Redeem Me (Kin #6)(41)
Author: Jennifer Foor

He stood up and placed his hands inside of his pockets. I watched as he refused to face me as he spoke. “I can’t.”

Immediately, before I could react myself, he was on his knees in front of me. “Cam, please hear me out. This has nothin’ to do with us. Don’t walk away from our future. I’m beggin’ you. Don’t take my kid away.”

I couldn’t help it. I started laughing loudly. “I’m just curious, is that the same sentence you said to Ashley when she told you she was pregnant, or did you know immediately that you didn’t want them?”

His face turned white. Parker’s shock caused him to lose his footing. He leaned back against the porch railing and covered his face. “This isn’t happenin’.”

I stood up, getting as close as possible without touching him. “Oh it is. You see, if you want to keep a secret from me, it’s probably best if you turn off your damn phone before climbing into a car with the mother of your twins.”

I watched my tough football player boyfriend fall to shambles in a matter of seconds. He fell to the ground, kneeling before me, reaching for my waist. I let him hold me, but wasn’t by any means finished with this conversation.

“Did you really think it was a good idea to lie to me? Were you never going to tell me?”

“It’s not like that, Cam. It’s not just me that could get hurt.”

“You think I don’t know that? Do you really think I’d want to hurt your brother and Ashley? They’ve been nothing but nice to me ever since I met them.” It bothered me that Parker treated me like an outsider. I knew it was because of this secret. “I’m so disgusted with you, Parker. You’ve known about those twins since we started dating. The whole time we’ve been together, every time you took me to bed, each and every night we laid together planning our future, you knew you had twins by another woman.”

I had to get away from him, before I let my knee come up and kick him in the face out of sheer anger over all of this. I don’t even know if it was my pregnancy hormones fueling this. I think that I’d never felt so betrayed in my life.

“Just let me explain, babe.”

I pointed toward him as I backed away. “Don’t you dare call me babe. I can’t even look at you without my skin crawling. Our whole relationship has been a lie. How could I have been so naïve to let you back in?”

“We love each other,” he pleaded. “You love me. I know you do. We can get through this. Just sit down and let me explain.”

“There’s nothing you can say that I don’t already know. I’m fully aware of what you gave up, and your reasoning for doing it. I also know that you were happy when we started dating, which tells me a lot about the person you really are. Never once did you seem conflicted about anything. You’re either a great actor, or a heartless ass**le. Either way, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forget that.”

I began walking down the path with a plan to lock him out of the apartment for a little while. I needed space. All of my emotions were causing my head to hurt, and my heart rate to increase, neither of which were good for my baby.

“Cam, wait. Where are you goin’?” I could hear him following me.

By this time tears were steadily falling down my face. I’d tormented myself with this truth for the whole night, and now I couldn’t contain the sheer pain it had brought me.

“I need to get away from you. I can’t look at you right now without hating you. Leave me alone, Parker.”

“Babe, Cameron, please don’t do this. Don’t shut me out. You don’t understand. Our baby isn’t the same. I want to be a father. I swear I do.” His voice was breaking, letting me know how much despair he was in. I couldn’t turn around, because I knew I’d want to comfort him. I couldn’t let him see me weak.

“Just leave me alone!” I whispered.

By the time I’d made it to the steps I no longer heard him behind me. I refused to look back to see where he was. I knew he was crying, which broke me into pieces. That was the man that I loved more than anything. I’d given up everything to be with him. Now I was carrying his child, and with the revelation of his past lingering in my mind, I wondered if anything would ever be the same.

It wasn’t hard to fall on the bed and lose myself to my own confusion. I was a wreck and couldn’t fathom how he’d gone for so long without seeing those twins. What kind of man could sit there knowing they were his without regret? How could he look at me with that smile without breaking down? Isn’t that what a normal sane human being would have done?

As the hours passed I’d come up with no resolution. My heart was shattered, and I couldn’t come to terms with what the future held for me. All I knew was that I still loved Parker. I was angry; so angry that I didn’t want to be around him, but I still loved him.

A knock on the door caught me off guard. It was in the middle of the afternoon, so I figured it was either Parker’s aunt, or maybe even his mom. I opened the door and the person staring back at me finally gave me that reason I needed, to want to stay. Unfortunately, it was too late.

Chapter 28

Parker

After the falling out with Cameron, I went straight to work. My dad picked me up at the shop, immediately seeing that I wasn’t in any real shape to be productive. Once we’d reached his place of business he put the truck into park, but didn’t get out of the vehicle. “What’s going on with you, son?”

“Cameron knows about the twins, dad. Ashley picked me up from college yesterday, and apparently I butt dialed her. We were discussing the twins, and she heard everything.”

“Damn. What were you and Ashley saying?” I knew he wanted details, because he didn’t trust me.

“She wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to be a problem for her and Shayne, seeing as Cam’s pregnant. I think Ash was just scared that I’d go back on my word.”

“Son, I hate to say it, but you’ve made your bed. The consequences are finally coming full circle. It’s up to you to make things right. I wish I could help you, but I can’t. Honestly, I don’t even know if I have any good advice to give. This is what your mother and I were afraid of. How are you ever supposed to go through life knowing they’re your children?”

I covered my face, breaking down right in front of my father. “What have I done?” I cried, so hard that I could feel my body shaking. This wasn’t just because Cameron knew my secret. No, this pain was deriving from almost three years of buried guilt. My mind filled with Becca and Eli. I’d watched them growing, silently from the sidelines of my own sad life. I’d seen my own eyes in theirs. Had it not been for Shayne and I having the same features the whole world would have known the truth.