I couldn’t even speak right away. “Out of all the fucked-up things I’ve heard—and believe me, I’ve heard a lot—that has got to take the prize. Do you know how nuts that sounds?”

“I didn’t say I felt that way,” he said. There was enough uncertainty in his voice to kill his credibility.

“If you didn’t feel that way, you’d stand up to her and stop running her errands.”

He shook his head. “I can’t abandon her. Not yet. We agree on a lot of other things, and I’m not going to go hunting your kids anytime soon. I’m just trying to warn you that others might.”

“Again, that means little when you can sit by and still be pals with the woman who very well may hunt them,” I growled. “What’s your other ‘important’ piece of info? Is it just as crazy?”

Kiyo look distinctly uncomfortable now. “I ... well, it depends. Yes. No. I don’t know.” He took a deep breath. “Eugenie, I should have told you this a long time ago. I don’t know why I didn’t. I mean, I had reasons ... but well, I don’t know.”

I had no patience for this, no matter how pathetic or conflicted of a show he was putting on. “Kiyo, I’m tired of hearing about your ‘reasons’ because they all suck. Just get on with it.”

Resolved, he gave a quick nod and rushed forward. “Eugenie ... I’m not the father of your children. Dorian is.”

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Alabama reminded me a bit of the Oak Land—or rather, the old Oak Land—when my plane touched down. Autumn had come since my last visit, bringing rain at last to the grass and shades of red and gold to the trees. It was beautiful, but I only spared it a brief thought before my mind returned to other, more pressing matters.

Two weeks had passed since Kiyo found me at the mall. I’d lived those two weeks in a daze, reeling from what he’d told me. I hadn’t believed him at first, of course. I had stared at him in disbelief and then laughed outright. It was hard not to. His words were too ludicrous.

“Of course you are,” I had said at last. “I didn’t sleep with anyone else around that time—I mean, except Dorian. But that was before I took the antibiotics. Then I was with you.” I wouldn’t trade Isaac and Ivy for anything, but it still bothered me that I’d gotten pregnant from the idiotic mistake of mixing antibiotics with birth control pills.

“What was the total time span there between us?” Kiyo had asked calmly. “About a week?”

I’d nodded. “About that.”