“Why didn’t you say anything?” I tried my best to speak calmly while staring at her stomach. “You were here for how long? You could have said something Hannah!”
She snickered and her jaw cracked to the side. “Why? So you’d tell me you don’t love me anymore? That I should get rid of it so you could run off into the sunset with some other woman? Sorry but no. I was going to hide and wait and avoid you until I gave birth, and then I was going to show her to you. I was going to put her in your face so you couldn’t walk away, not without completely rejecting us. I know you. Eli Davenport, reject his family? Never. This is our chance, Eli. We can have a second chance. Me, you, and our daughter. Just think, this is what would have happened if—”
“If you hadn’t run off with another man? If we had gotten married? But you did and we didn’t. So there is no second chance and using a baby as a way to make me stay with you is low, Hannah. There are a lot of things I could call you, but I never thought manipulative was one of them—”
“What can I do!” she yelled at me, her blue eyes angrily trying to brush away tears. “I made a mistake. A mistake I will regret every day of my life. I wake up and I’m so angry at myself. I love you, Eli. This is a good thing. We were a good thing! I’m sure we can get that back.”
“Hannah—”
“So because of her, that woman, you’re going to abandon us? Have you even seen our daughter?”
“That woman is my girlfriend—”
“And I’m the mother of your child.”
“Wow,” I whispered in disgust. Talking to her was useless and honestly scared me a little. Had I really been so blinded by her before that I hadn’t realized the type of person she was? She only cared about herself. She wanted everything and she wanted it on her terms.
Once again, I found myself staring at Hannah, wondering, How the hell did this happen?
“I won’t abandon her,” I said after taking a deep breath. “No matter who her mother is, I’d never abandon my own daughter. But you Hannah...I could do with not seeing you ever again.”
With that, I left the room, but not before hearing a sob from behind me. Running my hands through my hair, I tried to breathe. I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t want to be harsh, but she didn’t seem to understand.
This is a mess. FUCK! Less than twenty-four hours before I had been certain my life was back on track, and then this happened. And Guinevere…
I reached for my phone in my pocket when I heard someone come up beside me.
“Dr. Davenport, congratulations. Do you want to see your daughter?” A nurse smiled happily at me.
Gripping on to the phone tightly, I put it back into my pocket and nodded without saying a word.
Guinevere
I knocked on the door.
Nathaniel opened it, his hair slicked back as always and his reading glasses low on his nose.
“Gwen?”
“Stevie told me to visit the Hamptons, so surprise, here I am! Nice house. It's very…white.”
Stevie came up, dressed in a light green floral dress, her red hair up in a ponytail.
“Stevie! You look nice. So, I was in town and I thought I’d come and see you. I’m sorry, I was going to call, but I dropped my phone in my toilet. This place really is nice.”
Nathaniel looked between us both and just headed back inside.
“I’m sorry, were you guys in the middle of something? I can go and come back. I bought a car.” I pointed to the white Audi convertible in her driveway with Taigi sitting in the passenger seat.
“Gwen, are you all right?”
“Not at all, I think they cheated me on it, really. Did you know you could buy cars right off the lot? It was a little too expensive, but I was in a hurry. At first, I was going to take the bus here, but I would have had to walk another hour just to get to your house from the station. Then I was going to take a taxi, but I knew that would have looked bad if you all had company. So I said, 'What the hell, I’m a millionaire! I should splurge right?' So I went to the dealership and bought myself a brand new Audi and drove here. It’s nice, right?” I pointed back at it and Taigi barked. “Taigi loves it.”
She walked up to me and placed her hands on my face. “You sound like you’ve lost your mind and it’s scaring me, Gwen. What happened? Are your parents okay? Is everything okay?”
I bit my lip, trying to stop myself from breaking down, but it didn’t work. Nothing worked, and all I could do was hug her.
“Okay, cry first. We can talk later.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Love Me Enough To…
Guinevere
Later didn’t come for two days. Every time I tried to talk about it, my eyes would start to burn and I would break down again. Stevie and I sat on the beach, Taigi’s head on my lap as the sun rose over the horizon. She handed me the chocolate bar, and I broke myself off another piece.