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I knew they were going to pressure Delila to murder our baby. Good thing she told my father when I was around. My woman was far too trusting—she never anticipated that others would lie… that my father was planning to betray her in the worst possible way.

As I was raised by the dickhead, I knew exactly what to expect from him.

No. She said it in front of my son and he nearly shit himself with excitement. Let the whole family know before I could stop him.

Damn right I did.

Like hell I was going to let my old man kill my baby.

So what does that mean?

It means I’m having another fucking kid.

About our plans! You were going to kick her out in two months.

Are you crazy? I can’t fucking kick out a pregnant woman. Everyone will think I’m a monster.

Correction. Everyone would learn that truth—that my father is a fucking monster.

So that’s it then? You’re going to go play house with the pig? Going to raise her piglets and forget all about me?

Don’t be dramatic.

You’re still my woman. This changes nothing.

Everyone’s all excited right now. We have to wait for everything to calm down.

Calm down? You’ve impregnated the bitch!

This doesn’t change anything. It just pushes the timeline back

To what? To 18 years?

I’m not living with the hag for 18 fucking years.

No. After this craziness dies down, we’ll think of something.

He thought that all this “excitement” was just going to calm down?

Oh no, Dad. I’m just getting started.

TWENTY-THREE

JAX

“Pizza Delivery” was pissed, and my old man was desperate to smooth everything over. It was laughable how easy it was to manipulate him.

All I had to do was mention a college that I wanted to see, and ask if he could drive out there with me to check it out.

“Oh shit, that’s your birthday weekend, right?” I ran my hands through my hair, pretending like I was frustrated. “But I can’t put this off, graduation is in less than a month.”

His birthday was on Monday. The old fucker didn’t put much effort into anyone’s birthday, but needed an entire weekend to celebrate his own.

My father crossed his arms, with an expression on his face that made it clear that my education was nothing but an inconvenience to him right now.

If he paid any more attention, he’d realize that looking at colleges this late didn’t make any sense. Application deadlines were back in January, and I’d already gotten into the nearby state college. I had a backup story about looking for a transfer school, but I doubted I’d even need it.

“Wait.” I snapped my fingers like I just came up with the idea. “You don’t mind if I take Delila with me?”