Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,63

Dr. D ordered.

I followed him inside to the nurses’ station and took a seat where he directed.

Then he proceeded to put seven stitches in my cheek.

He then sent me home.

“Go get changed. Come back when you’re clean. Don’t want to scare the other parents,” he ordered.

I sighed and agreed.

“I need to talk to Nathan anyway.”

I drove straight home, not stopping until I pulled into our driveway, even though I could sorely use a fucking cookie.

When I got there, I was relieved to see Nathan’s truck in the drive.

I could see him sitting on the couch grinning at something on his phone.

Last night, after we’d decided to give this a go, had been the first time that I’d seen him look anything but pissed off in the weeks since we’d found out about the baby.

The baby that was hopefully set to come out of the NICU within the next four to five weeks, if all things went well.

The only problem was, there was still no decision made on where the baby would go.

At least, there wasn’t before I’d taken the phone call.

Now? Well, now we had a cut and dry case. She would never be able to come at me again.

I slowly made my way inside, stopping only when I stood just inside the door.

He glanced over almost absently, turned back to the phone, only to return his gaze to me when he registered that I was staring at him.

“What happened?” he asked, standing up with a look of alarm on his face. “Did you get in a wreck or something?”

“No, not exactly.” I licked my lips. “I, uh, I just got a call.”

He blinked. “And?”

“The DNA came back,” I said. “Per court order, remember?”

He frowned but nodded. “Yes. I remember. I gave you my DNA, remember?”

I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic response. “I know. But. Well. While the lawyer was there, he decided to, for shits and giggles, give them Eerie’s DNA, too. She’d left a cup at the NICU. I gave them the straw out of the cup.”

He frowned hard at me. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that Eerie’s DNA didn’t match the baby’s,” I told him bluntly.

He sat up straighter in the seat.

“What are you… are you sure that you got the right DNA?” he asked.

I nodded. “She was drinking this ridiculously stupid drink from a nutrition place to help her with her ‘milk production’ that she had no intention of using,” I explained. “The cup was left with a shit ton of nasty looking green stuff in it. The straw was, too. I know that the cup was hers. She left it there because she knew that I’d have to clean it up.”

“I…” He started to ask why I would have to be the one to clean it up, but everything else won out.

“The baby isn’t hers.”

“If not hers, then whose?” He frowned hard.

I was already shaking my head. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that you need to call the lawyer right now. The only thing that Eerie did at this point was act like a human incubator for seven months. That baby’s not hers at all. He’s yours.”

“And your face?” he asked, finally registering what might’ve happened.

“She punched me. And I let her.” I grinned then. “And Ford arrested her.”

Chapter 22

There should be sympathy cards for Mondays.

-Text from Reggie to Nathan

Reggie

“What do you mean I can’t go in there?” Eerie all but screeched.

I’d been waiting to hear what charges would be brought against her for twenty-four hours. Twenty-four blissful hours where we didn’t have to worry about her crazy ass at all.

I could hear what she was saying because I was standing outside the NICU doors waiting for her along with a security guard.

Nathan was inside visiting his son.

His son that, as of twenty minutes ago, had a few changes in his chart concerning the woman currently glaring daggers at me.

Not only had the judge decided, once and for all, that the baby would be able to go home with Nathan and me, but she’d also ruled that Eerie would have no access to the baby at all.

For once, Nathan’s money and influences were put to use.

The baby now known as Darren Wolfgang Amsel-Cox was completely ours. Darren after Nathan’s biological father. Wolfgang after his adoptive father, Wolf. It was heartwarming.

And last night when Nathan signed the paperwork, I’d cried. I hadn’t stopped crying since we’d come up to the NICU and I got to face off with she-bitch from hell.

“I