Risking Fate

by Jennifer Foor

  He grabbed my hands but I pulled away from him. “What are you doin’?”

  “Hear me out, Baby. I was up all night thinking about how to get out of this mess. When he said the only way to get that woman out of our lives was a paternity test, it hit me.”

  I was so confused. “What hit you? I’m goin’ to hit you if you don’t explain to me what you’re thinkin’.”

  He leaned against the desk and grabbed my hands. “Tell me you trust me, Miranda.”

  “I do, but you’re startin’ to scare me.”

  “What if I told you there is a way for me to get a paternity test altered? What if I can make it so that nobody can ever take her away from me?”

  He was so intent. I just didn’t know what to say. “How? I don’t understand.”

  “I know someone from college. His mother works at the hospital in the lab. He can hack into anything. During football, he changed the results of a few blood tests for a couple guys on the team. One of the tests was a paternity test.”

  His confession made me feel very uneasy. “Please don’t tell me you have a child out there somewhere.”

  He pulled me into his chest. “I have three kids and you’re the mother of every one of them. I know this is a crazy idea, and that I can probably go to jail for something like this, but Miranda, I have to do something. I can’t just sit here and wait for my daughter’s future to be determined. I just can’t do it. I have to try this option and I need you to be okay with it. “

  I didn’t want to tell him no, because saying that meant I didn’t believe his plan would work. I was so confused and caught off guard. “Maybe this will all just go away on its own. She obviously only did this because she saw Bella.”

  He got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around my midsection. “Baby, I am begging you. Please. I have to try. Please just let me look into it at least. I need to do this. I can’t let her take my girl.”

  “Ty, it’s illegal. You could go to jail. I can’t have twin babies and have their father locked up.”

  His voice was almost a whisper. “Please.”

  “You know this guy personally?”

  “Technically yes. He is a friend’s brother.”

  “And you think he can really do this and make it legit?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I at least need to find out. Miranda, if he can, we need to do it.”

  I shook my head, even though I felt like it was a really bad idea, if it meant saving our family, I was willing to try anything. “Okay.”

  He hugged me tighter. “If this works she will be out of our lives forever. I can put my name on that birth certificate and our family will never have to hear a word from that family again. It will be over Miranda. I promise you.”

  God, I hoped he was right.

  When we went out in the living room, practically the whole family was waiting for some kind of good news. I wasn’t sure what to say and Ty wasn’t acting like he wanted to let the family in on his illegal venture. We smiled and acted like the lawyer was going to look into a few different options. It settled everyone that neither Ty or myself were a crying mess.

  Instead of staying until Sunday night, Ty and I went home early Sunday after the church service. My parents stayed and agreed to bring Bella and Conner home with them. Ty and I needed some time to deal with what was going on. As much as I wanted to take Bella home with us, I knew we needed to get our emotions together so she didn’t have to worry about why her mommy and daddy were upset.

  We didn’t say much on the ride home. Ty drove the whole way and I just cuddled up against his arm. I had the need to be as close to him as possible. Emotionally, this was taking a toll on us, even if we tried our hardest for it not to.

  I thought that once we got home we could finally relax a little, but Ty was definitely not himself. After he carried our bags in, he went into our room and crashed face first onto our bed. I went in there to join him, but for the first time since we had been together, he seemed like he didn’t want my company.

  Ty’s parents decided to stay an extra night, which gave us some time to cope with the bad news. That night when I went to bed, I woke up a few hours later and Ty wasn’t in our room. I tiptoed through the house looking for him and when I found him, I didn’t even know how to react. He was laying in Bella’s bed, holding on to her stuffed animals and crying hysterically. For a few minutes I just stood there watching him. I didn’t know how to react. He was so broken and my mistakes had been the reason.

  I wanted nothing more than to assure him that we would be okay, but I was so afraid that this was literally going to rip us apart. If this woman found some way to weasel her way into my daughter’s life, I was afraid Ty would never recuperate from something like that. She was his world and it tore my heart up knowing this was crushing him so badly.

  I started to turn to go back into our bedroom, but I heard the bed moving and stopped. “Baby, is that you?” He sniffled and sat up, trying to see me in the dark.

  “It’s me. I woke up and couldn’t find you.” I walked over to the bed and wiped his eyes. “God, Ty, I am so sorry this is happenin’. You’re never goin’ to lose her. I wouldn’t let that happen.”

  He started crying against my body again. “I love her so much, Miranda. Maybe I’m just being a selfish asshole, but I don’t want to share her. She is my daughter. From the moment she came into this world she was always mine. It took me a little while to realize it, but she always knew it. She chose me and I chose her. Why is this happening? Why now?”

  “Shhh,” The tears were pouring down my face. To see my tough husband such a mess was like losing him all together. He was so sad. There had never been a time where I doubted his love for Bella, but I don’t think anyone else really understood the extent of his devotion to that child. Just the thought of having to share her, was crushing his heart. “We will get through this and Bella will never call anyone else her father. No matter what, Ty. You aren’t losing your daughter. You have to remember that.”

  “That woman is evil. You and I both know she helped Tucker take Van. She was in on the plan that killed our niece or nephew. She doesn’t deserve to live or ever even look at our daughter. I’d rather die than to let that happen.”

  “I can’t live without you, Ty. Please don’t talk about dying. Don’t ever say that. I have three kids that need you. I need you.”

  He pressed his lips over mine and held them there. His hot breath covered my mouth. “I’m sorry. I just hate feeling this way. I don’t want to spend one day without her. I miss her already and she is coming home tomorrow.”

  I sat up and turned on the light on Bella’s nightstand. “Ty, do you really think this guy can change those results? Do you think we can really do this and not get caught?”

  He nodded his head. “I do, Baby. I swear I do.”

  “Then tomorrow start making calls. I will support whatever you have to do to protect our family. I can’t go another day seeing you like this. It’s too hard on both of us.”

  He started kissing me all over my face. “Thank you, Baby, Thank you so much. I will do whatever I have to do. I won’t let that woman touch our daughter. I promise you.”

  “Just promise me one thing.”

  “Anything Baby, anything.”

  I started shaking even thinking about saying it out loud. “Promise me that I won’t lose you over this.”

  “Oh God, no, Baby. You will never lose me. I would never ever leave you. My God, is that what you think? You think if we had to share Izzy with that woman, I would leave you and our kids? Jesus, Miranda. I would never do that. You are my world and you own my heart. There will never be anyone else in the world that I’d want to be with. Say you believe me.”

  My heart was beating so fast. “I do Ty, I swear I do.”

  We ended up falling asleep in Bella’s bed. It wasn’t the most comfortable night’s sleep, but we were both so emotional that it didn’t matter. Ty held me so tight I almost felt like I couldn’t brea
the. I didn’t want him to ever let me go. When the sun came up, he was still holding me tight against his body. Our tears had dried up, but our emotions were still at the highest level.

  We did our best not to talk about it, on account of preparing ourselves for Bella’s arrival. We promised that we were going to protect her from all of this. If things ended up working out, she would never have to know what we went through.

  Ty made a couple calls and left messages for someone to get him the guy’s number. We went about our day like our lives were hanging on that phone call. When Conner and Bella walked into the house, Ty seemed to brighten up. She made him smile for the first time in days and I felt myself relaxing, knowing she could make him feel better.

  Ty went back to work on Tuesday and by Wednesday he was starting to panic again. I ended up not feeling well and staying home from work, so he took the car and took Bella to school before going into work. I got a call at five o’clock from Ty saying he was going to try and hunt down where the guy was staying. Something about it made me feel uneasy, but I had faith that my husband knew what he was doing. Ty’s mom had gone out and picked Bella up from school for me and Conner took her out to ride the tractor to give me some time alone.

  At eight o’clock Ty walked in the door. He gave me a big hug and was smiling. “He said he can do it. He said he can change the results for us.”

  “Just like that?”

  “It’s gonna cost a grand, but he said he would do it. I just need you to call and set up the appointment at the hospital.” He squeezed my hands. “We’re going to be okay, Baby. Bella is never going to have to know this ever happened.”

  Relief washed over me. I couldn’t believe the guy had come through for us.

  “I just need to pay for the test and pay the guy and he will take care of everything else. This nightmare will be over in the next few weeks and we can pretend it never happened. She’ll never be able to cause us problems again.”

  Ty seemed confidant, but there was something about his tone that made me worry. I didn’t know what it was, but I promised that I would trust him. I knew he loved us and would never do anything that he thought would hurt us. Maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be okay.

  Chapter 10

  Tyler

  I promised myself that I would never lie to her; that I would never keep something from her that could hurt our marriage, and I had broken that promise.

  There was only one way for me to protect my daughter and doing so meant I had to call someone I never wanted to see again. The first call was quick. She didn’t know my new number and I didn’t really want her to. She’d caused so many problems in my past, it killed me that she was my one link to solving this problem.

  After the first message and she hadn’t called back, I left several more, probably sounding more desperate for a call back than I should have, but that is what I was. I was so desperate. I couldn’t imagine one more minute of thinking I could lose anything about my relationship with my little girl.

  Finally, by Wednesday, I couldn’t take the waiting game any longer. I called Miranda and told her I was going to go to the person’s house to try and talk to them. I didn’t want to tell her who the person was. She would have told me not to do it. She would have changed her mind and I couldn’t bear hearing that. I had to go through with it. I was doing it for Izzy.

  I sat out front of her place for a while just wondering what I was going to say. We’d obviously ended things on terrible terms and after I married Miranda and called Izzy my own, she stopped bothering me, but there I sat in front of Heather’s house, hoping she could help me save my daughter.

  I had to conjure enough balls to actually walk to her front door and knock and part of me expected some kind of slap in the face when she did answer. She opened the door and rolled her eyes, but let me in anyway.

  Oh shit! She looks pissed. This is a terrible idea.

  “I didn’t return your calls on purpose, Ty.”

  “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important, Heather.” As I followed her up the stairs of her split level home, I felt nothing, no attraction to her at all, in fact I hated everything about her.

  She wasn’t an ugly girl, she was quite the opposite, but I just had no interest in her. Not only had our relationship never been labeled, I actually hated her. She was a self centered little bitch who didn’t care who she hurt.

  My heart belonged to one person and there was not a single person out there that could ever make me feel different.

  “Did the wife leave you? Let me guess…you cheated on her and had another illegitimate child?” Her sarcasm was already getting on my last nerve. I followed her to the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar while she got out two beers.

  She slid mine across the counter and waited for me to respond. I held up my left hand and flashed her my ring. “Still married.”

  “Did she kick you out? Wise up to your asshole ways?” In my head I kept mocking her every word. “Did she kick you out? Wise up to your asshole ways?”

  “No, actually we are expecting twins in a couple of months.” Yeah, take that in bitch. My life is perfect. I wasn’t going to let her think I was here for anything other than Izzy, but I wasn’t about to let her talk bad about my wife either. “Miranda and I are happy Heather. Nothing will ever change that. I’m here because I need your help and I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t desperate.”

  “What are you talking about? If you’re so happy, what could you possibly want my help with? Did she stop making your dick hard? Are you needing someone else to bring you back to life?”

  Aw, Hell no!

  “No! Shut the fuck up about my marriage. My wife is amazing and I will never have trouble getting it up. Not that it’s any of your business. I am here about my daughter.”

  She leaned over the counter and scrunched up her face. “Come again? Ty, I have no idea what you are blabbing about. I haven’t seen or heard from you in years and you come to my house to talk about your kid. Are you on crack?”

  I put my hands up to my face and tried to calm down. I have no idea why being around this chick always made me feel like I wanted to punch her in the face. I’d never hit a girl, but damn I wanted to hit her. “She’s not really mine, Heather.”

  “Did that bitch trap you only for you to find out she wasn’t yours later and now she is all knocked up with your real children?” If she calls my wife a bitch again, I’m going to go bat shit crazy up in here.

  “Jesus Christ, would you just shut up and hear me out. Please?” I stood up and started pacing around the room. “I’ve known Miranda my whole life. My cousin Colt is her cousin from his other side of the family. We grew up celebrating holidays and spending summers together as kids. We even used to tell everyone we were related, even though we weren’t. She got involved with this piece of shit, who got her pregnant and abandoned her. When Van left me for my cousin Colt, I drove down to Kentucky with her and just by chance she and I helped deliver Miranda’s daughter, Isabella. From that moment I fell in love with that little girl. The loser boyfriend came back into the picture and beat the shit out of Miranda, so she and Izzy came to stay with me. She didn’t need to know the other details. I would have been here all night. I think you can figure out the rest of the story.”

  “So that night she was running from a crazy ex?” She was finally paying attention to what I was saying.

  “You mean the night you were trying to seduce me with the idea of having a threesome? Yeah, that night. To make matters worse, I already had serious feelings for Miranda and you almost ruined everything by being there. She needed to feel safe and instead she thought I was a total douche.”

  Another reason I hate you so much.

  “Like I knew who she was? Besides, I wanted you for myself. Kid or no kid, I was there to have a good time. You seemed like you were changing your mind when she came in.”

  “Because I never in a million years thought I had a chance with her. Listen Heather, my life
is different. I have a family that means everything to me. I am here because I have no other options. I wouldn’t be telling you all of this unless it was life or death for me. If you ever cared a rat’s ass about me, you will at least hear me out.”

  Please just help me.

  She sat back and threw her arms in the air. “Fine tell me.”

  “I married Miranda because she showed me what loving someone was about. I never felt that way with Van or with anyone else in my life. I never imagined having a built in family, but once they moved in, I never wanted them to leave. Izzy means the world to me and I am the only father she has ever known. I gave her my name and thought it would be enough to make her mine forever. Her biological father died after he kidnapped Van and caused her to miscarry her first child.”

  “Holy shit! I never liked her, but that is awful.”

  “They have a beautiful little girl and a son, but yeah it sucked balls. Anyway, we thought we would never have to worry about me being Izzy’s dad. A few weeks ago we took a trip to Kentucky and ran into the father’s mother. She made a big deal about talking to Izzy, and at the time, we got out of the place we were at and thought nothing of it. Miranda got served with papers when we went back for a Christening. The woman, who has never spent one day with my daughter, is trying to sue us for visitation.”

  She seemed to be listening to me, but still scrunched her face up as she listened. “I still don’t get what you need my help for. I don’t even know your wife. I mean, I know who she is. I see her at the salon sometimes. I don’t think she remembers me though.”

  What the fuck? Was she stalking my wife? Did Miranda even know?

  “The lawyer said the only way we could stop her from taking Izzy is if we could prove that I was her father.”

  “But you’re not.”

  “That’s why I’m here Heather. I need Toby’s help. I need you to convince him to do what he did in college again.”

  She cocked her eyebrow. “You came here for me to get my brother to help you? Ty, how could you think for one second that I would help you? Do you not understand that I was in love with you? You ripped my heart out.”