59

MYKEL

I’d never cried in my entire adult life, but I thought I was about to break the record today. Watching the love of my life go felt like the end of the world to me, and I couldn’t make something right with her.

Part of me wanted to run after her and beg for forgiveness. My heart crashed, and I followed the other part—to make things right. And I started by getting the truth if the kid was mine.

“Mykel?”

“Lex, is my wife with you?” I had never been this agitated and wrecked, but I wanted to find out if she was there.

“Maybe I should open another headquarter of 911 for matrimonial service.”

“I don’t have time for jokes, Lex. Please let me know if Adley gets home?”

“Isn’t her home now with you, young man?”

“She left my office upset.”

“You two really have a lot of things to work out, son. What did you do this time?”

“I admit this is my fault. I wanna make things right. After what happened with that woman and Merick, I wanna start over. I want a good life with Adley, which includes no more shocking news, revelations, and surprises. I couldn’t watch her getting hurt—”

“And you just did. The last thing I want is to see my granddaughter suffer in your hands, unintentional or not, Mykel. I trust you will take care of her and love her and not watch her smile fade slowly from her face. You are not even married for four months—”

“We’re married for three months and two weeks, Lex.”

“That’s not my point, but you already gave her so much distress that would last her lifetime. That’s not marriage, Mykel.”

“Marriage is not always unicorn and bullshit, Lex, but I’m doing my best—”

“You’re certainly not doing it right. Why is she upset with you?”

“I told her that I might have a child.” There went the hard part. I struggled to find the right word, but I had no plan to sugarcoat it. It was out of my chest, but I struggled even more.

Moments of silence stretched between us. I knew Lex was still on the line. I looked outside the window as sadness and pain in my chest would never fade away. It had just gotten worse every second ticked by, and Lex had not replied anything back.

“Lex, say something, please?”

“She’s gonna be fine if she’s coming home here. Fix this, Mykel. You’re a good man. Prove it to me that I’m not wrong in choosing you for my granddaughter. If her mother is alive, she’s gonna be so upset with you, son.” His last words made me shut my eyes close. I didn’t even know why he had to involve Amelie in this conversation. Maybe to taunt me. Well, he did a pretty fucking bang-up job.

“I will. Please take care of my wife. I’ll be back soon.”

I stared at the phone longer than necessary. I wanted to call and hear her voice, but I knew she would not make it easy for me. This time I had to work hard on my patience because I knew this might take a while before she could forgive me.

There was a fine line between love and hate. I couldn’t afford that love would shift to the latter.

I went to see my father at graduate school. I couldn’t believe how I got in here, but I was desperate.

I thought I knew a little about Dru, but he kept surprising me. He had just come out of the lecture hall when I met him halfway.

“Mykel, what are you doing here?” He was not expecting to see me today, but neither did I.

“I don’t know you teach.”

“There’s a lot to know about me, son. I was invited to give a lecture, but that’s not why you are here. Is Adley okay?”

I scratched my brow. “I need your advice.”

“I figured the moment I saw you. Let’s get out of here.”

I followed him to the cafe a few blocks from the school. I found him waiting at the end corner of the cafe.

“I ordered black for you.”

“Thanks.” I sat across him. “I spent half my life hating you when I’m no better than you. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I made mistakes. You made mistakes. What’s important is we are doing our best to make things right. I’m happy I get to talk to you before I die. But you’re not here to talk about us. What’s going on? The last time you were in trouble, you didn’t look like you were about to break down before me.”

I scratched my stubble with my shaky finger. My father did not miss that movement. “Adley left—”

“Why?” he quickly asked.

“She left me in the office after I told her something upsetting.”

“She just left your office, Mykel.”

“Dru, she’s angry because I—”

“Take it easy, son.” He held my arm.

“Jesus—” I raked my fingers through my hair. I couldn’t take this pain any longer—it hurt so fucking much, and it was even hard to voice it out. I was losing my shit. If this was how it felt to be heartbroken, I’d rather let someone rip my heart out of my chest. At least the pain would be abrupt.

“Take a breath.”

I did take a breath. “Okay, I’ll start from the beginning. After I saw Maisey, the woman who was supposed to ruin me.”

“It’s over. I saw it on TV.”

“I know that, Dad—” I froze for a moment. I just called him dad after twenty fucking years.

His eyes widened, and the shock on his face told me that he didn’t expect to hear that sooner. He also looked fulfilled.

“I’m sorry. It’s been stressful.” I sighed.

“You call me dad. It feels good. At the same time, it’s terrifying that I might fail you again. Continue.”

“She reminded me of a woman I met years ago. That she might be a mother of a three-year-old kid.”

“And you could be a father,” my father slowly added.

I nodded, breaking eye contact. I felt ashamed even to look at him. I had convinced myself for years that he was an asshole, yet I was no better than him.

“Where is the kid now?” he leaned back, nodding in understanding. The only difference between his reaction and Adley’s, I couldn’t see any judgment than sympathy.

“I was just starting up my business. When I told my lawyer about it, he told me to give the woman money to get rid of the pregnancy. I met her and gave her the money. She refused for abortion. I haven’t heard from her again.”

“So you wanna know if the kid exists or not?”

I wrapped my shaky hand against the coffee cup. “Yeah.”

“And Adley didn’t take the news well?”

“Something like that. I wanna have kids with Adley, even if we planned years from now. Nothing’s changed. I still do, but the kid is mine, and by the looks of it, Adley might not accept that I’m the father of that boy or girl. I don’t know what to do. I can’t and won’t run away from that responsibility as I did before. I need to know if it’s mine.”

“This is all my fault. If I was a good father and a husband, this wouldn’t have happened to you.”

“It’s alright.”

“Then do not choose between your wife and your kid. Do not, for the love of God, repeat what I did that I regretted until now. I chose—” He pressed his lips together as he looked down in shame.

“It’s okay. I forgave you. Mom forgave you.”

“That’s not the point. It still doesn’t change the fact that I abandoned my family. You can still be a father and a husband. Never turn your back on someone you love. Adley will understand. It may take a while, but she will get there. How sure are you the baby is yours?”

“The time frame, I slept with her. Though I used protection, I’m sure it’s not one hundred percent safe, but maybe that 0.00001 percent was luck.”

“What’s your plan now?”

“I’m flying today to meet that woman. Sax just landed, and I gave him the address, and he will be there any moment.”

“You’re sure she’s still there?”

“I searched her name on social media. She’s not active. There’s no picture of the kid, but I’m positive she’s in LA.”

After my heart-to-heart with my father, I arrived at the airport where my jet awaited. As soon as we took off, I tried my best to take a nap because I knew it would be a long day.

***

Sax was already waiting for us at the airport. “I thought I was gonna work on this alone.”

“Change of plan. Did you find her?” I climbed into the car.

“Yes. Same address.” He gave me the camera. “You might be right. You can check the pictures.”

I checked all the pictures. The more I saw every image on the screen, the more it became clear that he was mine. I had a kid—a boy—a cute little boy.

I was a father. Goosebumps erupted throughout my skin.

His hair alone was a carbon copy of mine. There was no question that this kid was mine. I could feel it.

I looked at the image for a while when my hands started shaking. I covered my mouth when the picture of his mother slid next. She really was the woman who came to me years ago. She had aged, but she looked exactly the same.

“She’s living in a one-room apartment with the kid, but a guy in a dark blue sedan picked sent them home. It might be her boyfriend. I haven’t gotten a chance to get a copy of the birth certificate.”

“That won’t be necessary. The kid is mine,” I confirmed it.

“Where do we go from here?”

“I’m going to see my son.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

I glared at Sax. “Yes. My wife knows, and she’s beyond pissed off. Thanks for your advice.” I made sure he got the sarcasm. “Adley is staying at Lex’s. I wanna make this right before I go back to her.”

“Oh, boy.” That was the first time Kye spoke.

“Do you have any unsolicited opinion, Kye?”

“Who doesn’t love kids? Mrs. C is the type of woman who’s angry today and still angry tomorrow, but she listens and has a good heart.”

After almost an hour, we arrived at the old apartment building.

“Is this even safe here?” I looked around.

“For you, no, but maybe this is the only apartment she can afford.”

The painful reality hit me hard. My child lived in an unsafe neighborhood while I was sleeping in a luxury penthouse. Life was cruel, I got that, but my kid deserved better than this building in front of me.

I climbed out of the car and looked at the old building with graffiti from the outside. I turned to Kye. “Canvas a two-bedroom apartment tomorrow in a safer neighborhood.”

“Got it, boss.”

We made it to the second floor, and my kid was in Apartment 5.

After a moment of silence, I finally found the gut to knock on the door. My heart was pounding hard as I tried to prepare myself for the truth I was about to face.

“Coming!” someone yelled from the inside. That must be his mother.

Then the door swung open. Her blue eyes grew bigger as she recognized me. Even if years had passed, if I were a part of her life once and knew that we had a bond together—a kid, it would be hard to forget, particularly the person who knocked her up, let her down, and abandoned her.

The door slammed shut right into my face. It didn’t surprise me, either Sax and Kye behind me.

I knocked again. I knew she was still behind the door. “Jade, open the door, please?”

“Go away! You can’t take my son from me! Over my dead body. He is mine! You’re married now, go and have babies all you want. Leave us alone!”

I closed my eyes for a moment before I reopened them. “I’m not here to take him away from you, Jade. I just wanna see him and talk to you. And I’m not going anywhere unless you open this door, and we’ll talk like adults.”

I waited for another minute until she opened it. She looked a little bit shaken.

“Can I come in?”