Page 13

Chapter 12

Taylor

Penelope walks past me with our son in her arms, my fucking son who I’ve only held for a few minutes, and I have to fist my hands and grit my teeth to stop myself from grabbing holding of them.

The sound of the front door opening and shutting pulls me, my breathing gets heavy as the situation finally fucking hits home.

Someone fucking filed a restraining order, and now she’s keeping to it. She’s fucking keeping to it, meaning I can’t go near them without the chance of her getting arrested.

Shaking my head, I turn to follow them, not wanting them out of my sight again, even if I have to sit outside her place all fucking night. I think of a plan to remove the notion, but I halt when someone says, “Son, she just needs time.” And Dylan grips my arm, stopping me.

“And I’ve spent nearly a year trying to find her,” I snap back, Dylan's grip tightens, knowing full well I want to hit the man behind me, a man who disowned her while she was fucking pregnant.

“Yet a restraining order was made against my daughter,” he replies calmly, and I turn towards the guy I’m guessing is Carl Vine.

Black hair, blue eyes like Avery’s, and wearing a suit. Penelope looks nothing like him, and yet there’s a familiarity with his oldest daughter.

He continues, “I went to see my daughter to hand her the season passes. My old secretary tried to hide them for seven months but just before I could hand them to my daughter a delivery guy showed up and told her she’d been served. Minutes later, she went into labor.”

My nostrils flare, and anger spears through me.

“Carl, there is no way Taylor would have sent Penelope a restraining order. Every team out there knows about the hockey captain looking for the girl he fell for after one night,” Tony speaks up in my defense as he stands beside me and pats my back. “I have known him since he was a teenager, and not once has he fallen for a girl the way he’s fallen for your daughter, and if I had known Pen was the girl he was looking for, I would have ensured they came together.”

Carl nods and then asks, “If that was the case, then why didn’t I hear back when I sent a formal letter to your lawyer at the request of my daughter about her being pregnant with your child.”

What the fuck? My mouth parts in shock, and even Dylan lets go of my arm in shock. Fury obliviates me as I grab my phone from my pocket.

“Tay….” Dylan murmurs, but I ignore him and bring up my lawyer’s number before pressing his name and putting the phone on loudspeaker because I have nothing to hide.

I swear to fuck, if a formal letter was sent from a lawyer’s office at that, claiming I knocked someone up and hadn’t been told, heads are going to fucking roll.

“Taylor, thanks for getting back to me,” Billy answers, and I cut him off and snap, “Please fucking tell me you did not receive a letter claiming I knocked someone up and didn’t tell me?!”

He clears his throat and admits, “Yes, I received a letter from Vine’s criminal law around six or seven months ago, and I spoke to Elena, who claimed a girl was harassing her to try and get a hold of you, claiming you had a one-night stand and that she was pregnant.” My breathing picks up as everyone stays quiet around me. He continues, “She said she looked into it, and the information was false, but I, uh, look, I received a subpoena today.”

I chuckle darkly and ask sarcastically, “Let me guess, from Vine’s criminal law demanding a DNA test?”

Billy is quiet momentarily before he confirms, “The information wasn’t false, was it? You got someone pregnant?” When I don’t reply, he curses a storm and demands, “Did you order that restraining order through Elena?”

I lock eyes with Carl Vine, his blue ones showing anger, and I admit, “No, I fucking didn’t, just like I didn’t ban Penelope Vine from the arena or my apartment building that I’m guessing she’s no longer allowed to enter.”

“Ah fuck….” He snaps, and I growl back, “Since when do you fucking listen to Elena, Billy?!”

“I-I, fuck Taylor, she said you were looking for a girl, something you confirmed, and she said this girl was trying to pretend to be her, and I listened, fuck, I’m so sorry….” He admits, and I shake my head.

“Get the restraining order dis-fucking-missed immediately and organize the DNA test before I fire your fucking ass,” Carl narrows his eyes at my words. Still, I ignore him and continue, “I won’t have anyone try saying she’s trapping me with a baby that isn’t mine because he is my son; he has my eyes, and then when you’ve done that, contact Coach, and let him know Elena is fucking fired from being my agent effective immediately and send her a formal letter, do I make myself clear?!”

“I’m on it,” he states firmly, then hangs up, and I drop my arm, my head a fucking mess.

I’ve finally found her…

She’s had my kid, and Elena made sure I missed everything.

I missed everything.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I run my hand through my hair frustratingly and turn, eyeing where the front door is.

“She’s been trying to get a hold of you since the moment the stick confirmed her pregnancy,” Avery says behind me, but I don’t turn around. She continues, “She walked into her living room in shock before admitting everything to me. Then she saw you on TV with your girlfriend and broke down.”

“She wasn’t his girlfriend, Butterfly. She was a girl who he had slept with a few years ago, and she flung herself at him and kissed him as cameras flashed around. Elena, his agent,” she cuts him off, “The she-witch,” and he chuckles but confirms, “Yes, the she-witch went on a rampage and demanded he made her his girlfriend. The team had bad press last year after losing the cup, and she used it as an excuse.”

“Your agent sounds like a bitch,” Carl chimes in, and I turn to look at him.

“And by what I’ve heard, you are right up there with her,” he raises a brow, but I won’t back down. My dad’s fucking scarier than this guy. “You disowned your pregnant daughter because she couldn’t fulfill a contract marriage and your wife and youngest daughter followed suit leaving her a-fuckin- lone when she needed you all the most! When my bitch of an agent kept her from contacting me...”

Avery flinches but doesn’t deny my words while Carl nods and admits, “I did and I regret it daily. I haven’t put my daughter’s happiness before my own, and my wife’s or even Avery’s ever, and even now, Avery is stuck in a loveless and abusive marriage while being in love with her brother-in-law.”

Avery looks down while Tony walks over to her and gently wraps his arm around her waist.

Carl continues, “I’m currently trying to rectify that. David and I are in talks but son, Penelope, she’s hardheaded,” I butt in, “she’s a Firecracker,” and he smiles and agrees, “She is, and she’s gone through an entire pregnancy on her own all while trying her hardest to fight to see you and if I know my daughter, she’s going to push you back.”

I look at Dylan, who smiles a little before looking back at Carl, and I admit, “I’m not letting her go. I have spent months trying to find her. Heck, not long ago, I ran after Avery in the streets on fifth, only just missing her when Dyl noticed her in a restaurant.”

Avery gasps, “I knew I was being followed!”

Dylan chuckles darkly before saying, “Yeah, my wife got possessive and jealous despite knowing why I wanted to speak to you. One minute, you were there, and I was on the phone with my brother and the next, you were gone while my wife screamed down the restaurant.”

The same wife who sleeps in a separate room from him, has since the whole restaurant shit, not that anyone knows that.

Avery winces, and I look back at Carl, who hasn’t taken his eyes off me. I state, “I will win your daughter, and by the time the finals come around, she’ll be with me where she belongs, her and our son.”

“Just like that, you accept what she says, that he’s yours, you don’t even question her?” he questions, and I half shrug.

“Your daughter holds an aura of truth, something I think you know. Otherwise, you would have fought harder for her to be a lawyer like you. She doesn’t lie, and that is something I realized after we met,” I state boldly, knowing it’s the fucking truth.

He nods, not denying my words, then tilts his head and asks, “What if you don’t like her personality?” I narrow my eyes at him, and he shrugs and reminds me, “You spent one night with her; that was it. She may not live up to your expectations; I mean, what can you learn about someone in one night?”

I nod, ignoring everyone looking my way, waiting for my reaction. I could go one of two ways. I could fly off the handle and act like a caveman, you know, ‘me man she mine’ shit, or I can shock the shit outta him and prove what I learned about his daughter in one night.

I take a deep breath and begin, “Her sister is her world despite her choosing money over her,” and he raises a brow. I pull the bracelet out of my pocket, and Avery gasps, but I ignore her and hold it up, explaining, “This bracelet had two charms on it. One with her name and the other saying sister, showing her sister was her world. Over the months, I’ve added things to it that expresses who she is as a person, a person I came to know a lot during our one night together,” I lift up a charm, “this one is a beer because, well we met in a bar,” Avery snorts and I hold up each charm explaining the meaning.

“Skates because I wanted her to have something close to my heart, a snowflake because her favorite time of year is when the first snow falls. A bridge indicating Brooklyn Bridge. She and her sister used to go for walks and end up on the bridge just people-watching. Cracker because she has a fiery side to her. The Eiffel Tower because her dream is to visit Paris at Christmas. A bike, because mine is the first one she’s ever been on. A book because she loves to read in her downtime and the newest one, a dog because she has always wanted one,” I put the bracelet back in my pocket and I state, “Yes, we only spent one night together, but that one night I found out her love for animals, the fact her favorite color is Violet, and how she prefers sunsets to sunrises because it means spending the evening and night cuddled up with a good book next to a fire while eating chocolate peanuts.”

Carl's eyes soften, and I continue, “I know she’d prefer to stay in with a fake-away that she has prepared and cooked, preferably Chinese food than go out and that kids is something she wanted. I know that she loved school, but the only friend she had was her sister, who is her best friend. I’d bet my penthouse that Avery walking away to keep her lifestyle probably killed her. I know that when she was thirteen, she found a stray kitten and brought it home, hiding it for months before donating it to a little girl down the street.”

The woman next to Carl, who looks like my girl, gasps, her mouth hanging open as Avery coughs to hide her laughter.

“I know that she hates the feeling of strawberries but loves to eat them, that she’ll easily fall asleep when you gently twirl her hair in your finger behind her ear, and that sports bore the fuck outta her.”

She also likes her clit being sucked in pulses with two fingers inside her cunt and her ass being played with, making her squirt. Also that she kissed a girl in her teens because no boy held her interest but hated it, but I won’t say that out loud.

I sigh, “I know that she had a guard up, but still, she let me in that night. I know she felt the connection I did, still do feel, and I know she feels something for me because I could see it in her eyes when we finally saw each other after so long apart,” I hold my arms out, “Your daughter owns me, has since that day and if I had woken before her I would never have let her go.”

I drop my arms, keeping eye contact with Carl, even hearing sniffles from near Tony; I maintain eye contact with a man who tried to sell his daughter, succeeding with his youngest, though by the sounds of things, she more offered herself up.

Carl doesn’t have a leg to stand on, and he knows this. He knows he screwed up with his daughters, but now he needs to decide whether I mean what I say. He needs to determine if I’m going to make his daughter happy, but what he needs to realize is that I don’t need his blessing because she’s mine.

He licks his bottom lip, then wipes it with his thumb, thinking.

He knows I won’t give up on her and won’t allow him to keep her from me. I know her name now, I know who she is, and he will not stop me from going to her, from making her mine, and I know he is well aware of how connected my father is.

He nods, then states, “She lives at 284 Hallows Apartments Southside Brooklyn.”

My body relaxes, and I nod, then look at Tony, who grins my way, and I give him a smile back before turning. I pat Dylan on the back and state, “Make sure Tony doesn’t kick the shit out of his brother,” and he snorts while I rush out of the house like my ass is on fire.

Now I know her last name, I know where she lives; I won’t stop until she agrees to give me a chance, all while I come to terms with the fact that I’m a fucking father…

Fuck, I’m a dad.