He swallows. “Uh… how’s it going?”
I blink in surprise at the greeting and close my laptop.
“It’s…um… okay. How are you?”
He flexes his jaw.
And a rush of cold floods through my body.
He looks at the floor.
“Austin?” I ask.
He shakes his head and flexes his jaw again. “I’m gonna go take a shower, wash the travel dirt off.”
“You… “ I stop. I don’t know how to finish that sentence. He’s not interested in telling me how he is. It’s clear he doesn’t want to even speak to me right now. What happened?
“Okay, I’ll… make dinner.”
“Don’t worry about me tonight. Not hungry.” He heads down the hall and I startle as I hear his door slam.
32
Austin
I have no idea if Sienna did the pregnancy test yet or not. I spent Monday in meetings with lawyers. They’ve heard nothing about this from her legal team so far and nothing’s gonna happen until she claims she’s pregnant.
Monday night and all of Tuesday, I stayed home and finished the audit I was doing. Just threw myself into it and got it done.
Tuesday night, I went to my office and threw myself into more work there. I ran into Ally, who seemed to be hiding out, too, and had a quick exchange of helloes with her where it was obvious that we were both in moods. I’ve never seen her like that. She’s usually a bundle of positive energy.
I’d talked to my father Tuesday in the hospital and told him what Sienna was saying. He stayed calm and told me that we should wait to cross that bridge if it becomes a reality. We should request a DNA test. Dad posed some questions to his nurse who came in during my visit and she told us they can usually do a paternity test when a woman is about nine weeks along. I explained the timing of the possible night of conception and she explained the way the weeks work with the woman’s last period and says if Sienna is claiming that was the day of conception, I won’t know for another six weeks or so if it’s mine. But yes, it’s possible that two weeks after conception, she’s having early pregnancy symptoms and that’s when her period would’ve been due.
The whole thing is fucked. A baby being mine that I barely remember making? A baby being born out of that type of scheming?
I’m really, really fucking angry.
I’ve been thinking about becoming a dad ever since Braeden was born, looking forward to that part of my future. And now all I can do is hope that if she’s pregnant, it’s not mine.
Just before I left for the airport, I sent another of my mother’s incoming calls to voicemail. This time she left a message.
“Austin, this is your mother. We need to speak. Urgently.”
I return her call while I sit in the airport lounge.
“Mother? What is it?”
“Sienna called me, Austin. You need to drop those charges.”
“Not doin’ this right now.”
“Son, listen…”
“Did she take the test?”
“Yes. She says it’s positive.”
“Did you see it?”
“See what?”
“The test.”
“No, I only spoke to her on the phone, but those early tests are accurate. She is appealing to you, Austin. She may have made a bad judgement call, what she did, tricking you into bed, but it’s all different when there’s a baby involved. A baby becomes the priority, not the other stuff..”
I laughed. “Wow. Coming from you, that’s rich.”
She held the phone.
“I’ll deal with her through lawyers. If she’s pregnant and is claiming it’s mine, tell her to have her lawyers talk to my lawyers. I want a paternity test.”
“Or, we just stop with the lawyers and have a family meeting and iron this out. You, Sienna, me, Roger-”
“No. Those people aren’t my family and I’m not a kid. I don’t need my mother involved in my personal shit. I’m not doing this with you. Stay out of it.”
“Austin.”
“I’m hanging up, Mother. I’m heading back to New York, so I’ll see you when I see you.”
“Son?”
I ended the call.
Audra clearly wants to use this situation as a way to smooth things out with her relationship with her future stepdaughter.
I can’t deal with anybody right now. Even my sister is getting on my nerves and I love my sister. But she’s talking about taking this hypothetical baby and either raising it with me or for me while Sienna rots in jail and I am still working at wrapping my head around this reality. And it all makes me very fucking angry.
At one stage, Adele and I even got into a shouting match because I dared to suggest I should ask my lawyers if I can force Sienna to have an abortion because she essentially stole my sperm to get pregnant.
Adele lost her shit on me about the innocence of this hypothetical child and followed me around my house, not letting up on me about how the minute I meet it I won’t think about anything but how much I love that child.