Chapters (65)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Part Two
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Part Three
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- About the Publisher
Hal held up his hands as if in surrender. Then he used his most rational voice. “She promised she’d use birth control.”
I snapped at him, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Hal put his hand on his chin and covered his mouth. Maybe he was trying to keep something inside. “Obviously, I should have.”
“I can’t believe this.” I paced around the stairwell, suddenly feeling nauseated.
“Yeah . . .” Hal rubbed the shadowy whiskers on his cheek as if he wished he could change the past.
“Sex?” I said. “But she didn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well . . .” said Hal sheepishly.
“She did?”
“They were on and off, as I understood it,” said Hal, sighing and crossing his arms.
“How in the world do you know that?”
“She told me,” he said. “But I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Worry me?” It was as if the words didn’t have meaning. “So this baby might not be yours? Might be some random guy’s?”
“Might be,” said Hal. “But it’s probably mine.”
“I cannot believe this.” I was furious. What were the odds that Cally had used birth control? What were the odds that the birth control had failed? I thought about how I had required my lovers to use condoms. I’d been certain that I could control it, that I’d decide when to get pregnant, but it didn’t work out that way.
“I’m sorry,” said Hal. “But you understand: if she won’t sign over parental rights, the baby’s hers, whoever the father is. And we’ll have very few options.”
“We don’t have to take it if it’s not your child, do we? Because I sure as crap don’t want some other guy’s baby,” I said.
“I realize.”
“But if it is yours, Hal . . .” I said, but I couldn’t go on.
“I can assert paternity, and I’m already scheduled for the blood test. We’ll find out for sure whether it’s mine.”
“Yeah, but how long will that take?” Everything about this process had been out of our control, subject to the whims and rules of others, the system.
“Couple of weeks to get the court to order testing on the baby. Once we know it’s mine, we can try for full custody, but that’s unlikely. At best, we’d have joint custody or some visitation rights, and that is by no means guaranteed.”
“So you’ve talked with Sol about this,” I said. Another secret conversation.
“A bit.”
“Did you tell him about the sex clause?”
Hal nodded.