I have a key.”
My best friend had told me to feel free to use her place anytime while she was gone. And I was going to take her up on her offer. I really didn’t want to be around to fight with Aiden when he came back. I was pretty certain he wasn’t going to just blow off steam that easily.
His heart was understandably broken because he thought his daughter really wasn’t his blood. And nothing I could do right now would convince him that she was.
“Why would we want to go there? Dad’s house is nicer.”
Good Lord! Nobody had ever told me how to explain fights to an eight-year-old. And the situation was so much different from when she’d only had a stepfamily that constantly ignored her.
But I never lied to Maya. Okay, maybe just a little about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but she was getting old enough that she knew the truth about those things anyway.
“Something . . . happened. And your dad is a little upset with me. But he’ll get over it. He got some bad information. That’s all. I don’t blame him for being angry, but I can’t get the right information until tomorrow.” That should work, right? I wasn’t blaming Aiden or saying anything bad about him.
“Mom, you can just say that you and Dad had a fight. My friends’ parents fight all the time. I think it’s kind of normal.”
I frowned at her. “Do you think so?”
She shrugged. “When you love somebody, they can still make you mad, right? My friends say their parents get upset about money sometimes, or other stupid stuff.”
I watched as she climbed up on a stool at the breakfast bar. Her eyes were nearly level with mine, and she didn’t look all that concerned.
“It was kind of ridiculous, but I think he needs some time to come to his senses,” I explained, marveling over the fact that sometimes kids could simplify things that seemed pretty complicated to adults.
She nodded. “Then we can go to Aunt Jade’s. It would be fun. But can we come back here tomorrow? I think we’ll both miss Dad.”
I was teary-eyed. My daughter was right. We were both going to be missing Aiden. I could only hope that he didn’t push Maya out of his life before he had confirmation that she really was his daughter.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what your dad says, okay?”
There was no way in hell I was going to let my daughter know that her father had questioned whether or not he was her biological father. It would crush her if she thought he was rejecting her in any way.
“He won’t stay mad,” she said reasonably. “He never does.”
“That’s because you’ve never given him a reason to be all that angry at you. You’re a good girl, Sugar Bug.”
She might be curious and inquisitive, but my daughter was far from being a brat. I rarely had to set my foot down with her, and Aiden was so patient that I doubted she’d ever seen her father this ticked off. Which was another reason it was better if I stayed at Jade’s for now.
Maya idolized Aiden.
And I wanted it to stay that way.
“Should I get my backpack?” she asked.
I nodded. “Put some clothes for school in it, and everything you need for tomorrow.”
I’d figure out the details later. Aiden and I would have to talk to each other eventually.
The lab was actually close. I’d go to San Diego after Maya went to school if I needed to, and find out how and why the results had been screwed up.
And I knew they had.
I’d been with two men in my life.
Aiden.
And I’d endured the rapes my husband had dished out.
So I had no doubt who the father was, since I’d been pregnant before I’d even considered taking Marco up on his offer of marriage.
My chest ached for the pain Aiden had to be going through at the moment.
Maybe it was hard to believe me when the DNA results had been right there in front of him.
But it still destroyed me that he had doubted me, even when he had good reason to be skeptical.
I only wished that he could have listened to his heart.
CHAPTER 27
AIDEN
“Please don’t tell me that you think, for even a second, that Maya isn’t really your daughter,” Seth drawled as he handed me a beer and then dropped onto his sofa with his own bottle.
When I’d left my house, I’d had no idea where I