Chapter 14: Paternity

I ran the stairs of my own house two at a time.

My mother stood in the hall with Eli on her hip and a dish towel over her shoulder.

"Guest room," she whispered. "She hasn't made a sound in ten minutes."

Freja came in behind me, stamping snow off her boots, and my mother looked at her once, up and down.

"You're the vet," my mother said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Stay."

I knocked on the guest room door and opened it without waiting.

Lindsay sat on the edge of the bed with a sheaf of papers in her lap.

Her mascara had run down to her jaw.

"It's Dean," she said.

"What about him?"

"He filed this morning. He's asking the court to name him Eli's legal father."

She held the papers out.

I took them, and my hands weren't steady anymore.

At the top it said Petition to Establish Paternity and for Primary Custody.

Under it was Dean's name, and under that was a signature I knew better than my own.

"That's yours," I said.

"It's mine."

"You signed this."

"I signed an affidavit in October."

She wiped her face with her wrist.

"He said it was for the gala."

"He said we'd do it all at once, with a lawyer, nice and quiet."

"Nice and quiet."

"I thought it would hurt less if you didn't see it coming."

I laughed.

I couldn't stop myself, and it came out ugly.

"You thought a paper would hurt me less than my own wife in a tent."

"Cal."

"What did he promise you?"

She looked at the floor.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Other Man in My Wife's Tent from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.