waved at me.
I got the feeling she’d been waiting outside, trying to spot me as soon as I came out. I’d changed my number since we broke up, and I made sure she couldn’t get my new one. She had to resort to things like following me onto a cruise, or other forms of borderline stalker behavior.
I tried to pretend I didn’t see her, but she ran up to me and stood right in front of me. If I wanted to avoid her at this point, I’d have to walk around her. I stopped instead.
“What is it, Regina?”
“I, um, I don’t want to be the one to have to tell you this, Noah. I felt I had a duty to tell you it though. To make up for the mistake I made.”
I nearly growled at her. How dare she even mention that to my face. I would never in a million years hit a woman, so Regina was lucky as shit that she was a woman.
“Get out of my way,” I snarled.
I walked around her, but I heard her heels clicking behind me. She kept her distance a few paces behind me, but she wasn’t going to let whatever this was go.
When she’d said she “didn’t want to be the one to have to tell me this,” her face lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. She most definitely wanted to tell me something, and anything that made Regina happy was likely bad news for me.
“She met with Lisa Woods. On the cruise,” Regina said as she sped up and walked up beside me.
I stopped walking and looked at her. “What? You were doing what? Just spying on Lacey the whole time? What is wrong with you. Who cares if she spoke to Lisa.”
Regina tried to conceal her smile, but she was too excited to pull it off. “She didn’t just speak to her. Lisa showed her a contract. Lacey read it.”
I clenched my jaw. “You’re full of shit. You always have been.”
“Ask her then.”
“I trust her. I don’t trust you.”
“I may have even overhead what they were talking about. They were discussing how things likely wouldn’t last with you, so she needed to plan for her future. She needed to make sure she was financially secure after things fell apart with you. Now, I just overheard bits and pieces, but it definitely sounded to me like Lacey was not too into you. She seemed very doubtful of the long-term prospects. She probably got cold feet because of Naomi, if I had to guess.”
“How dare you say that to me? You. Of all fucking people.”
Regina threw her arms around me and started crying. “How many times do I have to beg for your forgiveness, Noah? I could read that feeling of apprehension on Lacey because I’d felt the same thing! I didn’t know what I wanted. I was foolish. I needed time to think, and if you’d have just given me a few more weeks, I would have realized that I did want to be with you. And Naomi.”
I shoved her off me.
I had been back together with Regina for a few months when Regina’s mother had died and I’d learned that I was a father. She had been with me when I first visited Naomi in the hospital. She had been with me when they were monitoring Naomi for any signs of internal injuries. When they finally let me see her, I’d held Naomi in my arms, and my life had been transformed. Still, I’d never forgotten the look Regina had given me in that moment as I’d held my precious daughter in my arms.
I knew from one look that she didn’t want me to have a daughter. She wanted me for herself. I’d tried to deny it, but from the way she started acting over the next few days, I’d known that look had told me the cold, hard truth.
She’d started hinting to me that “maybe I wasn’t ready to be a father.” Or she’d tell me that I should “Get a test done to make sure it’s really mine.”
I’d asked her point-blank. Not asked her, told her: If you’re going to make me choose, the choice is already made. I choose Naomi over you.
She was gone after that. It wasn’t until a few months later that she’d come begging to have me back. Telling me that she had been wrong. I’d never once believed her. I still remembered the way she looked at me holding Naomi, and