Page 17 of Carnal

10

Grant

“I’m goingto take Hero for a walk,” I told Mia, who was busy in the bedroom getting changed. She had been quiet the whole way home, and I hadn’t known what to say. I didn’t know if I had said those things to upset her or because I truly thought them, but it didn’t matter anymore. Everything else in my life stopped mattering the second I pulled up my email account on my phone and saw the message waiting for me. I hadn’t opened it yet. I didn’t want to risk Mia either seeing it or asking about it. I also couldn’t guarantee my reaction to whatever I found inside.

“Want some company?”

“No. I want to be alone.”

She poked her head through the doorway and gave me a strange look before she shrugged her shoulders. I left, letting Hero lead me down the sidewalk and around the bend. When my apartment was out of sight, I stopped, pulled out my phone, took a deep breath, and opened the email.

And there it was in black and white.

Percentage of Paternity:99.9998%

I gasped for breath.

Julián was my son.

I was a father.

Mia was a mother.

Emotions twisted inside me. What the fuck did this mean? Did Mia really think he was dead? I knew her, and I knew that she hadn’t been lying. Not even she could have faked the emotions I saw in her eyes when she talked about him. She really thought her son had died. So, how did our son end up with a stripper?

Was he kidnapped?

Switched?

It was impossible. Hospitals had ID bracelets, buzzers, and security procedures. Even if she had been knocked out cold because of some infection, why would the hospital lie to her and say her son died? Who would be capable of switching an infant? Was it a coincidence that my and Mia’s son ended up with Tiffany who ended up murdered at a Team party? What the fuck was going on?

I had to talk to her. I had to tell her that her son was alive. . . that Julián was Elías.

But I couldn’t risk that slight possibility that she knew that he was alive.

I sent Mia a quick text telling her I had a work emergency, and then Hero and I jumped into my truck, and I raced up to Temecula.

I was going to get my son.