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“You knew”—I hiccup, tears running down my face—“and you came over to my apartment the next night and ma… made—” I feel like I can’t get the words out of my mouth.
I don’t finish the sentence. When the elevator opens, I step inside and hit the button. The last thing I see before the doors close is Beckham, pleading with me to stay.
I clutch my own body. I feel like I’m going to vomit and it’s all so strange because we’ve never expressed our feelings for each other.
We’ve never talked about a future.
We never said we were exclusive or in a relationship or anything.
We’ve never even discussed when we’d hook up again because I thought I was protecting myself by not acknowledging my feelings.
Yet here I am, leaving his penthouse with a broken heart and no hope of a future with a man I thought I could trust… a man I did trust.
Chapter 18
Beckham
“She’s a little young, even for you, don’t you think, Beckham?”
I pound against the elevator door, white-hot anger burning through my veins at the sound of her sickly-sweet voice.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” I shout at the top of my lungs, my voice booming through the marble entryway and bouncing off the elevator doors.
“Because she’s right; you should have done it already. You owe the woman you’re fucking an explanation as to why you’re going to be a father suddenly, don’t you think?”
I spin around, Venus’ expression revealing she’s startled at my outburst, but I don’t care. I’m sick of this woman fucking with me for no reason.
“I know, we both know,” I correct myself as I slowly walk toward her, “that that baby isn’t mine.”
“You don’t know actually and there’s something else you don’t know.” She has an arrogant look on her face, one that tells me I’m really not going to like what she says next. “I didn’t have an IUD the last few weeks we were together.”
“What?” I shake my head in confusion, certain I just misheard her.
“It expired. I’d had it for five years and when the doctor asked if I wanted a new one put in, I opted not to.”
“Is there a reason why you thought it was okay to gamble with someone else’s future like that without telling them?” My fingers are curled into the palms of my hand so tight I’m surprised I haven’t drawn blood.
Her face morphs from cocky and smug to angry in a flash.
“What about my future, Beckham? What about what I wanted?” she shouts. “Everything in our relationship was about you!” She jabs her finger toward me, tears stinging her eyes.
“What are you talking about, Venus? I told you from day one I had no intentions of ever becoming a father or a husband and you took that choice away from me because you’re selfish! If you wanted those things, why did you stay? Why did you beg me to stay when I left?”
We’re both angry, shouting, crying, but I can see it’s not going to accomplish anything. I feel defeated. I thought there was a good chance that she was lying about this child being mine, but now, I don’t think she is. I fall to knees, my head in my hands.
“How could you do this to me? I finally met the woman I want those things with, and you robbed me of having them with her.”
“I’m thirty-eight, Beckham. My chance at being a mother was fleeing fast so I did what I had to do.”
She walks up to me, running her hand through my hair as she looks down at me.
“I didn’t purposely do this. Yes, I took a chance on removing my IUD, but you’re right, you were always so careful. I didn’t think it would happen, but that one drunken night we reconciled after breaking up and then getting together for the last time, it happened. Look at me, Beckham.”
I look up at her; she’s standing over me, both her hands on either side of my face now.
“I know this isn’t what we planned and I know it isn’t what you wanted, but we can do this. We can be a family. We were great together; can’t you see that?”
“I don’t love you, Venus. I love her.”
