gaze to me. “Answer me, please.”
“Nora found what she believed to be a lump in her breast.”
All their eyes go round, and Finn’s face pales.
“Fuck,” Quinn mutters.
“And I was an asshole about it,” I volunteer. “It scared me, okay? It was déjà vu. Suddenly the woman I love is making me feel for a lump, which I can also feel, and it fucking terrified me.”
“Understandable,” Sienna says softly. “But through the fear, you reassured her, right? You hugged her and said everything would be okay. You made her feel treasured.”
“Objection,” Quinn says. “Leading the witness.”
“I clammed up and barely spoke to her,” I admit. “She asked me to go to her appointment with her this afternoon, and I told her I was too busy.”
“Jesus, you are a jerk,” Sienna says with a roll of the eyes. “Then what happened?”
“She returned from the appointment and told me that it isn’t cancer.”
“Thank God,” Finn says. “So everything’s fine then, right?”
“It wasn’t when I ran into Nora at the elevator,” Sienna says, her eyes narrowed and focused on mine. “Nothing seemed to be okay at all.”
“What did she say?” I ask, standing. “Was she crying?”
“I’m asking the questions.”
“Fuck that. Tell me if she was okay.”
“Of course she wasn’t okay, you idiot. She was upset, but she wasn’t crying. Yet.”
I cringe and pace to the window again.
“If she doesn’t have cancer, why was she upset?” Quinn asks.
“She’s pregnant,” I reply, the words dry cardboard on my tongue.
“Whoa.” I turn at Finn’s voice. “Well, it’s a surprise, but we all love kids.”
“I asked her who the father is.”
All three pairs of eyes stare at me as if I just told them my name is Sylvia.
“I’m so glad you don’t share DNA with this man,” Sienna says to Quinn, who doesn’t take his eyes off mine. “What the hell do you mean?” Sienna asks. “Of course it’s yours.”
“I had a vasectomy years ago, when Darcy was alive.” I sit in my chair, suddenly feeling bone-tired. God, I’m exhausted. “It’s impossible that it’s mine.”
“Are you sure?” Quinn asks. “Did you go in for your follow-up appointment after the procedure to make sure the swimmers were gone?”
I frown at my brother-in-law. “Of course I did.” I blink, thinking back. “I mean, I think.”
“You think,” Finn says.
Sienna stomps to my desk, picks up the phone, and thrusts it under my nose.
“Call the clinic right now and ask them.”
“Jesus, you’re pushy.”
“You haven’t seen pushy yet, pal. Call the damn clinic.”
“I could fire you.”
“Go ahead.” She lifts her chin, and I find myself doing as she demands, dialing the number to my doctor’s office.
“Manhattan Wellness Clinic, this is Hilary, how can I help you?”
“Hilary, this is Carter Shaw. Is there any way you can tell me if I had an appointment about five years ago?”
“Sure, our records go back that far. I’ll have a record here of all appointments you’ve made. What kind of visit would it have been?”
“I had a vasectomy in the summer of 2015. Do you see if I ever had a follow-up appointment?”
“Let me check,” she murmurs, and then says, “I see it. Yep, you did have a follow-up six weeks after the procedure.”
I nod, victorious that everything with me is as it should be, and the baby most certainly is not mine.
“But you were a no-show,” she continues, and I stop cold.
“Excuse me?”
“I show here that you no-showed for the appointment, and you never rescheduled. In fact, we didn’t see you until two years later, when you came in for a yearly physical.”
“What was the date of the no-show?”
“July twenty-sixth.”
I sigh and rub my hand down my face.
“I see. Thank you, Hilary.”
“Sure thing. Have a good day.” She hangs up and I stare blankly at Finn, Quinn, and Sienna.
“Well, shit.”
“So, you did not, in fact, ever follow up to make sure the procedure was successful,” Sienna says, all business once again.
“It would seem I didn’t. Because that was the day Darcy died, and I was a little preoccupied.”
“Oh,” Sienna says and sends me a sympathetic glance. “I’m sorry, Carter. I really am.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“So, to summarize,” Finn says, rubbing his hands briskly up and down his thighs as he thinks the situation over. “Your swimmers are alive and well. Nora’s pregnant. You accused her of fucking around on you, and she left, upset.”
“Basically, you’re a dumbass,” Quinn adds with a nod.
I can’t even argue with him. I am a dumbass.
“Yeah.”
Sienna’s worrying her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger, lost in thought.
“You have to fix it.”
“Good