Fatherhood Feud

VIOLET

Entering the living room was, to say the least, awkward. Their ex was perched on the couch, cradling her baby as if she was a regular visitor in this home. The last time I laid eyes on her, she was all over Zach in the club’s office, their lips entwined.

A wave of anger washed over me, but I swallowed it down. I brushed past a shocked Tyler and settled next to Liz, passing our baby to her while keeping my gaze fixed on the girl opposite us.

Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of us, her gaze lingering on Tyler a moment longer than the rest. Then her eyes locked with mine. I offered a small smile before her attention shifted to Liz and Kelsie with Ella.

For a moment, I saw the resentment, the discontent that we were here. She stared at my child for a long moment before looking up at Tyler. Her head turned from side to side, probably noticing the resemblance as Zach took a seat next to me and Callum surprisingly sat next to her.

Tyler moved to sit with Ava on the floor by the large back doors, surrounded by her scattered toys. I noticed her eyes following him, and it irked me.

The jealous part of me wanted to scratch her eyes out for even glancing at Tyler, but I chose a different path. The mature path.

When the silence had stretched on for too long, I asked her how she was doing. She looked taken aback as Zach squeezed my hand so tightly I thought it might break. Liz and Kelsie looked between us briefly, while Callum just smirked. That damn smirk.

It took Sophie longer than necessary to respond, but eventually, she did. “I’m fine, thank you,” she replied curtly, so I smiled.

“Who’s this little one?” I asked, nodding to the baby in her arms. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“This is Tilly,” she said with a smile, and I knew I had made some progress by asking about the baby she clearly adored. Her child. Her eyes filled with love as she looked down at the baby in her arms.

I felt the same about Ella. There’s no love like the love for your child. I understood that now, so how could your mother sell you? I pushed the thought away, not ready to face it yet. But you need to.

“This is Ella.” I pointed to my child. She smiled at Ella, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“She looks like Tyler,” she told me, and I agreed.

“She does look like her daddy,” I emphasized the word ~daddy~, and she nodded, looking between the two of them again.

Her eyes were calculating, as if she was mulling something over, planning something. Maybe I was just being paranoid. Maybe I was misreading her. It wouldn’t be the first time I misread someone.

“Why are you here?” Zach asked, his tone harsher than necessary. She had done as we asked, she had stayed away. We were the ones who stumbled upon her, not the other way around.

I was about to scold him for his rudeness, but she answered quickly. “I moved home with my mother. I was over here to see Kelsie,” she said, looking at Kelsie, perhaps for support. But she didn’t get any.

“Couldn’t have gone to Kelsie’s house?” He shrugged toward her, rolling his eyes rudely.

“Actually, Zach. Ava and I are staying here at the moment. Stop being rude…she’s my friend.”

He laughed.

Not a pleasant laugh, but the kind he uses when he’s about to be a jerk to someone. That someone being Sophie.

He looked at Kelsie with concern before turning back to Sophie with hostility. “You realize she stabbed your brother, right? At our place of work, no less, because she can’t leave him the fuck alone.”

Callum winced on the other side of the couch, no doubt remembering how Tyler looked that night all those months ago. The dried red blood covering his arm and hand, settled into his nail beds as it crusted over. I remember having to wash it off with a kitchen towel and water.

“She what?” Liz’s voice was shrill, high-pitched and shocked. “You did what to my son?”

Even Kelsie looked at Sophie with shock, and I could feel the anger in the room. Sophie looked away, guilt written all over her face, and I was hit with a wave of emotions from that night, the horror at seeing Tyler’s arm.

The first time back in their playroom, experiencing an orgasm like no other from Zach, then being taken by him as he was still semi-conscious. Following him to the club to watch the sick girl in front of me touch what was mine.

Mine.

“Leave it, Mom, it’s fine,” Tyler stood at the end of the couch, looking at the floor.

“She hurt you, and you didn’t tell me. What the hell, Tyler?” Kelsie was almost shouting at him.

I reached for Ella, not wanting her in the room with the raised voices. Standing, I walked to Callum nervously. “Grab Ava,” I told him, knowing things might get heated now that Zach had opened his mouth.

I glanced at Sophie and noticed the little girl in her arms too. She didn’t deserve to be in here either. “Do you want me to take Tilly to the kitchen with us?” I asked. She looked at Ella and me as Liz asked Tyler why he hadn’t shared something so important with her.

“Please,” she nodded, handing me Tilly. She was almost twice the size of Ella. She had the darkest eyes and a healthy amount of brown, almost black hair on her head.

Callum and Ava left the room, and I followed with the two babies in my arms. As soon as the door closed, Zach was shouting that she should get the fuck out of Liz’s house, to leave our family alone and to stay away, where she belonged.

“I warned you away from my family. Didn’t I? Take your damn child and leave,” his words were ice cold, and I was glad I had taken the kids out of the room.

So why are you still standing here?

I looked down at the babies in my arms, not that different in age. “Zach, calm down…she’s done nothing wrong. She visits here all the time. I should have called first,” Tyler’s weak voice echoed in the hallway.

I knew I should take the babies and leave, remove them from the tense atmosphere, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the hallway.

“Oh, she visits all the time?” Zach asked. “Oh, you would know, huh, Tyler?” His voice grew louder as if he was approaching the door, so I started to move. Damn, he’s still jealous of her.

Can you blame him?

“They still arguing?” Callum asked as he handed Ava a cookie from the biscuit tin. Her adorable chubby cheeks lifted in a smile as she reached out for it.

“Thank you,” she said almost perfectly, and I couldn’t help but smile down at her in awe.

“Yup.”

“She deserves it,” he said, putting Ava in the high chair. He fumbled with the straps until he managed to secure her in.

He reached for Ella, and I handed her over, grateful for the help. Tilly was heavy to hold in one arm.

She was a cute kid, with brown hair and brown eyes that I assumed were from Sophie. She had rolls on her arms and legs where Ella didn’t, and her face was rounded with a fold in her chin.

“Well, you’re a cutie, aren’t you, Tilly?” She babbled back happily in my arms, looking up at me with focused eyes.

“You not find it weird to hold one of their ex’s kids?” Callum asked as he rocked Ella back and forth, sharing a cookie with Ava.

“The kid never did anything wrong,” I said because she didn’t. In fact, poor Tilly lost her family unit because of what Tyler did that night.

“No, she didn’t,” he said after a long moment of silence, looking slightly guilty for having said anything at all.

I filled the kettle and brought it to a boil. I was sure Liz would need a nice cup of coffee after they finished arguing.

And I was right.

Their voices remained raised until Zach stormed past the kitchen and out the front door, slamming it behind him. Tyler followed him a few seconds later.

My heart fluttered at the thought of them arguing again over her. “Can I have Tilly please?” Sophie asked as I stood in the doorway of the kitchen, looking toward the front door where they had disappeared.

I handed her over silently, noticing the satisfied smile on Sophie’s face. She was pleased with herself.

“Why did they leave in such a hurry?” I questioned, unable to contain my curiosity. Her grin morphed into a smirk, her eyes sparkling as she prepared to drop a bombshell.

“Because Tilly is Tyler’s, and he’s in denial. Zach isn’t pleased, to say the least,” she said. I glanced down at the little girl I just handed back, studying her face once more.

Could her brown hair and brown eyes be his, not hers?

But nothing else about her resembles him. Not like Ella does.

“She’s Ella’s sister?” I ask.

Sophie nods, smiling down at me, and I feel my knees buckle.

If it weren’t for the door frame, I’d be on the floor. “When?” I manage to ask.

“When his club opened here. We spent the entire weekend together before he returned to you and Zach,” she says, her voice laced with bitterness.

She’s relishing in telling me this. But I don’t buy it. Something inside me says she’s not being honest.

“I don’t believe you,” I whisper, but even to my own ears, my voice sounds uncertain.

“You don’t have to, but don’t you want the girls to have a sisterly bond? To know each other? I was going to keep quiet until I saw you today, saw Ella. I didn’t know you were pregnant. I didn’t know Tilly had a biological sister. They deserve to know each other, and Tilly deserves a father like your child has.”

The thought of denying Ella that twists my stomach. If she is her sister, she should know her and spend time with her. That’s what they both deserve. It’s not their fault how they were conceived.

“If they are then, of course, I wouldn’t deny Ella that,” I admit.

She smiles to herself, turning away from me. Her hair flips over her shoulder, as if dismissing me after my confession. “I’ve already told Tyler, but I’ll tell you too. If he doesn’t step up, I’ll have no choice but to seek legal help. My daughter deserves her daddy just as much as yours does.”

Callum’s hand wraps around my waist, offering support I didn’t realize I needed. “You make sure you do that,” he says when I remain silent.

We watch as she places Tilly into the car seat left by the door. She buckles her in with a lack of attention, the straps too slack, the chest clip misplaced. There’s no cushioning around her head and I can’t resist correcting her.

“The chest clip’s positioned too low. It could harm her if there’s an accident,” I point out.

She arches an eyebrow at me, glancing back at Tilly before her expression contorts into fury. “I believe I know how to secure my own child. After all, I’ve been a mother for nearly three months, and you’ve been a mother for all of five minutes,” her words slice through me, causing me to retreat into Callum for solace.

“Let it slide, Vi,” Callum murmurs in my ear as we watch her collect her belongings and depart, exiting the front door without a second look.

My emotions surge, and as the door latches shut, tears begin to stream down my face.

“Hey, she’s not telling the truth,” Callum attempts to console me. His lips graze my cheek as his arm draws me in closer.

“Isn’t she?” I question, yearning for someone to affirm she isn’t. I need to hear it.

“What does your instinct tell you, Vi?” I contemplate his words, replaying our fleeting encounter.

The recollection of her baby girl who bore no resemblance to Tyler. Only her hair and eye color were a shade of brown that didn’t match his but could have been influenced by his genes. My instinct tells me she’s not being honest, something about this entire situation feels wrong.

Why hold off until now, months after her birth? Why wait until a random run-in with us? But then there’s that persistent doubt because Zach had confessed to being unfaithful to him before. The fact that he turned to her when I was unconscious.

You don’t believe he did it. “My instinct tells me she’s not being honest,” I murmur, uncertain of myself.

“My instinct echoes yours, baby. I don’t trust a word she uttered.”

My tears persist as the front door swings open again, revealing Tyler looking as if he’s just had a brawl with Zach. His clothes are crumpled, and he appears slightly disheveled.

He glances between Callum and me, then down the hallway where Liz is standing before his gaze drops to the floor. His hands stuffed in his pockets. She appears as distressed as I feel.

“Please tell me you didn’t sleep with her, Tyler Mason?” Her words are biting, in a tone I’ve never heard her use. But it’s enough to make his head jerk up and his face collapse. His eyes are as wide as I’ve ever seen them.

“I can’t believe you, of all people, would think I was lying when I said I haven’t slept with her,” he retorts, looking shattered by her words. Utterly shattered. “The last time I slept with her was more than two years ago. You can’t get pregnant from semen from two years ago, mother, it’s scientifically impossible.”

“So Tilly isn’t my grandchild?”

“No,” she nods, and I follow suit.

Tilly isn’t his child.