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Pregnant. She’s pregnant. She’s going to have a baby.
My baby.
I’m going to be a father.
What the hell am I supposed to do with this information?
“Parker?” she calls out. “Parker, are you still there?”
“I-I’m here,” I murmur. “I’m just…absorbing…”
Suddenly, my desk phone rings. It feels like a lifeline, and I desperately grasp at it.
“Chloe, I’m sorry, I have to go,” I quickly say.
“Parker, hold on…”
“I’ll call you later.”
I hang up before she can object further. I drop my cell on my desk and reach for the office phone.
“Hello?” I say, my tone breathless.
“Parker, son, we have an emergency.”
I furrow my brow, surprised yet again, though this one is a different kind of surprise. “Dad? What’s going on?”
I haven’t spoken to my mom or dad since storming out of their house the other day. There’s a sense of relief at hearing his voice, and I can acknowledge that I’ve missed talking to him, but I’m afraid of the reason he’s calling me. After Chloe’s shocking news, though, I’m not sure what my dad could say that would equal a surprise pregnancy.
My dad releases a long breath and says, “It’s Bethany. She—she did it again, Parker. She’s taken all she could grab and has run off.”
I clench my jaw as fury burns through me.
“I told you!” I exclaim while clenching the phone so hard that I’m surprised it doesn’t crack. “I told you she couldn’t be trusted, but no one would listen!”
“I know,” Dad whispers, and I can hear the devastation in his voice. “I know, son, and I’m sorry. We should have listened to you, but please, can you come over? We need you.”
They need me. They kick me out of their house after I tried to warn them that Bethany couldn’t be trusted, and now, they want me to come running back to help them. I’m only needed when it’s to clean up their darling daughter’s mess, the one I warned them was coming from the start.
There’s a bitter, petty part of me that wants to tell my dad that it’s his mess to clean up, but I push that part aside. My family needs me, and ultimately, they’re what matter most.
My family…and Chloe.
Chapter twenty-three
Chloe
My heart is racing as I hang up the phone and lean back against the kitchen counter. The cold granite sends a shiver up my spine, jarring me out of my thoughts. He hung up on me. Just like that. Not a word of comfort. Not a hint of reassurance.
How could he just hang up like that?
With trembling fingers, I reach for the cup of steaming chamomile tea I had made earlier and take a sip, hoping to calm my nerves. The floral aroma fills my nostrils but does nothing to alleviate the storm that’s raging within me.
“Pregnant,” I whisper to myself, as if saying it out loud will somehow make it more real or maybe less overwhelming. But it doesn’t. It’s as if each syllable hits me like a punch to the gut, a stark reminder of the responsibility that now rests in my belly.
Suddenly, a wave of nausea washes over me. I rush to the sink, retching into it violently. As I gasp for breath between bouts of sickness, Lauren walks in from the living room.
She stops dead in her tracks when she sees me bent over the sink.
