Page 62 of His Long-Lost Baby
He looks at me like I’m speaking a different language. “Huh? When?”
“Just a few minutes ago. Right before I went to the bathroom.” I lick my lips. There’s no easy way to say this, so I should just come out with it.
“Um. Yeah.” He frowns in confusion. “But I’m sorry, Billie. I’m kind of preoccupied right now—”
“I know you have a child,” I blurt out. “A girl. Six years old.”
His eyes widen? “What? How do you know that?”
I swallow hard, feeling the weight of my secret crushing me. “Because I’m her mother, James. I adopted Quinn when she was three months old.”
He stares at me for a long moment, and I feel a crushing weight pushing down on me.
And then he starts laughing.
I blink, taken aback. Is he laughing at me? At Quinn?
“What’s so funny?” I ask, anger rising in my chest.
He shakes his head, still chuckling. “I’m sorry, Billie. It’s just… You’re kidding. You have to be…”
“I’m not kidding,” I say quietly. “I signed up for a DNAU account to see if I could find out any medical information for Quinn. She had an asthma attack and I was freaking out. I wanted to see if there was anything else I should watch out for. And then you showed up as a match. As her father. I couldn’t ask you directly about her health, and so—”
“Wait, wait.” He holds his hands up, his voice rising. “Why couldn’t you directly ask me?”
“Because Sara said you wanted nothing to do with her.”
James drops his hands, looking shellshocked. “Sara who?”
“Sara Ford.”
He looks at me like he’s never heard the name, but a moment later recognition takes over.
“Wait, Sara Ford? As in the Sara Ford I hooked up with a few times years ago?”
I nod, feeling a pang of jealousy at the thought, even though it was years ago.
“I haven’t seen or heard from Sara in years,” he says, his voice low. “I had no idea she got pregnant.”
I let out a sigh, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders. He really didn’t know. He wasn’t just playing dumb to get out of responsibility.
James stares at me, and I can see the conflicting emotions flickering behind his eyes. He’s angry, but I can also see a hint of fear. He’s scared of what this means for him. And I can’t say that I blame him.
I’m scared too. Terrified.
“Sara didn’t tell me,” he says to the floor. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. And we can’t ask her.”
His eyes shine for a moment before he scrubs his face. “Okay, so is this why you applied to work at GarrisTech? You were, what? Going to spy on me to get information? Get money out of me?”
I feel my blood boil at the suggestion. “No,” I say firmly. “I would never do that. I just wanted to be as informed as possible about any medical challenges Quinn might face, and I thought you might be a valuable source of information.”
James stands and starts pacing. I watch him move back and forth, frustrated and helpless.
“I can’t believe this,” he mutters. “How am I supposed to react to this? What am I supposed to do?”
Then he whirls around to face me. “You lied to me.”