“Lily, I don’t know what to say. I’ve gone over it hundred times. The results show that Maverick is indeed a close relative, but he’s not the father,” she tried to explain.
As soon as the word relative came from her mouth, I knew. Gavin is John Warren’s father. I think a part of me had known all along that I wasn’t his father. I’d felt it whenever I held him in my arms, certain something wasn’t right. Now, hearing the words out loud… knowing that I hadn’t been fucking crazy, made the ground shake beneath me. How the hell could I have been so goddamn blind? I took a deep breath trying to slow the storm of thoughts that were spinning in my head. I couldn’t figure out how the fuck this happened? Gavin… Gavin was John Warren’s father. I was sure of it. Fuck! How could he watch me go through hell, and never say a goddamn thing?
Fury soared through my body. I’d spent the past six months thinking I was some kind of monster. Gavin knew how tormented I was, how broken I had become and the self-loathing I felt for not being the father that John Warren needed. I thought I was incapable of being there for him… my own child. I detested the very thought of it. I tried to make excuses, telling myself that I was protecting him from the club. But, I knew that was really never it. It was me, only me I was protecting him from.
“Maverick,” Henley whispered with a pained look on her face. She placed her hand on my arm, pulling me from my thoughts.
“It’s Gavin. He’s the father. He’s the only living relative I have,” I told Lily through gritted teeth. I took another deep breath, trying to calm my anger. I’d never felt such rage, such hurt. I took a step back, taking a deep breath. Then, just as suddenly as the onslaught of my initial rage from Gavin’s betrayal, it happened. Like a dim light shining through the black clouds, the darkness that had been surrounding me for fucking months was starting to fade away as an overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. Like the rolling in of the ocean’s tide, wave after wave of increasing relief, cleaning me of my guilt, my self-hatred and my despair. John Warren wasn’t my son. I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t losing my mind. My instincts were right all along. “Call him. He won’t do anything to stand in your way of the adoption. He knows JW belongs with you,” I told her.
“But how? How did this happen?” Lily asked with her voice trembling.
“He failed to mention that he was screwing Hailey, so you’ll have to ask him about that,” I snapped. The very thought of him being with Hailey and never telling me about it, made my hands tremble with anger.
“I’ll call him,” Goliath told her as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his chest. “We’ll figure this thing out.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to get the hell out of there. I needed to get this shit sorted in my head before I talked to Gavin. Right now, I couldn’t think about it. I needed an escape.
“I’m taking Henley over to Paris Landing. Call me if you need me,” I told them, taking hold of Henley’s hand, and without either of us saying goodbye, I led her over to the car. I knew it was a shitty thing to do, leaving them alone to sort out this mess with Gavin, but I couldn’t stay. I wasn’t ready to deal with my brother.
I started the engine and neither of us spoke as I pulled out of the parking lot. I’d been driving for almost an hour when Henley cleared her throat and asked, “Hey… are you okay?”
“No, but I will be,” I told her.
“Maverick, I’m really sorry,” she told me.
“Nothing for you to be sorry about, Henley. This had nothing to do with you.”
“Maybe not, but I’m still sorry all the same.” She tried to brush her long bangs behind her ear and looked out the window. She let out a deep sigh before she said, “I’m just going to say it. I’m pissed at Gavin. Totally, absolutely pissed! Like chop off his balls kind of pissed. He’s such an asshole for not telling you,” she snapped. “I know it wouldn’t have been easy, but he should have said something! Like, ‘Hey, Maverick, I screwed your girlfriend. Sorry about that!’”
“He saw the hell I was going through. How could he not say something?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine keeping something like that from Cassidy, but I’m sure Gavin had his reasons.”
“I don’t give a fuck what his reasons were, he should’ve talked to me about it.”
“You’re right. So what now?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”