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CHAPTER TWO

ROWAN

T ripping over my own feet, I shove them into my slides, grabbing my keys as I pull open the door to my garage in a rush. I haven’t seen or heard from Hadley since I ran into her at the hospital when Riley was there. When I told her to let me know if she was ever in Aston, this isn’t what I had imagined. I didn’t imagine getting woken up by a phone call in the middle of night.

Hearing the sheer panic in her voice left me feeling unsettled. A chill slithers down my spine, tangling around my spinal cord. My movements are rushed, but they aren’t quite fast enough as I wait for the damn garage door to open.

As I start to drive, I don’t even know if I closed the door, but at the moment, I don’t care. I don’t know what happened, but she called me. She needs me and after I found her the night that my brother ended things with her, I feel like I can’t leave her hanging. I have to help her .

It’s a short ride into the heart of Aston and I know the intersecting streets she gave me. It’s right down the street from the hospitalwhich has me even more worried and confused.

The entire drive is a blur. I move on autopilot, somehow getting there in one piece as I race down the streets in the middle of the night. There isn’t any traffic and barely any cars on the road. It’s a quarter after one when I slip onto the street, my eyes laser-focused as I slow down, looking for her as I drive.

Relief floods me as I see what looks like her sitting beneath a streetlamp, tucked away from the elements on the bench at the bus stop. Her head turns to the side when she sees my headlights as I come to a stop along the curb. Leaning across the center console, I push open the door as she reaches it before I even have the chance to get out and open it for her.

Hadley slips inside, her body turned away from me at first. She looks awkward with her arms in front of her body, bending in a strange fashion to pull the door shut.

“You came.” She lets out a breath of relief, her voice barely audible.

“You needed me,” I tell her, my voice catching in my throat. “Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

She slowly turns, her body adjusting in her seat as she turns to face the front of the truck. “I’m okay,” she admits, glancing at me as she starts to angle her torso to me. My eyebrows scrunch as my gaze drops down to her arms positioned near her chest.

“Hadley...” My voice trails off for a moment, my heart pounding erratically in my chest as I see what she’s holding. It’s a baby. A whole-ass tiny human. “What’s going on?” My eyes widen slightly as I realize that it might be hers. “I didn’t know you had a baby.”

Her nostrils flare, her slender throat bobbing as she swallows roughly, blinking back the moisture that coats her eyes. “I don’t,” she chokes out the words, shaking her head at me as she holds out a small stack of papers. “But you do.”

My heart flatlines in my chest, my airway instantly constricting. “No,” I argue, my head moving back and forth. “That’s not possible. I—I don’t have—” I pause, the words dying on my tongue. There’s no fucking way. Not a goddamn chance. I may not be a saint, but I’m always careful. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but you have to take it back to the hospital.”

“Rowan, I can’t,” she whispers, her eyes searching mine. Devastation along with perturbation engulfs her expression. “If I take her back, they’re going to think I tried to steal a baby.”

“Okay, I’m sure if you explain whatever the hell happened, they will under?—”

She pushes the papers closer to me. “Please, just look at these, Rowan,” she pleads, her face on the edge of crumbling. I’m reluctant to take them, but I do it anyway. I’m trapped in a state of shock and denial and honestly...I don’t know what the fuck is even going on in my mind right now.

It’s like everything moves in slow motion. Hadley watches me, cradling the small infant in her arms as I look at the things she handed me. First is a picture of me, but it’s not one someone would have gotten from the media. My mind starts reeling and I remember where it was taken. It was a party that I went to with Carson for his cousin’s thirtieth birthday.

I flip over the picture, reading the note scrawled in perfect cursive writing.

Rowan Taylor is her father. He can give her a better life than I ever could.

I’m sorry.

There’s no fucking way. This has to be a joke or some kind of a ploy for money or something. I drop the photo onto my lap, my eyes scanning the birth certificate. Lucille Maeve Taylor. Almost three weeks old. She gave this little girl my last name without me even knowing of her existence.

Hell, there’s no proof she’s my child. Any name can be written on a birth certificate.

I look at the mother’s name and it instantly jogs my memory. Selena Mackey . My stomach sinks as I play over that entire night, remembering the brunette I ended up talking to. We barely exchanged names, played a few drinking games together, and then I ended up fucking her in their laundry room because we didn’t have a chance to make it to a bedroom.

Fuck.

I glance at Hadley, the emotion welling in her eyes palpable as I swallow past the lump lodged in my throat. My eyes drop back down to the baby, nausea rolling in the pit of my stomach. She can’t be mine. The details of that night are hazy at best, but I’ve never made a mistake like that before. I’ve always been careful to make sure shit like this didn’t happen.

Letting the birth certificate float onto my lap, I look back at the envelope with my name written across it. I slip my finger along the seal, tearing it open before pulling out a perfectly folded white piece of paper. There isn’t a single crinkle in it and my breath catches in my throat as I slowly unfold it, unsure of what I’m about to find inside.

Rowan,

I don’t know where I should start, but I suppose saying sorry is probably a good place. I should have called you when I first found out I was pregnant. Springing this on you isn’t right, but I also know me keeping the baby is equally not right.

When you and I met, my life was a mess—it still is. I had just gotten out of a shitty situation, but I was using pills and alcohol to numb the pain. When the morning sickness started, I thought it was just my body unable to handle the things I was doing to it.

And then I found out I was pregnant.

I hadn’t planned on telling you about any of this because this isn’t something I ever wanted. My sister took me to the clinic for an abortion, but I couldn’t go through with it. I never wanted a baby but the thought of living with that on my conscience was too much to bear.

My entire pregnancy was spent teetering on the edge of whether or not I should keep her. Whether or not I could ever be a fit enough parent to raise another person.

When Lucy was born, I knew I couldn’t. I knew this is not for me and she deserves a shot at a real life. A chance with a loving parent who can give her everything and you can do that for her. You can provide for her in ways I will never be able to.

I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you.

I just want her to have a chance at a good life.

I’m sorry.

Selena

I’m barely breathing as I read over the second to last sentence three separate times. My heart barely moves inside my chest, although I can hear the sound of my blood racing through my veins, whooshing past my eardrums. My palms sweat and the muscles in my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth.

Slowly releasing my jaw, I suck in a breath, turning my head to look at Hadley. “This is some kind of a joke, right?”

Hadley’s lips part, discontent encapsulating her facial features. “I don’t know,” she admits, her voice gentle. “I was going out for my break and found the baby with those things. I didn’t read the letter.”

“This has to be a joke.” I look at the baby and then look out the window, looking for someone—anyone—to be watching us with a camera or something. I can’t find anyone. The street is empty. It’s just Hadley and me and the baby here. My eyes fly back to Hadley’s. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is she even actually mine?

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know.”

“Fuck,” I mutter, my eyes squeezing shut as I suck in a breath. My chest expands, and I hold it before releasing it in a rush as I look at her again. What the hell am I supposed to do with a baby? I don’t even know if she’s my child. “How did this even happen?”

Her forehead creases as her eyebrows lower. “I mean, if you slept with her mother?—”

“No, I know how babies are made,” I tell her, snorting at the irony of her response, given our current situation where we’re sitting in my car. “The baby. How did you end up with her?”

“Oh,” she starts, rolling her lips between her teeth as she looks out the window toward the hospital. “I found her in the safe haven. It’s a safe area for mothers to leave their babies if they cannot care for them. I don’t think the alarm went off, so I’m not sure how long she was there. I was the first to find her and after I read the note on the back of the photo, I panicked.”

I stare at her for a moment, my body rigid as I process everything she’s telling me. “You weren’t supposed to do that, were you?”

Her lips turn downward, tears brimming along the waterline of her eyes. “No, I wasn’t. I panicked and walked out with her before anyone saw either of us. If anyone else found her, she would have been put into the system and then foster care, and then if she is yours, you would have had to battle to gain custody of her.”

“Hadley,” I say her name softly and slowly as I reach over, my hand squeezing her shoulder. “It’s okay. You reacted and I’m not mad at you. This is just a lot to process.” I look down at the baby as my own panic begins to set in. I go over every option in my brain of what to do next and honestly, I’m about to pull a fucking Hadley move right now.

Grabbing my phone, I scroll through my contacts, knowing exactly who I need to call. Lifting the phone to my ear, I listen as it begins to ring and it’s finally answered just before it goes to voicemail.

“Why the fuck are you calling my fiancée in the middle of the night? ”

“I need your help,” I tell Lincoln, not bothering to answer his question. I called Nova because she’s done this before. I can’t call Nash and Riley. They have their own infant they’re busy losing sleep over. “Can I come over?”

The sound of a hushed voice and rustling sounds in the background and I hear Lincoln mumbling something before he speaks to me again. “The door will be unlocked.”

“Thanks.”

I end the call, setting my phone down as I glance back at Hadley. My eyes search hers for a moment, getting lost in the emotional depths of her eyes before I lean forward. She inhales sharply and the faint scent of vanilla invades my senses as I grab her seat belt, pulling it across her body as I’m careful not to bump the baby.

“What are you doing?” she questions me, her eyes on me as I sit back in my seat and reach for the gear shifter to put the car in drive. “I have to get back to work.”

“Not tonight, you’re not. Call them and tell them you’re sick or something,” I tell her, half laughing because this is fucking ridiculous. “We’re going to see my friend and his fiancée who can hopefully help us.”

“It’s illegal to drive with a baby in a car without a proper car seat.”

I cock an eyebrow at her. “Okay, outlaw. You walked out of a hospital with a baby that isn’t yours.” She blinks as I point out the obvious to her. “Is that legal?”

“Well, no,” she admits, letting out a nervous breath. “I guess nothing we’re doing tonight is. ”

“I’ll drive slow,” I promise, bobbing my head as I pull the car away from the curb, my knuckles turning white as I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. Hadley doesn’t speak another word as we ride in silence to Lincoln and Nova’s house. I’m struggling to get a grip on reality, struggling to process how I went from sleeping comfortably in bed to driving in the middle of the night with Hadley holding a sleeping baby in my passenger seat.

A baby that I may be the father of.

She’s so quiet, I can’t help but wonder if something is wrong with her or if this is normal for some babies. My mind is absolutely blown by how quickly my life has been turned upside down.

All I can do is hope Lincoln and Nova can come up with some kind of a solution...

Otherwise, I fear Hadley and I may be royally fucked.