All In (Keep Breathing Book 2), стр. 86
"Holly. Listen,” Landon pleads to me as he follows me to the door.
"No. You need to listen.” I stab my finger at him. “He gave up his one-night ways and became a father overnight the second the test came back. Started coming home early so he could spend time with him. All his free time was spent with Matty and me. Soon we fell in love…something he didn't think could happen. And you want to rip that away because now you want to step up? After you've known for months? Look around you. You see the pictures. You see how happy your brother is and you just want to take that away? Knowing how it’s going to affect him? It’s going to destroy him.”
“Come on.”
“You come on. I’ve already seen it because I’m pretty sure it was the time after you told him the truth, something in him snapped. He shut down, mentioning you said something to him about me. He ran himself ragged for days to where he thought about using again.”
Landon pales and thankfully I see a flash of guilt in his eyes, but it’s not enough and too late for me to give a shit.
I move to my front door and fling it open. “Now I think you need to leave."
"Holly, we have more to talk about. I do have rights."
“Maybe you do, but for now, it’s Liam’s name on the birth certificate. The DNA says he’s the father. And the man who Matty calls Daddy every day, and who he looks up to is Liam. Also as far as I'm concerned the man I slept with that night is Liam. Now get out.”
He rises from the coffee table and shoves his hands in his pocket. “I guess we will be in touch.”
“Just go,” I scream, not caring if everyone in the building can hear me. Cool, calm, and collected left a long time ago.
He walks out the door, and I slam it behind him the second he is past the threshold.
I rush downstairs to Terry’s condo, tears threatening to fall from my eyes. Nothing makes sense right now.
Nothing.
My stomach is tied up in one giant knot and I feel like I’m going to vomit.
I slept with Landon.
Landon is Matty’s father?
No!
I won’t accept that.
I rush into Terry’s condo using my key, and I find Matty and Terry dancing around to Baby Shark on the television.
I run to Terry while she’s in the middle of doing Mommy shark and put my arms around her shoulders. “What’s wrong?” Terry grabs my face, and I choke back my tears. “Jesus. What did he say to you?”
I shake my head. There's no way I can explain anything right now. Not with Matty in the room.
“I need to take a drive. Clear my head. All I know is I need to go. Can you watch Matty a little longer?” I hiccup.
Though the last thing I want to do is leave my little boy. I want to hug and squeeze him. At the same time, I want to cry and scream and vent and he doesn’t need to see me like this.
I have no idea what the fucking procedure is for processing this type of information.
“I'm coming with you.”
“You don’t need to. I think I want to see my parents.” They’re always my go-to in a crisis and might help me sort out all these mixed up feelings.
“You need a friend, and I should drive. You're shaking like crazy.”
“Okay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LIAM
Jax and Sam follow me out of the conference room as we head towards the elevators. I pull my tie off from around my neck and tuck it into my pocket. I'm exhausted. We’ve been in this meeting for eight hours going over dull as dishwater contracts. I still haven’t been sleeping well, and last night I might have gotten an hour. I couldn’t get the whole confrontation of what happened with my brother out of my head and I’m just waiting for the next shoe to drop. The one that will fuck everything up.
“I have to say that went well,” Jax says as he stabs the down button. “Wish it didn’t take eight hours on a Saturday to delegate a damn contract. Get your woman and mini me so we can eat.”
I’ve been trying to reach Holly for the last couple hours after I got a text from her that only said, we will talk later. It was out of context after I had asked if she wanted to do dinner with Sam, Jax, and a few other department heads to celebrate signing a new government contract.
I hit the button for my floor, realizing I forgot my laptop and a bunch of papers on my desk I need to finish going over.
“I’ll meet you guys downstairs. I need to grab some of my things.”
“We’ll meet you in the garage,” Jax says as he pushes the G button. The elevator zips down the one floor and I hop off. “Don’t take forever, I’m starving.”
I wave him off and walk across the hall to my office, finding my door cracked, and the lights are on. I’m on high alert because I locked it and shut everything off before my meeting started. I push the door all the way open, ready to pounce on whoever may have invaded my office, when I find Landon sitting on my couch with his fingers threaded through his hair.
“What are you doing here?” I grunt.
“I thought you were never getting out of that meeting.” He nervously laughs as he rises to