The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Twelve Weeks

The stairwell of my duplex was narrow and dim, with steep wooden steps and a bulb that buzzed.

I climbed it ahead of him with snow melting in my hair and my keys cutting into my palm.

Mats stood on the landing below me, in his suit with no coat, and did not come closer.

"You asked for one thing," I said, and turned to face him.

"I did not ask for money, or a ring, or your name on a form."

I held up a finger.

"I asked for twelve weeks."

"I know," he said.

"Two days short, Captain."

"I stood up because he said you couldn't carry," Mats said, "and I could not sit there."

"You could have hit him in the parking lot," I said.

"I'd have enjoyed that."

His mouth twisted.

"You told eight hundred people my body was your business."

"I told them the baby was mine," Mats said.

"You don't know that," I said.

I had not planned to say it.

It came out with every day of ten weeks behind it.

Mats went very still on the landing.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"On the sixth of November, the first morning, you asked me for a paternity test the minute it was possible," I said.

"I did."

"Before you'd said my first name."

I watched him take it.

"Bridge," he said.

"You wanted paper from day one," I said, "and I didn't say a word, and I've carried it for ten weeks."

I took a step down toward him.

"Tonight you stood on a stage and said 'mine' with a straight face. So here's the paper, Mats."

"I want the test."

The bulb buzzed above us.

"I want it before this city decides whose child I'm having," I said. "I want to know. For myself, not for you."

"I've been to the hospital twice. I will not be surprised again by anything."

Mats looked at me for a long time.

"Tomorrow morning," he said. "I'll swab my cheek wherever you say."

His voice was low and level.

"I was wrong to say it in front of them. I'm sorry. I'm not sorry I meant it."

That did it.

I came down the last two steps and took him by the front of his shirt.

"Say you broke it," I said.

"I broke it."

I tightened my fist in his shirt.

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