Page 7 of The Tempo of Truth (The Monsters Duet #3)

Winnie

I used the tip of my shoe to push myself on the weather-beaten swing. The gold designer emblem got covered in dust as the rusty chains squeaked underneath my weight. The sound reminded me of my younger days spent in the city and gave this late afternoon meeting a sense of nostalgia.

The dark-haired man leaning on the metal frame of the swing set also had shadows of his younger self clinging to him.

All Ky was missing was the bleached-blond hair and the ever-present skateboard he used to carry under his arm.

Every ounce of his rebellious defiance that I found so fascinating as a young woman was still firmly in place.

Even though he agreed to meet me at the park where we used to spend time as teenagers, I could tell he wasn’t happy with the arrangement.

It was out in the open, which meant there was no way to completely guard against someone catching sight of us or to prevent sleazy pictures from being taken.

It appeared that Ky still had no interest in being linked with me in the eyes of the public.

Reluctance was stamped all over his handsome face and radiated from every line of his athletic build.

He kept a pair of mirrored sunglasses over his eyes, and the brim of his baseball cap was pulled low, making it hard to decipher what he was thinking.

Not that I’d ever been able to infer his true intentions.

If he were easier to read, I wouldn’t have wasted so much of my valuable time trying to figure him out.

“I enrolled Lowe in the primary school around the corner. It’s the same one all the Halliday and DeVere kids go to.

Our high schools are only a few blocks away from here.

Plus, it’s common knowledge that you still come to this park to play pickup games when you have free time.

It makes more sense that we bumped into each other organically and decided to catch up here in the park than if we were to try to have a secret meeting elsewhere and got caught trying to be clandestine.

Even with all the security surrounding the entrances and exits, this is the most low-key place I could think of to meet to tell you that, Lowe is your son, Ky.

I’m sorry if you feel like you’re on display, and for dropping this on you out of the blue.

” He should be more familiar than I was with what it felt like living inside a fishbowl and having spectators watching and judging your every move.

Ky was a constant presence in entertainment gossip circles.

He’d made more headlines with his chaotic love life and disastrous decisions in the years following our last meeting than I had.

He’d gone from being famous to infamous nearly overnight, and now that we were about to be tied together publicly for the foreseeable future, he was going to reach another level of notoriety.

Ky’s name was about to make the rounds in both the celebrity and society pages.

“Lowe? You named him after your mother.” It wasn’t a question. Ky’s deep voice was gruff and impatient.

My lips quirked at the corners. I always smiled when talking about Lowe.

He was my pride and joy and my most outstanding achievement.

He was such a happy and well-adjusted kid—everything I wasn’t while growing up.

No one outside of my immediate family knew that the name Lowe was pulled from Willow .

I was pleasantly surprised that Ky picked up the reference with no trouble.

He ordered me out of his life, but it looked like he hadn’t forgotten all about me, as I secretly feared.

“I did name him after my mom.” I pushed the swing with more force.

“And after you. Lowe Kent Halliday.” I glanced at him through the chains on the swing.

“I don’t expect anything from you, but I thought it was time you should know.

I had plans to tell you after I was back home and things were more settled.

I didn’t plan on my early arrival leaking to the press and putting Lowe’s face in front of millions of eyes the first day.

His resemblance to you is uncanny, which means people are going to connect the dots between the three of us sooner rather than later.

If you want to do a paternity test before getting labeled as his father by outsiders, that’s fine.

But I’m telling you, it’s not necessary.

I know you’re the only one who could be his father, given the time frame, and it’s like my genes didn’t even attempt to make a mark on him; that’s how much Lowe takes after you.

I’d rather control the narrative around our entanglements than let wild speculation run out of control right before I’m set to step into the CEO role at Halliday Inc. ”

“You didn’t think I had a right to know before now?” There was no missing the condemnation in Ky’s tone. He was pissed. And I knew he had every right to be. “This is so fucked up, Winnie. Even for a Halliday.”

I hummed a light sound of agreement. “I did fuck up. I should’ve told you sooner.

Maybe even as soon as I found out I was pregnant.

In my defense, I was young and terrified, and so were you.

You told me you never wanted to see my face again.

You were in no position to care about me and a baby when I saw you last. You couldn’t even take care of yourself.

You were so out of it that night; I wondered if you could even remember I was there in Portugal.

When I found out I was pregnant, my first thought was that you wouldn’t believe me if I told you getting knocked up was an accident.

I didn’t want you to accuse me of trying to trap you into a relationship with me that you clearly never wanted.

My Uncle Win has always been big on taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions, so that’s what I did.

Lowe was my responsibility; one you never asked for or anticipated sharing. ”

“The kid is why you vanished off the face of the planet for the last six years?” Ky lifted the sunglasses, and I noticed he had a black eye and a small bandage across one of his dark eyebrows.

He looked more disheveled and rougher than when I practically carried him out of the bar that night in Portugal.

I stopped the swing and twisted it around so I could face him directly.

“I took a gap year from college when I found out I was pregnant. When Lowe was a newborn, I moved into one of the Halliday properties in Japan to finish school and intern while finishing my degree. Literally, no one cared about me and the baby while we were there. I was just another international student to the staff. They were used to young people in similar situations coming and going. I stayed until I finished my MBA. Around the time Lowe started to walk, my Uncle Alistair started hinting that he wanted to step down as the acting CEO and take a seat on the board as president of the company instead. I knew I was going to have to come back and fill some pretty big shoes, but I wasn’t ready when Lowe was still so young.

I took him to Italy and planned to stay there until it was time for him to start school.

I didn’t want him to experience his formative years in the spotlight or with the expectations that come with being a Halliday.

My family gave me that time with my son.

I always knew we had to come back to the city.

I’m sorry if you feel like I pulled the rug out from under you by showing up unannounced in the same place as you. That was never my intention.”

“I might’ve been a mess the last time we met, but that doesn’t give you the right to keep something as huge as the fact that I fathered a child from me, Winnie.

Keeping me in the dark made things easier for you because you knew I would’ve pushed you to make a different choice back then.

You didn’t want me to have a say in the kid’s future.

Don’t pretend keeping such a huge secret from me was in any way altruistic.

” He was angry. No. He was furious. I could feel the way he was actively forcing himself to show restraint; his muscles tensed, and his hands clenched like he was ready to physically fight me.

For the first time since I’d known him, I felt uneasy in his company. I anticipated an unpleasant response when he learned about Lowe. However, I never imagined the barely leashed fury I currently faced.

I couldn’t blame him. If our roles were reversed, I’d be just as furious as he was.

I sighed and looked down at my dirty shoes.

“Regardless of whether I handled everything wrong up to this point, it doesn’t change anything we’ve got to deal with now.

What happens next is up to you, Ky. If you want to meet Lowe and be part of his life going forward, it’ll take a lot of work from all parties involved, but I’ll happily facilitate it.

If you want to pretend like we never had this conversation and go back to not knowing you have a son, that’s also fine.

I will make sure Lowe has everything he needs and all the love in the world, no matter who comes and goes from his life.

The resemblance between the two of you is only going to become more pronounced as Lowe gets older.

Denying any relationship isn’t going to be easy.

However, if anyone can pull off keeping Lowe’s paternity a secret, it’s the Hallidays. ”

The swing was suddenly still. Large hands held the chains above mine, and Ky’s legs braced on the outside of mine.

His dark eyes were cold, and his handsome face was set in furious lines.

I was annoyed when I realized that he still looked good, even with the injuries.

His current appearance harkened back to the days when he was an unsupervised teenager picking fights with rich kids and getting into scuffles daily on this very playground.