Sierra couldn't stop the gasp that came from her lips. "You're lying. He doesn't have any kids. He and I are going to have children. I will be his baby mama. No one else."
"He might not have known about the child until recently. Have you heard him talking to anyone about getting someone to look after a kid, or going to meet someone outside the city? Does he have a safe house somewhere? A place no one else knows about?"
Sierra stared back at her. "Oh, my God," she said slowly. "It's yours, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"You and Johnny had a kid." She shook her head in confusion. "But that doesn't make sense. You left."
"I left because I was pregnant, and because I didn't want my child to be swept up into Johnny's world. I was young. I was scared. I couldn't take care of a baby at that point in my life, so I gave her up for adoption. I didn't know where she went or who adopted her. But then last Tuesday, someone kidnapped a little girl, and yesterday I found out that that girl is my daughter. She's also Johnny's daughter. And I think he took her. He has her somewhere, Sierra."
"He doesn't have a kid at our house."
"He'd put her somewhere else."
"You're making all this up. You're trying to put Johnny in prison for dumping you all those years ago. You hate him. This is all crazy."
Despite Sierra's words, Bree could see that the truth was setting in. It also seemed apparent that Sierra was completely in the dark—unless she was the greatest actress in the world, and Bree didn’t think that was the case.
Now that she had Sierra's attention, she had to get her on her side. "You want your life with Johnny to stay the same, right? You don't want my child around. You don't want to share Johnny with a ten-year-old girl. And you won't have to, if you help me find her. I can keep you out of it, Sierra. I will never tell Johnny whatever you share with me. I give you my absolute word on that."
"I could never trust you. You stole Johnny from me."
"Oh, come on," she said, exasperated in spite of her plan to remain calm. "I didn't do that, and you know it. Look, I don't care that you're with him now. I even hope that you're happy. I know life wasn't easy for you. We come from the same neighborhood." She let that sink in, then continued. "I just want this girl to be back with her adoptive family. Her name is Hayley. She has a loving mother and father and two siblings."
"You're going to take her back to them?" Sierra challenged. "Why wouldn't you keep her? Now that you know where she is."
"Because she has a better family than I could give her."
Sierra gave her a long look, then shook her head. "Well, I don't know where she is."
"Think, Sierra. You know where Johnny's houses are, right? She has to be somewhere safe."
"You'll put Johnny in jail."
"I won't," she lied. "I just want my daughter back."
"Johnny must hate you," Sierra said. "You stole his child, his blood. He's going to kill you."
"Even if that wouldn't bother you, I don't think you want to raise the child he had with me, do you? I'm offering you a way to keep the life you have. It's a good deal."
"I don't know…"
A knock came at the door, and they both jumped. A young woman poked her head in. "Sierra, I need you to check Deb's color. She's freaking out that it has been in too long."
"Okay. I'll be right there." Sierra turned back to her. "I have to take care of this."
"I'll wait for you."
Sierra's lips tightened, but she hurried out of the room. Bree just hoped that when she came back, Sierra would make the right decision for all of them.
Seventeen
It was taking Bree a long time, Nathan thought, impatiently tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Maybe that was a good sign.
It might mean that Bree and Sierra were actually having a productive conversation. He knew Bree could be persuasive, and he also knew that however much Sierra had envied Bree, she'd also looked up to her back in the day. Perhaps that would come into play now.
His phone rang. It was Adrienne—again. She'd called him several times yesterday, and he'd never returned her call. He wasn't being fair to her, and that had to stop.
Taking a deep breath, he picked up, knowing that he was about to have a very difficult conversation, and one he should have had before last night.
"Where have you been, Nathan?" Adrienne demanded. "I've been calling and texting you for days."
Had it only been days? It felt like years had passed since he'd last seen her.
"I know. I've been really busy."
"Doing what? I went by your job site yesterday. Joe said he hadn't seen you, and he didn't know where you were. I felt marginally better that I wasn't the only one you were ghosting, but what's going on?"
"I told you that my friend's child was the little girl who was kidnapped last week. I've been helping out on the case."
"You've been helping out? How? You're not a cop."
"That's true, but I'm trying to be a good friend."
"Maybe you should think about being a good boyfriend," she said tartly, then immediately backtracked. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I just miss you. I really wanted to introduce you to my friend, Kari, and it just feels like something is off with us, Nathan."
He felt a wave of guilt for letting things go so far with Bree without talking to Adrienne first. "Something is off," he admitted. "We need to talk in person."
"What are you doing right now?"
"Actually, I'm still helping out on the case, so tomorrow would be better."
Silence followed his words. "You want to break up with me, don't you?"
"We should have a conversation face-to-face."
"So you can tell me it's over? Just say it now. Why wait?"
"Because I don't want to hurt you."
"I'm a big girl. Just tell me what happened. I thought things were going well. I know it's still pretty new, but we've been getting along. We've been having fun. What changed?"
He could hear the surprise and pain in her voice, and it bothered him that he was responsible for that. They had been doing well before Bree had come back into his life. But in retrospect, his version of "well" with Adrienne was nothing close to what he felt with Bree.
And even if Bree left him again, which was probably going to happen, Adrienne wasn't the right person for him. He knew that now. He had to be with someone he really connected with, someone he could talk to about anything and everything, and Adrienne wasn't that person. She was great; she just wasn't great for him.
"Nathan," she pressed. "Just talk to me."
"You deserve someone who really loves you, Adrienne."
"And you don't?"
"I care about you—"
"Oh, please, caring is an insulting word in this context."
"I'm not trying to insult you. It's complicated."
"It's not complicated, Nathan. At the end of the day, you either want to be with someone or you don't."
She made a good point. "I am sorry. I should have said something sooner."
"I'm sorry, too. Good-bye, Nathan."
"Good-bye."
He felt both relieved that the relationship was over and angry with himself for letting it go on as long as it had. He'd thought it was enough that they had fun together, and maybe it would grow into something, but if it didn't, it didn't. That's why he'd never opened up with Adrienne. Instinctively, he'd known it wasn't going to last. It wasn't that he hadn't trusted her; it was that he hadn't cared enough.
He hadn't cared about anyone the way he cared about Bree. She'd taken his heart a long, long time ago.
For so many years, he'd hidden his feelings away, but last night, he'd laid himself bare. He'd opened up and made himself vulnerable. In doing so, he'd woken himself up from the numb fog he'd put his heart and his emotions into when she got on that bus eleven years ago. Now, he was living again. He was feeling things. He was in love.
He sucked in a breath at that thought.
Bree could very, very easily break his heart again. But he wasn't going to regret taking the risk. This time he'd left everything on the field. If he lost, it wouldn't be because he hadn't tried. Because he hadn't told her how he felt. It was up to her now.