Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 158

The panic begins to subside.

Kent pulls himself together as Marco pulls up to the urologist's house, a property that also serves as his home office. Kent takes a deep breath in through his nose, glaring at the house. Because he chose this doctor partially because of the privacy that the home office provided, but also because he was supposed to be the best.

Rage coils in him at the thought that this doctor may have f****d up his vasectomy, or performed it in such a way that it...healed itself or something.

But even as the rage builds, an equally powerful part of Kents wants the doctor to have f****d up. Not because he wanted to get Fay pregnant - god, f**k, the idea of another baby twenty-two years after his first...

Kent shakes his head, pushing the thought away. Because if something did go wrong with the vasectomy, the important thing is that it means Fay didn't betray him.

Or at least...that it was possible that she didn't.

Kent scowls, throwing open the door to the back seat as Marco puts the car in park. These secondary questions - he could think of them of it later. This was step one.

The sky is growing dark now in the early evening as Kent strides up the doctor's walk to the front door. He doesn't hesitate to pound, hard, on the red wood, ignoring the knocker and the doorbell. He needs something to hit with his fist anyway. Jerome's face didn't quite take all the anger out of him, did it?

That kid is up to something, Kent thinks to himself, pleased to have a distraction from his other pressing thoughts. How did he get involved with this? Why was he in Fay's bathroom? Daniel made sense but...Jerome? There was more to it, and he was going to get to the bottom of that as well.

Impatient, Kent raises his fist to pound on the door again as Marco comes up the walk to stand behind him. But before Kent can knock the door swings open and a woman stares up at him, surprised.

"Where's the doctor," Kent bites out, but then his eyes shift as he sees the old man come into view in the hall behind the woman.

The doctor's eyes go wide as he sees, and recognizes, precisely who this is.

"Sir," the doctor says, taking a step back, almost as if he'll run.

Like hell you will, Kent says, storming into the house and past the woman, not caring that she stumbles out of his way. "To the office," Kent snaps to the man, grabbing his arm. "Now."

The doctor walks at Kent's side, his arm clasped tight in the Mafia King's hand as they move into the office. Kent shoots Marco a quick glance and Marco nods, understanding that he's to stay outside. Then Kent shoves the doctor into the room and slams the door shut before hastily explains his dilemma.

"Oh," the doctor says, looking up in fear at the dangerous man whom he may have failed in a very crucial aspect of his life. "So your...lady friend is pregnant. And you'd like to know..."

"If it's possible," Kent growls, his teeth clenched, "for me to be the father."

"Well," the doctor says, nodding and moving to a metal cabinet on the far side of the room, removing a plastic cup and a special overnight mailing box that contains ice packs to keep it cool. "In that case we will need...a sample."

Kent nods and snatches the cup out of the doctor's hand, looking down at it for a moment before looking back up at him. "How long will it take?" he asks. "For results?"

"I'll get the results tomorrow," the doctor answers, blinking up at him. "The morning, if we rush the order and request overnight processing."

"Good," Kent snaps, "yes, order the overnight. Faster, if you can, I'll pay whatever they want. I'll be staying here," Kent adds, glaring at the doctor, "until I get the results. If that's any incentive to move faster."

Then Kent looks at the door to the right which he knows is a private space. Knows it intimately. After all, he's been here before.

"You know the drill, Mr. Lippert," the doctor says, leaning back against his desk. "I hope that you get...whatever result it is you're looking for."

Kent nods quickly. "Me too," he murmurs in reply. Then he heads into the little room.

Daniel wipes the blood from Jerome's face and says something faint to Jerome about ice. He glances at me as he heads out the door, hurrying down the stairs. But I don't stop him or try to say anything. What is there to say? Instead, I look over at Jerome, my eyes sorry. I can tell that he's in a lot of pain.

Seeing the sympathy in my expression, Jerome just shrugs, letting me know it's not my fault. "I've been punched before," he murmurs, pressing a hand to his sore jaw. "I'll get punched again. Don't worry about it."

But I sigh, watching the bruise bloom purple across his jaw and under his eye. "This is a bad one though, Jerome."

"You've got it worse, Fay," he mumbles in response, looking down at the floor. And I look down at myself, placing my hands on either side of my stomach, finally really realizing that...

...that I'm f*****g pregnant.

Shit.

Shit.

What the hell am I going to do now?

"Are you lying to us, Fay?" Jerome asks, his voice cold, and I snap my head up to look at him in surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me," he snaps, his pain pushing him beyond his usual patience.

I take a moment to stare at him and then sharply shake my head. "I know I have no proof," I say, my voice steadier than I thought it would be. "But I'll take any test you want, and they'll all come back the same. It is only possible for one person to be the father of this..." I look down at myself again. What's the right word here? Child? Baby? Fetus? And tears fill my eyes as I start to panic again.

And I think it's the tears that sell Jerome on the fact that I'm telling the truth, because his voice is softer now when he replies.

"Okay, Fay," Jerome sighs, and I watch him lean his head back against the wall and shut his eyes as he waits for Daniel. "I believe you. I'll help you in whatever way I can. And so will Daniel. You know that, right?"

"I do," I whisper, believing it and staring down at myself again.

Daniel comes back after a minute and moves to Jerome, having a short conference with him as he brings him some ice wrapped in a rag as well as some pain killers. But as they speak to each other, I pull myself to my feet and walk into my bedroom, laying myself down in my bed and pulling my covers up all the way to my chin, ignoring the fact that I'm still wearing my dirty riding boots.

What does it matter now anyway.

Then I close my eyes and try not to think at all. Because I know that as soon as I start - it's going to be unbearable, trying to decide what to do next, and how to do it, and what my life is going to look like.

Because everything is different now; everything has changed. I will never, ever be the same person I was - and I feel a great deal of grief about that fact.

A long time later I hear footsteps behind me coming out of the bathroom.

"Fay?" Daniel asks. "Are you...all right?"

Silent, I shake my head no.

"What can we do?" Jerome asks.

"Nothing," I murmur. And then I pause, considering it - considering if there's anything I want. But I just come up blank. "Can you just leave me alone?"

The boys are silent for a moment and I sigh, wishing they'd just go.

"Are you sure?" Daniel asks, hesitant. I can hear in his words that he desperately doesn't want to leave me along right now, that he wants to be here for me. But...I just can't. Not right now. "Please," I say, hunching my shoulders and wrapping my blankets tighter around me.

"Okay," Daniel whispers, and a moment later I feel his lips press against my hair as he gives me a gentle kiss. "We'll be right next door, okay? You call us when you want us?"

"Okay," I reply, nodding and squeezing my eyes shut.

And then I hear their footsteps as they leave the room, the slight creaking of the door as they pull it closed behind us, though they don't close it all the way so that they can hear me if I call.

I lay very still for a very long time. I lose track of it, eventually, working hard on clearing my mind and pushing all my thoughts away. Instead, I listen to my breathing, feel my heart beating, and seek - deep within me - some kind of...difference. Can I feel the baby growing in there? Is it... is it even a baby?

Do I want it to be?

Some time later I sit up in bed, groaning a little as my muscles unlock and bend after far too long in one position. I raise my hands to my temples, rubbing them in an attempt to clear the headache that pounds there.

Then, a little bleary, I turn towards my desk, noticing that the day has grown dark outside my window, already turning towards night. As I stand I wonder at it - how much time did I lay there, denying my reality? But then I sigh and move towards my desk, pulling open the little drawer and reaching for my burner phone.

Because even though I know Daniel and Jerome are next door, and even though I'm grateful for it, I really just want my sister right now.

I pull up her contact information and quickly press her number, hoping she picks up. The phone rings, and rings. She doesn't answer.

Sighing, I press the call button again, but she doesn't pick up. I call again - which I never do hoping that she understands that it's an emergency. But nothing.

Frustrated, breathing out heavily through my nose, I open my messages and quickly send her a text letting her know that I need to talk, that she has to call me as soon as she gets this.

To my shock, a text comes through immediately.

My blood goes cold when I read it:

Fay, I can't talk - I'll see you soon - just do what they say -

...what?

She'll see me soon? Why does she think -

Do what who says? Who is she -

But then I jump, my eyes flashing towards the door as I hear the loud cracking noise echo through the house. And then it comes again, and again.

And I recognize it, immediately, from the noises I heard months ago at the country club, when I went running through the greens with Kent and Daniel, trying to get away from people trying to kill us. Those are gunshots.

And they're inside the house.