was back in seconds, holding a white T-shirt. “I owe you two tops now because I’m burning this shit.” He took the blouse when she handed it to him, and he threw it in the trash as Danica slipped his oversized T-shirt on over her head. “I’d ask why the fuck you let him, but I know he’s a pushy prick, and there’s a lot of other more important things I need answers to. So, go on.”
It took Danica a moment to remember where she’d left off. “When I realized she was dead, I didn’t know what to do,” she said, inhaling deeply. “I was so scared they’d snatch the baby away from me and I’d never see him again. I was a convicted felon with a shady record, and she hadn’t even thought to leave instructions on who she wanted to care for the baby in case anything happened to her. She was only twenty-four and like me probably thought she’d get over the depression eventually.”
“So, what did you do?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“I took any evidence of the baby ever being there and took it to my sister’s and Ted’s. I didn’t even tell Ted or my sister she’d died. I was so scared.” She shook her head, hoping he’d understand the predicament she’d been put in. “I made an anonymous call to the paramedics from a pay phone I knew there were no cameras around. Ted had been asking me to move in with him for months, and once I knew I couldn’t go back to the apartment I’d been living in with her, I agreed to move in with him. I wasn’t on the lease, so they couldn’t trace the baby’s whereabouts, even if they finally figured out she had one to begin with. But even then, I didn’t tell Ted or my sister that Angie had died. Delia didn’t even know he was Angie’s baby. I’d gotten in so much trouble in the past, and my sister blamed Angie and Juanita. My continued friendship with them was the reason why she kicked me out to begin with.” She explained how she’d told Ted Angie just wasn’t doing well with her depression and it was why she had to keep the baby with her at night. “Angie assured me she knew you were the father. You’re the only guy she’d slept with in the months prior to getting pregnant, but she said it’d been a one-nighter and she hadn’t spoken to you since. She said she’d went into the shop a few times when she was pregnant with the intention of telling you about the pregnancy, but she said you’d barely acknowledged her.”
Orlando winced. “I probably didn’t remember her. Still don’t.”
Danica shook her head, not wanting him to think she was trying to make him feel guilty. “She said the same thing. It’s why she decided she was better off just keeping it to herself. It wasn’t even until after he was born when she felt bad about me having to take on the full responsibility of the baby that she suggested I should reach out to you, but I assured her I was fine looking after him. More than fine. I was hopeful she’d be better soon, and then maybe she could walk into the shop and introduce him to you. I was certain you’d fall in love with him like I had so quickly.” The emotion she was feeling over the topic but also the fear of what would happen now between them was ongoing. Swallowing hard, she went on. “Never in a million years did I imagine things would go down the way they did. But as the weeks passed, Ted began to question when we’d have a night without the baby, when we’d have a day to ourselves, and I had no choice but to tell him the truth. If he’d been impatient before, he got even more so after, especially because he knew I knew who the father was. I just never gave him a name. Almost from the moment he knew Angie was dead, he began insisting I take the baby to his father, but the thought of giving him up and never having the opportunity to be around him at that point was utterly suffocating. I even . . .”She paused for a moment, hesitating to tell him the next part as the pain from the boulder in her throat mounted. But as usual, those eyes had her