do you keep calling me a fag?” I ask, just to be a dick. “I’m obviously not gay.”
“What?” He looks confused.
“What what?”
“What the fuck are you saying, fag?”
“I’m saying I’m not gay. I’m Reese’s father.” I cock back and punch Aaron in the nose. He stumbles a few steps then catches his balance. He charges and I sidestep him. His big ass falls on top of the glass coffee table. It crashes beneath him. Blood seeps from his arm.
“Sylvie, go get a towel.”
She nods and runs to the kitchen.
“This is for you.” I pull out an envelope and place it on the arm of the couch. “It’s five grand. That’s repayment for the child support you paid for Reese.”
“That fucking bitch!” Aaron seethes.
“Come on; there’s no need for name calling.” I feel my cheek. It’s already swelling. “Sylvie made an honest mistake She’s making it right.”
Aaron contemplates what I’m saying.
“There’s a lesson to be learned here.” I point at Aaron. “Always get a DNA test.”
He nods.
Sylvie returns with two towels and hands them to me.
I toss them to Aaron. “We have to go.”
“Your eye, Theo.” She runs back to the kitchen and returns with an ice pack.
Sylvie doesn’t know about the money. She wouldn’t let me pay it back if she did. I can’t live with myself knowing another man supported my child.
***
By the time we get to the court house, my eye is almost swollen shut. What’s worse, my billboard sits above the parking lot. Anyone who parks back here will have seen me humping a couch in spandex underwear.
Matt meets us on the first floor and nearly shits himself. “What the fuck, Theo? I told you to lie low.”
“I tripped over one of Lulu’s toys and hit my face on the table.” I hand Sylvie the bag of melted ice. “It’s no big deal.”
“I’m not talking about your face,” Matt informs me. “You took a private job.”
My heart stops beating. “How did you know?”
“Because that wasn’t some out-of-town businesswoman, she was a private investigator hired by your ex-girlfriend. She’s ready to give a statement about how you took money in exchange for sexual acts.”
“We didn’t have sex.”
“It doesn’t matter. There’s a fine line between prostitution and stripping in private hotel rooms. From the statement I read, there was no line.”
I think about me naked on top of her. She’s right. I went too far. I fucked up. I broke my own rules as well as the law.
“Where do we go from here?” Sylvie asks. “How do you defend against that?”
“Same as before. I’ll tell the judge your business and your personal life are separate. That you,” he points to Sylvie, “take care of Lulu while he’s at work. She’s always well cared for in a safe environment.”
I go to the bathroom to clean up before we head inside. My eye looks bad, really bad. Almost as bad as I feel inside.
We walk into the courtroom, and I sit on the left side with Sylvie and Matt. A few minutes later, Leeyan’s lawyer, Lawrence Quinn, enters the room. He is followed by Leeyan, Dennis, and Patricia. They sit on the right side of the room.
“That fucking bitch,” I murmur. Sylvie looks up, thinking I’m speaking about Leeyan.
Patricia waves and I suppress the urge to flip her off.
“Is that her?” Sylvie assumes.
“Hey,” Matt gets our attention. “Don’t engage them in any way.”
I turn forward and wait for the judge to enter the room. I don’t want to face Sylvie either. What I did with Patricia was wrong on every level.
The bailiff instructs us to stand. As we do, the judge walks in, and the door in the back opens and closes. I don’t turn to see who it is until Sylvie gasps beside me. I turn just as Aaron slides into the row next to Patricia.
The next hour is a blur of lies and crying. Leeyan tells the judge she had postpartum depression. She produces pages of emails that she claims were unreturned by me. She has the nerve to say I withheld Lulu from her. Every time I want to counter an accusation, Matt tells me we’ll have our shot.
Patricia doesn’t testify. Matt says she’s there to rattle me and as a last resort. They were hoping I would take the bait and give Leeyan partial custody. Like that would happen.
Dennis sits in the witness chair and answers questions about the night I brought Andre home drunk.
“Did you go inside the house?” Mr. Quinn asks Dennis.
“Yes,” he says.
“What did you see?”
“I saw a woman throwing up inside the bathroom. There was also vomit in the entryway of the apartment.”
“Did you see Lulu in the apartment?”
“No, I believe she was asleep.”
“Did you encounter anyone else in the apartment?”
“Yes, a man named Dain. I believe he is a co-worker of Theo’s. And his girlfriend, Sylvie.”
“Was there anything different about Sylvie that night?”
Sylvie squeezes my hand when she realizes where this questioning is headed.
“Yes, she had a black eye.”
“No more questions,” Quinn says.
Dennis leaves, and Quinn calls Aaron as the next witness. When Aaron stands to testify, I get nervous.
He’s sworn in, which is a joke. Nobody that’s taken that stand has told the truth yet.
“Mr. Rodriguez, are you in a relationship with Sylvie Black?”
He tugs at his long-sleeve shirt. I assume he’s hiding the bandages from his cuts. I must not have a powerful punch because his nose looks intact.
“Not currently,” he says.
Quinn asks Aaron if he and Sylvie were together the night in question.
“No, we were broken up.”
“Then why did you go to Theo’s house that night to see her?”
“I went to see my…son.” He glares at me.
Sylvie begins to cry. I want to comfort her, tell her that being Reese�
�s father isn’t going to ruin my chances of keeping Lulu. I want her to know it isn’t her fault.
“Did you and Miss Black have an altercation?”
Aaron looks at Sylvie then back to me. Something in his face changes. He doesn’t have the same murderous scowl he had thing morning. “No.”
Dennis calls him a liar and starts whispering loudly with Leeyan.
“That’s enough,” the judge admonishes him.
Quinn looks back at Dennis and grits his teeth.
“You admit that you went to Theo’s home that night, correct?” Quinn asks.
“Yes.”
“Did you have an altercation with Miss Black?”
“No.”
“So, what did you do there?”
“I visited with her and Reese, then I left.”
“Did you notice anything different about Miss Black?”
“No.”
Quinn tries to ask Aaron if Sylvie had a black eye and Matt objects. The judge sustains.
“Did you hit Miss Black?”
Matt whispers that Quinn is getting desperate.
“No. I didn’t hit her. She looked beautiful, like always.”
Sylvie squeezes my hand. She isn’t the only one freaked out by Aaron’s testimony. Why would he lie to help us?
“No further questions.” Quinn is livid has Aaron steps down.
We each testify. By the end of the day, Matt says we’re looking good.
“I got the fax about your new job. That—along with the fact that you’ve provided Lulu with a home while Leeyan was in the army—it all points to a win.”
“What fax?” I stop him before he leaves.
He pulls out a piece of paper showing an offer letter for the tech company I’m supposed to interview with next week. I don’t want to tell Matt that this can’t be right. I’m about to speak up when I see the name signed at the bottom of the sheet.
Rachel Sloane.
Fucking, Rachel.
We’re about to leave the courthouse when Matt gets a call. He speaks a few minutes and then hangs up.
“The judge wants to meet with you in her chambers.” Matt looks at me then Sylvie with a nervous expression.
“Is that normal?” Sylvie asks.
“Things work differently in family court. The outcome is based on the judge’s discretion. This could be good.” He tries to sound optimistic.
Got Mine (Men of Trance Book 1) Page 16