We were coming down from our morning sex on the fifth day when I got the call.
“Tests are in,” Jake said. “Showtime.”
“Do you know what they say?”
“They’re sealed. We’ll find out at the same time as everyone else. But be prepared.”
I nodded and then hung up the phone. “Time to go.”
Emery stretched out in bed and yawned. Her tits looked amazing in the morning right after I fucked her brains out. “Right now?”
“Test results are in.”
“Fuck,” she said, jolting up. “Let’s go.”
“We have to get everyone together at once before we can go through the sealed paperwork. But we should get over there as soon as possible.”
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.