After The Ex Games(18)

“I could never hate you, Brandon.” She took ahold of my hands. “I love you.”

“I just feel like there’s so much I haven’t told you and so much I wish I had told you and now it just all feels like it’s too late. I’ve done so many things to you. Loved you, hated you, treated you terribly… I just don’t want this to be the—”

“Just tell me, Brandon.” Her words were tight, and I closed my eyes.

I was silent for a second as I thought about the past, my life before Katie. My life before love. I’d been a different person, but how could I explain that? How could you explain the transformation from inhumane to humane?

“There was a baby...” I started and took a deep breath. “When we were at the club, a baby was born and—”

“I knew it!” Katie gasped, and my eyes popped open. “Greyson and Patsy had a baby.” She jumped up and ran to the door. “I’m sorry, Brandon, but I need to call Meg. I need her to come home now. She has to know.” She paused at the door. “I think it’s time that we all get everything out in the open. No more lies. If Greyson wants to be with Meg, he needs to tell her the truth.”

“Wait!” I jumped up and walked to her, my heart in my throat. “You don’t understand.”

“What I understand is that my best friend is dating a guy who’s ex had his baby and is now after revenge. I can’t say I blame her. Where’s the child by the way?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head, everything becoming a blur. Everything was going wrong. It was all being twisted. I didn’t know what was up and what was down. “Katie, we need to talk.” I grabbed her arm and she pulled away from me.

“I’m going to tell Meg to come home.” She shook her head. “Maybe we can all sit down and talk then?”

“Okay.” I nodded, my heart dropping.

She was right of course. Everything needed to come out in the open. It was time for the truth to come out. I was ready and I knew Greyson was ready. There was no hiding any more. All I could hope and pray for was that Katie and Meg would understand and forgive us.

I walked to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and took a couple of swigs before rushing to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I walked down the hallway to one of the guest bathrooms and sat on the side of the bath for a few seconds to compose myself.

It was the pink box that first alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t the only one who had used the bathroom recently. I jumped up and pulled it out of the trash, my heart stopping when I read ‘First Response’ on the packaging. It was a pregnancy test.

My heart stilled as I looked in the trash to see if the test was still there. I saw the white plastic and stood still for a moment, not knowing if I should check. I hesitated for about ten seconds and then reached in and grabbed the test. I pulled it out quickly and looked at the test.

There were two pink lines, and I froze before grabbing the box and reading it. I didn’t know what two lines meant. I read out loud as I looked at the package. “Two lines means pregnant and one line means not pregnant.” I stared at the test with my heart beating fast.

This changed everything. Katie was pregnant again. I pressed my face against the wall in both excitement and worry. Katie was pregnant. I wanted to jump for joy, but I knew that there was a high likelihood that I would miss this pregnancy as well if I told her the truth. It was in that moment that I felt the most alone I’d ever felt in my life. I didn’t know what to do. If I told Katie the truth, I might lose her, but if I didn’t tell her, I might lose her as well. I was in a lose-lose situation, and I had no idea how to get out of it without resorting to extremely desperate and dangerous methods.





Chapter 8

Unknown





I just wanted to call him. I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to say, “Hi, Dad.” I’d lived my whole life never fully understanding my place in the world. The life I’d lived hadn’t been a bad one, per se. It had just been one filled with grief and sorrow. And now I knew why.

Ever since, Patsy had told me who my real father was, so many things made sense. It all added up. Patsy was heartbroken for me. She’d said that she wished she’d made a different decision all those years ago. She’d said that she’d had the power to make a different decision, but she’d thought it was best. Best for who, I don’t know. She’d said that as soon as she saw me, that night came back to her. She’d said that she can’t look at me without thinking about everything that went down.

The only two people in the world who could make it right weren’t going to. It was hard listening to her ramble on and on about how they’d broken both of us. Part of me didn’t understand why she was still so angry. I didn’t have anger. Not really. I had pain and heartache, but not so much anger.