Page 57 of Something Reckless

EASTON

A lba’s mom quickly steps forward, taking Jagger’s hand. “Hey, you know I was thinking, it’s been a long time since we had ice cream for dinner.”

The little boy looks up at his grandmother, eyebrows crinkled with confusion. “Ice cream for dinner? We’ve never had ice cream for dinner, Grandma.”

“Well, we will tonight.” The woman winks at her grandson.

He gasps. “Really?”

“Sure.” She smiles kindly. “You put on your shoes and I’ll go turn off the fish sticks in the oven.”

Patty and Jagger hustle to get ready. Right before they step out the door, Jagger throws his arms around my waist and gives me a tight squeeze. “I missed you, Dad.”

Raya makes a noise in her throat. “Oh my god,” she spits out, throwing her head to the ceiling. “Would you stop calling him that? I told you. He’s not your father.”

I visibly flinch.

The casual way she says it is borderline wicked. She doesn’t care that she’s stomping on her son’s little heart .

“You said that you’re my dad…” Jagger squeezes me tighter, mumbling against my shirt.

“And I said that he’s not,” Raya retorts in annoyance. “Now, stop being a little brat about it.”

I turn, shooting venom her way as my arms encircle Jagger protectively. “Don’t talk to him that way!”

The boy turns his big blue eyes up to me. “Is that true”—he flinches—“ Easton ?”

My heart ruptures when he calls me that, when I see the shattered expression on his face, and I can’t even imagine the cruel way Raya must have broken the news to him. It makes me hate her so much more.

“Your mom and I…” I clear my throat. “Your mom and I need to have a grown up chat. Okay, Buddy?”

I’m ready to say more. I’m desperate to comfort him. I’m ready to make him a hundred promises that I probably won’t be able to keep, but Alba’s hand on my shoulder stops me. The last thing I need to do is make this more complicated for Jagger.

Patty wordlessly hands Jagger his rain boots and coat. Within a few minutes, the two of them are out the door.

As soon as we’re alone, Raya’s eyes hone in on Alba. “You are fucking incredible, you know that?” She sits on the arm of the couch, shaking her head.

I step in between the two women before Alba can even open her mouth. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Raya glares at my head. “I need a word alone with my sister,” the evil woman spews out.

“Not a fucking chance in hell.” I stand my ground. “Anything you need to say to her, you’ll say with me standing right here.”

I notice the wobble in Alba’s movements as she steps up by my side. I don’t hesitate to wrap a steadying arm around her waist.

Raya’s glare drifts to where my fingers are curled around her sister’s hip.

She seethes. “I always knew you were jealous of me, Alba, but I never thought you’d stoop to this level.

Scooping up my sloppy seconds? Yuck.” She shakes her head in disgust and I grind my heel into the carpeted floor, trying to get a rein on my anger.

At those words, Alba is seething, too. “After everything you’ve done, you have a lot of nerve questioning anybody’s character.” She clenches her fingers into fists. “Two separate DNA tests say that Easton is not Jagger’s father.”

Raya shrugs a shoulder. “Because he’s not.”

Her words land like a gut-punch.

The whole ride home, I’d been hoping—silently hoping—that maybe this second paternity test was wrong, too. My connection to Jagger is so strong. How could he be anything other than my son? I can’t bring myself to believe that he’s not mine.

“You’re wrong…” I mutter. “Jagger is my kid. He looks just like me.”

“He looks like you?” Raya scoffs in exasperation, like this whole conversation is beneath her. “A lot of people have brown hair and blue eyes, Easton. Hell—even my Grandpa Carl has brown hair and blue eyes.”

“Green eyes. Grandpa Carl has green eyes,” Alba mumbles. It’s almost like she’s dissociating. “But that’s neither here nor there.”

Leaning forward, Raya cracks open a can of diet cola and takes an unbothered sip. “I never even slept with Easton,” she says nonchalantly, as the earth slips from beneath my feet.

“What?!” I croak out, my head spinning .

“I mean, we got naked, yes,” Raya explains. “But you were as limp as a damp sock straight out of the washing machine. You couldn’t even get it up. Pathetic.” She eyeballs my crotch, seemingly appalled. “You should get that checked out, by the way.”

Alba’s voice is shaking when she speaks. “You…you never slept with Easton…?”

“No,” Raya says resentfully. “I never slept with your precious fucking Easton.”

Something about the way she says that, I don’t like. “So why the fuck did you go around letting Alba believe that you did? And why did you tell her that I was Jagger’s father?!” I demand.

“Because it was easy.” Raya grabs the chips, cradling the bag in her lap.

“You had left town. So I figured there’d be no way for Alba to fact-check my story.

I made her promise not to tell anyone you’d gotten me pregnant and I knew she’d keep her word.

At least I trusted that she would.” Raya shoots her sister a look of disappointment.

“And the emails. Where did you get those emails making it look like Easton ordered you not to continue your pregnancy?” Alba demands.

Raya huffs, speaking with her mouth full of chips. “Jeez, Alba. It was photo editing. We all took that class in school.”

Alba wobbles across the room and drops into an armchair. She looks like she’s reassessing her entire worldview. Everything she thought she knew has been shot to shit now that Raya has bulldozed her way back into town.

My eyes catch on Raya’s gleaming engagement ring as she casually licks the salt from her fingertips. It makes me see red.

“Why the fuck did you have to lie, though?” I grind out. “Why did you even have to drag my name into this? ”

Alba’s head bobs weakly in agreement. “Why didn’t you just stay quiet about Jagger’s paternity? Or better yet, why didn’t you just name the real father?”

I’m so angry. This woman has brought so much unnecessary chaos into everyone’s lives and I’m struggling to make sense of it.

Raya sighs heavily, like we’re the ones burdening her with our questions.

“Because I know you, Alba,” she says impatiently.

“If I didn’t give a name, you’d just keep pushing and pushing and pushing.

Annoying as hell. And besides, lying to you is so easy.

I could tell you that the sky was suddenly tie-dye and you wouldn’t even peek out the curtain to double-check. ” She rolls her eyes.

I hate how dismissive she’s being about this. I hate how she’s weaponizing Alba’s loyalty against her. What’s the psychological diagnosis for someone like Raya Anderson?

Alba angrily wipes at the tears forming in her eyes. “Well, excuse me for wanting to see the best in you when no-one else had faith in you. Excuse me for loving you and giving you the benefit of the fucking doubt, Raya .”

I know that Raya is shaken by her sister’s words, she’s moved by Alba’s kind heart. But because she’s such a cold she-devil, she can’t let herself show it. “Ha! Maybe you’re just not as fucking smart as everyone thinks you are, Alba . Never understood why people thought you were so damn special.”

Alba’s eyes go hard and she pins her twin sister with a look, like she just figured something out. “Raya—who is Jagger’s father?” she says, dropping all patience.

A flash of fear streaks across Raya’s face. “I don’t know…”

“You’re lying!” Alba shouts, leaping to her feet. “Tell me who it is.”

Raya’s nostrils flare. “I don’t know, Alba. ”

“No, you do!” Her voice trembles. “And I’m starting to think that I do, too.”

Raya’s forehead wrinkles and she forces a laugh. But now that Alba is onto her, Raya’s nonchalant vibe is crumbling quickly. “Oh, you do, Ms. Smarty Pants?”

“You were the one who was always jealous of me ,” Alba accuses.

“Everything that was ever mine, you tried to take it away from me. Every time I was happy, you found a way to piss on my parade with your drama. Hell—in the back of my mind, I always thought the main reason you went after Easton to begin with was because he was my friend. You forced me to disconnect from him after he left town. You knew how much our friendship meant to me and you tore us apart all while knowing that he wasn’t Jagger’s father.

Given your track record of trying to sabotage everything good in my life, there’s only one other person the father could be.

One other person who was mine. One other relationship you’d want to destroy just to hurt me. ”

The name falls from my mouth before I’ve even processed it in my head. “Christopher…”

Raya’s eyes shoot in my direction and the fear of god flashes across her face. Suddenly, she’s not so fucking smug anymore.

“Christopher…” Alba repeats.

Christopher ‘Fuckface’ Madison, the third is Jagger’s father.

Raya sets down the chips on the coffee table, holding her hands up in surrender. “L-look, Alba. I—”

“You slept with Christopher!” Alba’s chest heaves as rage floods her features. She shakes her head erratically, tears free-falling. “I was walking around, wearing that guy’s promise ring, and you were busy getting pregnant by him behind my back! ”

Raya’s lips flap open and closed.

“SAY SOMETHING, BITCH!!!” Alba demands with a stomp that shakes the whole building.

“Yes, okay? Yes, I was sleeping with Christopher!” Raya finally explodes.

“Because it wasn’t fair. You got to be the golden child, and I was the disappointment, the one everybody looked down on, the one nobody loved.

” She drags a fist through her tears, smudging the black makeup lining her eyes.

“Sneaking around with Christopher made me feel a little bit better about myself. Like maybe your life wasn’t so perfect after all. ”

I move up to Alba’s side as she clasps a hand over her mouth.

“So you got pregnant by my boyfriend, then you handed his child off for me to raise after you convinced me to cut ties with my friend, someone I cared so much about?! I loved you so fucking much, Raya. Despite all the evidence staring me in the face, I refused to believe that the person I shared my mother’s womb with for nine months was actually a monster. And this is what it got me?!”

“You’re no better than me, Alba. You always thought you were, but you’re not,” Raya insists, and I swear she’s only trying to convince herself. “You’re a whore. Just like me.”

“Is that what you need to tell yourself to feel better about who you are?” Alba wheezes out.

“You were a stuck-up, goodie two shoes bitch and you deserved to be humbled. So that’s what I did. I humbled you!” Raya seems perfectly satisfied with that justification.

Slowly, Alba shakes her head. “Fine…I’m no better than you.” Without warning, she charges and leaps across the living room, flying hellcat-style.

“Whoa!” I yell, springing into action. Still too late to keep my Tiny Tiger from taking her sister down to the ground, though .

The two of them begin tussling on the carpeted floor. Alba’s got the upper hand, and I’m tempted to let her get a few punches in. Raya more than deserves it.

But I’d never risk letting my girl get hurt. That’s the only reason why I intervene, pulling the women apart, just as two of my brothers come bursting into the house.

“Everything okay in here?” Rocco asks, promptly stepping in front of Raya as a shield, stopping her from hurling herself at Alba.

“What are you guys doing here?” I ask as I toss my girl over my shoulder, easily restraining her flailing arms.

Oliver ducks out of the path of Alba’s flying foot. “Patty called Mom. She sounded worried so we decided to come over, just in case.”

“Everything’s under control now,” I tell them as I march toward the door with Alba hanging over my back.

Alba’s still yelling at her sister. “Does your fiancé even know about Jagger?” She roars. “Does he know that you have a son? That you abandoned your own child?!”

I glance back just in time to see Raya flinch. I’ll take that as a ‘no’ . Her silence says it all.

As I’m stepping over the threshold, ready to march Alba up to her apartment on the second floor, I hear her say, “Sign the adoption forms, Raya. Sign the adoption forms once and for all. You don’t deserve that sweet little boy.”