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“Why? Because she got your fiancée drunk?”
“No. Because she hired a stripper to attend the hen’s night.”
Nolan whistles through his teeth. “I hope someone was smart enough to record it.”
“They better not have,” Bennett growls.
“Calm down, big brother. It’s a bit of harmless fun. Poppy’s a good girl, you know she loves you.”
“That’s not the point.”
“That is absolutely the point.”
“The point,” he bites through a clenched jaw, “is that our mother paid another man to take his clothes off in front of the woman I’m about to marry.”
“So, you came here to bitch about Mum? Is that why you’re here?”
“No! And are you going to tell me why Daisy’s baby is in your care?”
“Because I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice, Nolan.”
“This time I didn’t.”
“And why’s that? You don’t know the first thing about babies.”
“I was the better option.”
Bennett lets out a disbelieving laugh. “You? I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s the truth, arsehole. Daisy can’t do shit with her marshmallow hands, and it was either me or Puff the Magic Dragon.” Nolan shrugs as though it’s the most obvious explanation in the world, and I clamp a bandaged hand over my mouth to smother my laugh.
“Marshmallow hands? Puff the Magic Dragon?” Bennett leans towards his brother and squints. “Are you high? Because if you are, you’d better hand that baby over to me stat.”
Nolan snorts. “I’m stone-cold sober.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Nolan snaps.
“That somehow makes this conversation even weirder.”
“What do you want, Bennett? As you can see, I’m rather busy.” He gestures toward my son.
Bennett slips a hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulls out a business card. “I came to drop this off. One of the officers gave it to me last night. He wants you and Daisy to come down to the station and make a statement.”
And just like that, the smile is wiped right off my face.
My heart feels like it’s lodged in my throat as Nolan, Jonah, and I leave the police station after giving our statements.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived. I told Nolan that my ex cheated on me, but I failed to disclose that I did a runner in the middle of the night and moved interstate with Jason’s child without his permission.
The whole time I sat in the interview room, I kept waiting for something to happen. For the officer to type my name into the computer, and for some kind of alert to flash on the screen.
I have no idea how any of it works, but every tap of the keyboard had my pulse climbing higher. My ex has the kind of money that could make my worst nightmare a reality. He could take Jonah away from me, and I have no doubt he’d do it purely out of spite.
“You okay?” Nolan asks as we head back to his car. Jonah’s in his arms again, and the baby bag is draped over his shoulder. I know he’s holding him because I can’t with my injuries, but there’s a part of me that’s beginning to think he’s a baby hog.
