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I step out onto the porch. Maryanne goes inside the house.
She closes the door but doesn’t shut it all the way.
She’s going to listen and snoop.
“Can we sit together and talk?” Cutter asks.
“I’m fine standing right here,” I say.
Cutter nods. “This whole thing is a nightmare, Piper. I’ve been getting texts. Blackmail texts. This person wanted me to pay them fifty million dollars to keep the story quiet. And if you want to know the truth, we paid someone off before to shut up.”
My stomach feels even sicker. “You did…?”
“My agent did. For financial gain for myself. I have nothing to hide from you, Piper.”
“Now you don’t. Yesterday you did.”
“No. It’s not that simple, Piper. There is no story. It’s all made up. It’s a lie.”
“Seems convenient to say.”
“It’s not convenient. This is going to be so hard to fight back against. And the fact that you’re mixed up in it. I’m so sorry. There was a woman, yes. She said she had my son. There was never a baby. There was never a pregnancy. She faked it.”
I fold my arms, keeping a scowl on my face.
Cutter keeps talking.
“It was a while ago,” he says. “Four or five years ago. I met a woman in a bar after a game. One thing led to another… you know. Things happens. Next thing I know she’s telling me she’s pregnant, having my baby and demanding all this money from me. Telling me she’s going to expose me. I was shocked by it all. The crazy part is that we never slept together. We hooked up but we didn’t sleep together. You know?”
“Thanks for the visual,” I say.
Little stings of jealousy hit me.
How stupid of me.
“I’m just making it all clear,” he says. “I panic. This woman is trying to mess with me. Then I realize I don’t care all that much. I know the truth. She’s pregnant? It’s not mine. We can take a paternity test to prove that. It’s just messy. Tony got spooked too. So I decided to just handle it myself. I went back to this town and found the woman. Told her we could meet up and get things worked out. She meets up with me and she’s wearing this shirt with something obviously under it. Trying to look pregnant. Something weird was going on for sure. She was scared. Jumpy. I reassured her things would be okay and I slipped her a piece of paper asking if she was in danger. She nodded to me. I told her I had money for her but at my hotel. She had to come with me. I got her out of that town and into a hotel room to find out what the hell was really going on.”
“Which was?” I ask.
“Her boyfriend put her up to it. The guy was some drugged up gambling addict. He concocted this plan to blackmail me for money. To extort me. Get a million dollars out of me to go away. Trying to convince me that I got this woman pregnant and I was going to pay her off to go away. She wasn’t pregnant. She had a frigging dish towel under her shirt. She was terrified of her boyfriend for many reasons. And if you want to know the truth, Piper, I should have done things differently. I should have stopped right there, got Tony involved and walked away. I didn’t. I felt for this woman. She wasn’t on drugs. She wasn’t messed up. She just needed a break. Some help. So I helped her. Okay? I helped her. I gave her money. I got her to bolt from her boyfriend. I thought I was doing the right thing all along.”
“So you just gave some random woman some money and helped her…?”
“Yeah. I did.”
“Did you…” I shake my head. “I mean, it doesn’t matter, but did you have feelings for her? Did you fall in love with her?”
“It wasn’t like that at all, Piper. I just wanted to help her. I don’t know why. Okay? I just saw this woman faking a pregnancy, scared of the guy that should have been taking care of her…” He runs a hand through his hair. “I said I never met my father. He did stuff like that to my mother. I heard stories. The things he put her through. And why didn’t anyone ever help my mother?”
Cutter’s jaw tightens.
He’s in pain.
He’s blinking fast.
I’m not sure if I should be falling for this or not. If this is real or just some act.
I step toward him. “You swear on everything…”
