Except that the second I found out Penelope was mine, something had fundamentally shifted. I had no way of knowing if that would’ve happened back then, but I did know this: I would’ve never ever abandoned my child.
And I wasn’t going to now.
So what if she was grown?
And even if she wanted nothing to do with me, I was damn sure going to try with everything I had to be part of her life.
What if I was a bad influence?
What if she turned out like me?
“I don’t know how to explain . . .” She hesitated. “When she told me about the appointment, I felt like she’d ripped the baby out of me. I-I couldn’t let her go through with it. I would’ve come back to New York to stop her.”
I didn’t know if I would ever forgive JoJo for the deception of a lifetime, but I would always be grateful to her for saving my little girl . . . who wasn’t so little anymore.
What could I say? I’d received the biggest shock. My emotions had been on a pendulum of highs and lows in the last hour. And I was exhausted.
“I’m going to bed.” I slid off the dryer.
I wouldn’t sleep. I knew that. But I needed to be alone.
I couldn’t be around JoJo anymore.
Because when it came to her, I was torn in two.
I hated what she’d done.
To me.
To my daughter.
To us.
“Kane.”
She couldn’t say my name like that. Like she felt as badly as I did.
I kept my back to her in the doorway.
“I am sorry I hurt you. But I’m not sorry for raising Penelope. She’s been the greatest joy of my life.”
Slowly I turned. “And you took that opportunity from me.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
JOJO
I slippedinto Penelope’s bedroom.
She was sprawled across the bed, thankfully sleeping.
I eased in beside her, careful not to wake her.
She was my beautiful girl.
The light of my world.
And if I had to do everything over again, I would.