Page 139 of Justice II

She started naming things from her room, and I listened without interrupting. I would’ve brought her the whole damn room if it made staying there easier.

After she finally let me off the phone, I sat there for another minute before starting the truck.

I needed to get my family back together. Melody had Keenan now, and I wanted my baby home, too.

When I pulled into the driveway, one of the security men acknowledged me from his car. Melody’s Camry was parked near the house. Before heading in, I checked the mail.

Most of it could’ve gone straight in the trash. Then I saw the envelope from the lab.

I stood beside the truck and opened it, almost tearing the report when I pulled it out. I had been waiting on this shit for days. Now that it was in my hands, I kept reading the information at the top instead of going straight to the result.

I checked my name and the sample information twice.

The report excluded me as Storie’s biological father.

I read it again, holding the page closer even though there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with my eyes.

“Fuck.”

She wasn’t mine.

I had prepared for that possibility since Melody told me about the letter, but preparing for it hadn’t done shit. Fifteen years of raising her, and it felt like a complete waste. The wool was pulled over my eyes. That bitch Monica played me for a fool.

I wanted to raise her from the dead and kill her all over again. My heart sank to my stomach.

It was true, and Storie knew all along. Storie’s manipulation knew no bounds. There was no way I could trust her. I knew that before checking her into the hospital, but now it was clear as day.

I lowered the paper and stared at the house.

How many times had Monica watched me with Storie and almost said something? Had she ever gotten close, or had she decided that little letter would be enough? She left me to find out after she was gone, when I couldn’t ask her a single fucking question.

I was so angry with her that I had to lean against the truck.

She watched me become a father to somebody else’s child. I changed my whole life around Storie. I’d loved and done everything for that little girl. I knew her so well. I could tell when she was coming down the stairs by how hard she hit each step.

What the fuck was I supposed to do with all of that now?

I couldn’t look at a test result and stop remembering her reaching for me when she was little. She used to cry if I left the room. I loved being the person she wanted, even when I was tired and needed five minutes to myself.

Now Dream was in another state because I couldn’t trust her sister around her.

I folded the report, then opened it again. The result hadn’t changed.

Storie was supposed to come home in about a week. But I knew she was never going to change. Did I have the heart to kill her? Killing her would be difficult. The police would be on my ass. I would have to make it look like an accident. Because Storie would definitely hurt her if she knew Melody was carrying my baby.

How the hell would I even get rid of her without ending up in prison? People would ask where she was. Her grandparents would want answers. Dream would want her sister, regardless of what Storie had done.

I hated that I was thinking about any of it. I hated that part of me still wanted to go see her and hear her call me Daddy.

She wasn’t my biological child, but I was still the one responsible for her. That burden hadn’t gone anywhere with the report.

I put it back in the envelope and slid it inside my jacket. I couldn’t make a decision standing in the driveway, and Melody had waited long enough for me to come inside.

“My father is never coming back?” I heard him ask her.

“No. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah. I hated living with him. I hated Aria too,” he admitted.