Page 28 of The Addendum

“I’ve got this, Maddox. I am not going to argue with you right now, Ashley. I need to process this, and perhaps we can meet as Halton stated.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Luc said, tugging her closer.

“Maybe a DNA test would be appropriate,” Bentley muttered.

“My thoughts exactly,” Halton said.

Ashley tossed her head. “I’ll think about it.”

I frowned. “If you’re so determined I’m your father, why not? I’ll demand one before I give you whatever it is you’re after.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want anything from you. You may be my sperm donor, Mr. VanRyan, but you’ll never be my father.”

She turned to leave, and Katy spoke up, her voice thin, almost tremulous.

“How old are you?”

Ashley whirled around, for a moment her gaze not as angry. “Older than Grace, Mrs. VanRyan. I was born before you married him.”

“I see.”

Luc and Ashley left, the sound of a car engine fading as they drove away. I sat down, my legs shaking. No one spoke as everyone else sat down, the tension around the table thick. I didn’t know where to look, what to say. I wanted to be alone. I needed to think. I needed to talk to Katy.

Katy.

I looked at her, meeting her eyes. Hurt and confusion were in her gaze. Worry. Pain.

I leaned close. “I would never…” I began, unable to even say the words, but needing her to know.

“I know.”

“There has only been you. Always you since we got married, Katy.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“If this is true, this is before us.”

She nodded, then looked away. She stood. “I think I need to say goodnight.”

Her hand on my shoulder prevented me from going with her. She said it all with the pressure of her fingers. She wanted to be alone. She left, her head high, her shoulders back. But I felt her pain. I shut my eyes as the weight of what had just happened hit me.

I sensed movement and quiet conversations, which I ignored. I tried to calm myself, to slow the rush of blood that pounded in my head, making it ache. Slow my heartbeat that seemed too fast and too loud in my ears. Stop the wetness behind my eyes at the hurt my wife had just experienced. The devastation I had witnessed in Ashley’s eyes as she stared at me, spouting her hatred.

Ashley. My daughter.

I startled at my own thoughts.

My daughter?

It was a claim, based on a shirt and nothing more.

Except now that I had seen it, I couldn’t unsee it. The similarities between her and me. Between her and Heather. They had been staring right at me, but I had refused to see them.

And now it was all I could see.

I pulled the bag closer and inspected the shirt. I undid the knot, finding the small label Thomas always stitched into the side. His initials and the date. It was two years before I married Katy.

I looked up to see only the men were left.