by K. A. Linde
She jumped out of bed and hurried to clean up the mess that we had made while we were here. Clothes were scattered all across the room, hastily discarded in our den of iniquity. Neither of us had minded. It was easier to let everything go and enjoy how much we fucked than to consider what was coming next.
But, now, that time had come.
We put the place back together in record time and were out of the cabin. It was a quick drive back to Lubbock and to reality.
After this moment, I would definitively know that Colton was Marc’s son. I didn’t know what I would do with that information. It would be up to Vanessa if she wanted to try to change the custody agreement. But this was a day I had been dreading for a long time. A day I’d hoped would never come.
We made it back to my lawyer’s office in good time. He had already spoken to both Vanessa’s and Marc’s lawyers, and we would be reconvening within the hour. I chose to wait. I couldn’t leave, knowing that we had the results waiting. I’d spent years waiting for this moment. I could wait another hour.
Vanessa and Marc showed up separately and warily looked at each other. I wondered what they had done in my time away with Emery. I hoped it had driven them both as crazy as it had me. But they hadn’t had the benefit of amazing sex to forget about it. The way they were looking at each other, I was sure they hadn’t indulged, which made me grin.
“What?” Vanessa snapped.
“Nothing,” I said, purposely glancing between them. “Just had an amusing thought.”
“Your thought was so clear on your face. Maybe turn off the broadcast.”
I shrugged. Of course she could read me. I’d wanted her to.
Jake reappeared a few minutes later with the information in his hands, and everyone took their seats. Marc was jittery. I could tell by the way he kept fiddling with his hands. He’d done that in school, too. Vanessa looked stoic, as if her relationship with her son didn’t depend on this moment. Emery squeezed my leg under the table, and I met her gaze only briefly. I was glad she was here to ground me. I didn’t know what I would look like otherwise.
Rattled and a mess.
Neither of which I ever showed to anyone else anymore.
“Thank you for joining us again on such short notice,” Jake said, beginning the meeting. “We just received the paperwork from the laboratory that did the paternity test. This is the first time any of us will be seeing it.
“As stated before, Ms. Hendricks has claimed that Colton’s father is not her ex-husband, Mr. Wright, but Mr. Tarman instead. This allegation, if true, will begin a change in the custody agreement to potentially allow Mr. Tarman rights to see his son. If the allegation is false, the custody agreement will remain the same unless Mr. Wright or Ms. Hendricks wants to return to court to renegotiate. Is that clear?”
Everyone but Emery said, “Yes,” around the table, anxiously staring at the paperwork.
He bent back the metal brackets holding the envelope secured and then opened it. A stack of papers came out, and on the top, were the results. I held my breath as Jake read through the document. You could have heard a pin drop in the room.
“The paternity test came back positive for…Mr. Wright.” Jake turned to face me with a giant smile on his face. “Jensen, you’re the father. Colton is your son.”
Vanessa exclaimed from across the room, and I heard Marc cuss. But it was all background noise to me. It was like being sealed in a vacuum.
Colton was my son.
He was mine.
My boy.
I nearly broke down at the very thought that, after all this time, all this worrying, all the arguments and debates and complications…Colton had been mine all along. I’d been so sure that Vanessa was telling the truth. She had been so sure of the truth. I had let her hang it over my head for years. Years!
But she was wrong. Or she had lied. She had lied to my face all those times. Told me countless times that I hadn’t even been in New York the month that she got pregnant. My schedule hadn’t always overlapped with hers, but I’d believed her. She’d had no reason to say otherwise. Colton had been two years old before I even knew about it. By then, the exact travel dates had been lost on me. I could see them on my work schedule and the flight schedules, but we hadn’t always had sex every time I was there. It had been impossible to determine if I was Colt’s father.
Now, I knew that I was.
Colton was mine.
Emery’s arms were around me, and I stood, lifting her into the air.
“I’m so happy for you,” she whispered through the vacuum.
“God, I love you,” I murmured back, forgetting everyone else in the room.
I set her back down on her feet, cupped her face in my hands, and kissed the breath out of her. This was the moment I had been born for. The knowledge that I had the woman I loved here with me now and that I would never have to worry about my son again. It was euphoric.
“What the fuck, Vanessa?” Marc cried, jarring me out of my moment. “Why would you drag me into this?”
Marc’s and Vanessa’s lawyers were looking at the document, but it was clear from their faces that they agreed with Jake.
“I swear, it was you, Marc. I swear,” Vanessa said. “Jensen wasn’t even in town that month. We weren’t together. You know that.”
“You just wanted the drama. Fuck!”
“I really believed it was you,” she whispered. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I did.”
“You lied to all of us, Vanessa,” I said, drawing her attention to me. “You lied to me, to Marc, to everyone. But even worse was that you deluded yourself into believing it. You’re never holding this over my head again. I’m free. Free of you.”
At those words, Vanessa completely lost it. She broke down into tears and covered her face in her hands. Vanessa had been holding onto this fact for so long, thinking it was a way to keep me. As if she had thought for a second that I would still hold a flame for her after all she had done.
But it was over. There was nothing left. And she had no more control.
“If this satisfies everyone, we’ll leave the custody agreement as it stands and deny Mr. Tarman’s request for access to Colton,” Jake said. “If we want to take this further, then we’ll see you in court, Ms. Hendricks.”
Vanessa shook her head, blubbering about how she’d sworn she knew. She’d thought this would fix it all.
“Sounds good to me,” I said to Jake.
Sure, I would love to get custody of Colton and have him live here in Lubbock with me. But I didn’t want to go to court with Vanessa over it, and I wasn’t willing to disrupt Colt’s life. He was happy in New York, and he had a great school there. I wasn’t the type of person to do something like that just to make someone else miserable. That was all Vanessa.
We filed out of the office and stood in the foyer. Vanessa was shaking, talking to her lawyer.
Marc approached us. “I see you’ve taken everything from me now. Vanessa, Colton, the company.”
“Interesting how you put that,” I said. “All I see is that you were trying to take things from me that never belonged to you. And the company was just for fun.”
Marc glared and looked ready to throw a punch. Instead, he turned to Emery and grinned. “When he gets tired of you, give me a call.”
Emery arched an eyebrow in disgust. “Not even in your dreams.”
He laughed. “Oh, be sure, he’ll tire of you. He bores easily.”
“Unless you want a repeat of that time I found out you had an affair with my wife, I would step away,” I growled. “Now.”
“Don’t even waste your breath on him, Jensen,” Emery said. “He’s trying to provoke you because he’s jealous. You have the world at your feet.”
I turned to face my girl and smiled. She was right. Of course she was right. “I want you to meet my son.”
“I’d love to meet him.”
I took Emery’s hand then and left the lawyer’s office. I knew there was more to take care o
f, and I definitely had to get back to the office. But first things first. I needed to set all of this straight. Vanessa might be upset about it. Frankly, I didn’t care for Vanessa’s opinions any longer. Emery was in my life, and she was here to stay.
We showed up at the hotel right after our meeting, and I took Emery up to the top floor. I knocked on the door and Nanny Jennifer answer.
“Jensen! I’m surprised to see you here,” she said. “I thought Vanessa said that you couldn’t see Colton for right now.”
“Change of plans. Just got it approved by the judge that I have full access back.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful.” Jennifer smiled at Emery. “And you must be Emery.”
“Hi, nice to meet you,” Emery said, holding out her hand.
“Let me go check on Colt for you two.”
I turned to Emery. “Can you stay here for a minute. I want to talk to him first.”
“Of course,” she agreed.
“Colton, your dad is here!” Nanny Jennifer called.
I walked into the suite just as Colton came running. “Daddy!”
He launched himself into my arms, and I hugged him tighter than I’d ever squeezed him before. My son. Mine! No one could ever take him away again.
“Hey, champ,” I said. I set him back down. “Remember how I told you that I wanted you to meet a friend of mine?”
“Yes. A girrrl,” Colton singsonged.
I laughed. “Yes. A girl. She’s my girlfriend, and her name is Emery.”
“You have a girlfriend?”
“Yep, and I want you to meet her. I think you’ll like her. Are you ready?”
Colton looked down at himself and gave me a thumbs up.
God, I loved him.
I took his hand, and we walked together to the front of the suite where Emery was waiting.
“All right, champ, this is my girlfriend, Emery,” I said to Colton.
Colton stood very still and smiled up at Emery with the brilliance that only a child could have.
Then, I looked up in Emery’s big green eyes. “Emery, this is my son.”
“You’re very pretty,” he said with a Wright grin.
Emery laughed. “Why, thank you. It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Dad said that you were going to be my new friend.”
“I would like that very much.”
“Are you going to come visit me at home?”
Emery smiled and looked up at me with a question in her eyes.
“Yes,” I answered for her. “She will most definitely be visiting you in New York. I’m going to bring her as often as I come to visit.”
“I’d like that,” Emery said as much to me as to Colton. “I’d like to spend all my time in your lives.”
We moved back into the living space and took a seat. I picked Colton up and planted him on my knee. Emery sat next to me, and I wrapped my other arm around her.
This was our life. It wasn’t perfect. It was far from easy. But it was ours. And I loved them both more than words for being a part of it.
Epilogue
Emery
Eight Months Later
“Heidi, have you seen my black pumps?” I called into the living room.
“Which ones?”
“The closed-toe ones. Roundish.”
She appeared in my bedroom a minute later, holding a pair of shoes in her hand. Curse of living with someone who could pretty much wear all the same sizes as me. Except jeans, because she was a giant compared to me.
“Gimme those.”
I put them on my feet and looked in the mirror at the knee-length black skirt and black top I was wearing with the heels. “How do I look?”
“I’d fuck you,” she said with a laugh.
“Oh God, I hope all the high school boys aren’t going to think that.”
“Um…hell yes, they are.”
At that moment, a knock came from the front door, and I groaned, trying not to think about high school boys wanting to fuck me. I’d had enough torture for one lifetime on that front. Before I even reached the front door, Jensen popped open the door with his key to the place.
“Hey, babe,” he said, giving me a kiss. “Are you really wearing that on your first day?”
“Why? Do I look like shit?” I asked, concerned.
“No, you look hot as fuck. Every kid in the place is going to want to bang their teacher.”
I groaned. “Ew. Should I go for flats?”
“Only if you change into the heels for me later.” He winked.
I plucked the shoes off my feet and shoved them into his hands. Then, I dashed back into my bedroom and slipped on a sensible pair of black flats. I grabbed the official-looking teacher bag that Jensen had gotten for me as a congratulations for landing my first high school teaching job.
I’d spent all last semester substitute teaching to build up hours for the certification that I needed to be able to be in the classroom. Then, I’d applied to what felt like a million jobs all over Lubbock, and somehow, against all odds, I had gotten a job teaching European history at my old high school. My life could not be more ironic.
“Come on, before you’re late to class,” Jensen joked, smacking my ass on the way out the door.
“See you later, Heidi!” I called.
“Have a good first day at school, darling!” she yelled back.
Jensen had the truck, which calmed my nerves. I couldn’t imagine driving the Mercedes or the flashier sports car he had recently purchased to Lubbock High School. Sure, there was some oil money at the school…and there had always been the Wright family, but I wasn’t part of that elite inner circle—or, at least, I kept telling myself that.
Because, when the billionaire CEO himself dropped me off in front of the school, I felt pretty inner circle.
Things with Jensen had been much smoother sailing since the post-holidays madness. I spent a couple of nights a week at his house. We flew to New York once a month to see Colton, and he started spending a weekend here every month. I knew Jensen wanted more time with him, but he also didn’t want to interfere with Colton’s schooling. Vanessa had mellowed out. I wasn’t sure if it was the large quantities of Xanax she was taking or what, but she stopped fighting us when we came into town. After eight months, she must have finally decided I wasn’t going anywhere. And I wasn’t.
“Thanks for dropping me off,” I said.
I was trying not to be nervous even though it was really my first official day teaching high school students. I’d been a TA in college and taught my own introductory history class, but for some reason, high school had felt more daunting than college. Maybe because I’d found out who I was in college, and I had been so scared of high school.
“Have a good first day,” he told me, leaning in and giving me a lingering kiss.
“Is anyone actually ready for their first day of high school?”
“You survived once before. You can probably make it a second time.”
“And with the right brother this time.”
“Ha-ha!” he said with a roll of his eyes. “I’d better be the right brother.”
“The one and only,” I whispered against his lips.
“Good. Now, get in there, and then later, we can enact all my naughty teacher fantasies.”
I blushed despite myself. It didn’t matter how much sex we’d had. I couldn’t seem to keep it together.
“God, I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too.”
I kissed him once more and then hopped out of the truck.
I adjusted my skirt and took in the world I was about to enter. I never thought that I’d be back. It was kind of cool to think that I could start over here. I entered the building with more optimism than I’d thought possible.
The day went by lightning fast. Way faster than I remembered high school going when I had been there. But, before I knew it, my first day was over. I had over a hundred and fifty names to remember that had com
pletely flitted out of my brain. But I’d survived.
There was Jensen, waiting for me, when I left. Of course, he was in the flashy Corvette. Bright red and low to the ground with the top down. I shook my head and laughed as I approached the car that all the students were staring at.
“Miss me?” he asked with a grin.
“Every moment.”
“Good.” He popped open the passenger door, and I dropped inside. “So, where do you want to go to celebrate your birthday?”
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. “Oh my God, how did you find out?”
“Heidi.” He sat down in the driver’s seat and then obnoxiously revved the engine.
“Bitch.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t know. Let’s stay in and work on those fantasies.”
He grinned. “Thought you’d say that.”
The drive back to his house was unbelievably short in his new car. It blew my hair all around my face, but it was exhilarating. I could see why he loved the thing, and he was already talking about getting something sleek and distinctly European. He was addicted.
He parked in the garage and took my hand as I stepped out of the car.
“I am so not a birthday person,” I informed him with a sigh. “I do like cake though.”
“I was made aware of this. But I don’t care. You’ll celebrate with me if I want you to.”
“Just be warned, I will retaliate!”
He laughed and drew me in for a kiss. “I’ll take all the punishment you’re willing to offer.”
We stepped in through the garage and straight into the kitchen.
Jensen flipped the lights, and suddenly, a whole group of people jumped up and screamed, “Surprise!”
I put my hand over my mouth. “Oh my God!”
There were party streamers all over his kitchen and out through the foyer. A giant party cake that read Happy Birthday, Emery with a bunch of lit candles sat in the middle of the island. And all around it were my friends and family and Jensen’s family.
My heart expanded enough to hold them all. I might not have been a birthday person before, but today changed that. I’d never had good birthdays growing up. They’d always been filled with disappointment—kids missing parties, no one showing up, and all that. But right here was exactly what I’d always wanted.