Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(22)
Author: Jennifer Foor

After Van left, I cried myself to sleep. I just wanted the pain and worry to go away. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

Strong arms wrapped around me and woke me from my sleep. As I opened my eyes, I wasn’t awake enough to be prepared to see his eyes so bloodshot. He didn’t say anything, as he tried to smile when I looked up at him. Unfortunately, as I reached my arms out for him, he started to cry again. It hurt me so much hearing him like that. I’d seen Ty cry before, but it was out of happiness, not pain.

There were no words I could say to make it go away. My body trembled in his arms, but I refused to let go of him. I refused to back down from being there for him.

“We are goin’ to be okay, Ty. You are the only daddy she is ever goin’ to have. Nobody can make her stop lovin’ you.”

He wiped his eyes and shook his head. “One day she will hate me. One day she will understand the truth and hate me for lying to her. She will resent me. I should have never thought I could have her for myself. I never should have believed that she was mine forever.”

“Ty, she is yours, in every single way that matters, Babe. She chose you from the very moment she was born. Tucker has nothing to do with who raised her. It was all you. It’s always been you.” I wiped his face and kissed his lips. He kept his eyes closed and just held me close to his body.

He buried his head into my chest and I stroked his hair. We said nothing and that was probably for the best. Bella was his breaking point. She could make him cry with the drop of a hat, but normally they were happy tears from him being so excited about something she’d done. This was something so terrible.

I started to worry about that woman getting to see Bella. If she won visitation, could she have her name changed? How far was she going to go to ruin my life? She’d had nothing to do with my child, why now? Why now all of the sudden was she doing this? Did us running into her make all of this happen?

Then my mind really started to wander. If Ty lost Bella, would he still want me?

Neither one of us got much sleep that night and we couldn’t function the next day either. Finally, the next day, Colt’s lawyer showed up at the ranch. He took us into Colt’s office and started reading all of the paperwork. After making a few calls, he cleared his throat and wrote a few more things down.

“Okay folks, as it stands right now, Mrs. Chase is petitioning the courts for a visitation type of custody. Now, because you live in a different state there would be certain stipulations to her visitation, if she were to win out in court.”

“How do we prevent all of this? Is there any way to keep this from happening?”

He looked over the paperwork again. “According to the paperwork here, it states that there is no father listed on the birth certificate. Is this correct?”

I shook my head and waited for some good news.

“A sure fire way to make this whole thing disappear is for Tucker Chase not to have been the child’s biological father. Proving that would give us means to have this whole ordeal dropped.”

I looked down and felt all hope leaving the room. This was going to go to court and even though that woman was the biggest piece of shit I had ever met, there was a chance that she could win.

“So if we prove that then all of this goes away? She can’t touch us?” Ty’s question really confused me. I looked to him and shook my head.

“Yes. Is there something I’m not understanding?” The lawyer looked as confused as I did.

Ty squeezed my hand and I trusted him, even though I had no idea what he was doing. “There’s a chance that I am the father. We never had the test done, since I just assumed responsibility anyway. She’s always been mine. Are there any stipulations to where the test takes place? I mean, can I schedule it for when I get home?”

Was he insane? There was no way a test would say he fathered Bella.

“I can get all this paperwork submitted and request we postpone any further action until you get everything scheduled. I will give you the office information so that the hospital can fax over the results. Once we have them and if they are in your favor, we can submit to have your name changed on the birth certificate. I have a big trial coming up, so it may take a few months if we reschedule.”

“That sounds great. We’re sorry to pull you away from your family on a weekend. Something like this just couldn’t wait. Let’s just hope the paternity test comes out in my favor and we can make this all go away.”

Ty and I saw the lawyer out, before I drug him back into the office and waited for him to explain what the hell he was thinking.

He grabbed my hands but I pulled away from him. “What are you doin’?”

“Hear me out, Baby. I was up all night thinking about how to get out of this mess. When he said the only way to get that woman out of our lives was a paternity test, it hit me.”

I was so confused. “What hit you? I’m goin’ to hit you if you don’t explain to me what you’re thinkin’.”

He leaned against the desk and grabbed my hands. “Tell me you trust me, Miranda.”

“I do, but you’re startin’ to scare me.”

“What if I told you there is a way for me to get a paternity test altered? What if I can make it so that nobody can ever take her away from me?”

He was so intent. I just didn’t know what to say. “How? I don’t understand.”

“I know someone from college. His mother works at the hospital in the lab. He can hack into anything. During football, he changed the results of a few blood tests for a couple guys on the team. One of the tests was a paternity test.”

His confession made me feel very uneasy. “Please don’t tell me you have a child out there somewhere.”

He pulled me into his chest. “I have three kids and you’re the mother of every one of them. I know this is a crazy idea, and that I can probably go to jail for something like this, but Miranda, I have to do something. I can’t just sit here and wait for my daughter’s future to be determined. I just can’t do it. I have to try this option and I need you to be okay with it. “

I didn’t want to tell him no, because saying that meant I didn’t believe his plan would work. I was so confused and caught off guard. “Maybe this will all just go away on its own. She obviously only did this because she saw Bella.”

He got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around my midsection. “Baby, I am begging you. Please. I have to try. Please just let me look into it at least. I need to do this. I can’t let her take my girl.”