Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(24)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Ty made a couple calls and left messages for someone to get him the guy’s number. We went about our day like our lives were hanging on that phone call. When Conner and Bella walked into the house, Ty seemed to brighten up. She made him smile for the first time in days and I felt myself relaxing, knowing she could make him feel better.

Ty went back to work on Tuesday and by Wednesday he was starting to panic again. I ended up not feeling well and staying home from work, so he took the car and took Bella to school before going into work. I got a call at five o’clock from Ty saying he was going to try and hunt down where the guy was staying. Something about it made me feel uneasy, but I had faith that my husband knew what he was doing. Ty’s mom had gone out and picked Bella up from school for me and Conner took her out to ride the tractor to give me some time alone.

At eight o’clock Ty walked in the door. He gave me a big hug and was smiling. “He said he can do it. He said he can change the results for us.”

“Just like that?”

“It’s gonna cost a grand, but he said he would do it. I just need you to call and set up the appointment at the hospital.” He squeezed my hands. “We’re going to be okay, Baby. Bella is never going to have to know this ever happened.”

Relief washed over me. I couldn’t believe the guy had come through for us.

“I just need to pay for the test and pay the guy and he will take care of everything else. This nightmare will be over in the next few weeks and we can pretend it never happened. She’ll never be able to cause us problems again.”

Ty seemed confidant, but there was something about his tone that made me worry. I didn’t know what it was, but I promised that I would trust him. I knew he loved us and would never do anything that he thought would hurt us. Maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be okay.

Chapter 10

Tyler

I promised myself that I would never lie to her; that I would never keep something from her that could hurt our marriage, and I had broken that promise.

There was only one way for me to protect my daughter and doing so meant I had to call someone I never wanted to see again. The first call was quick. She didn’t know my new number and I didn’t really want her to. She’d caused so many problems in my past, it killed me that she was my one link to solving this problem.

After the first message and she hadn’t called back, I left several more, probably sounding more desperate for a call back than I should have, but that is what I was. I was so desperate. I couldn’t imagine one more minute of thinking I could lose anything about my relationship with my little girl.

Finally, by Wednesday, I couldn’t take the waiting game any longer. I called Miranda and told her I was going to go to the person’s house to try and talk to them. I didn’t want to tell her who the person was. She would have told me not to do it. She would have changed her mind and I couldn’t bear hearing that. I had to go through with it. I was doing it for Izzy.

I sat out front of her place for a while just wondering what I was going to say. We’d obviously ended things on terrible terms and after I married Miranda and called Izzy my own, she stopped bothering me, but there I sat in front of Heather’s house, hoping she could help me save my daughter.

I had to conjure enough balls to actually walk to her front door and knock and part of me expected some kind of slap in the face when she did answer. She opened the door and rolled her eyes, but let me in anyway.

Oh shit! She looks pissed. This is a terrible idea.

“I didn’t return your calls on purpose, Ty.”

“I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important, Heather.” As I followed her up the stairs of her split level home, I felt nothing, no attraction to her at all, in fact I hated everything about her.

She wasn’t an ugly girl, she was quite the opposite, but I just had no interest in her. Not only had our relationship never been labeled, I actually hated her. She was a self centered little bitch who didn’t care who she hurt.

My heart belonged to one person and there was not a single person out there that could ever make me feel different.

“Did the wife leave you? Let me guess…you cheated on her and had another illegitimate child?” Her sarcasm was already getting on my last nerve. I followed her to the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar while she got out two beers.

She slid mine across the counter and waited for me to respond. I held up my left hand and flashed her my ring. “Still married.”

“Did she kick you out? Wise up to your ass**le ways?” In my head I kept mocking her every word. “Did she kick you out? Wise up to your ass**le ways?”

“No, actually we are expecting twins in a couple of months.” Yeah, take that in bitch. My life is perfect. I wasn’t going to let her think I was here for anything other than Izzy, but I wasn’t about to let her talk bad about my wife either. “Miranda and I are happy Heather. Nothing will ever change that. I’m here because I need your help and I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t desperate.”

“What are you talking about? If you’re so happy, what could you possibly want my help with? Did she stop making your dick hard? Are you needing someone else to bring you back to life?”

Aw, Hell no!

“No! Shut the f**k up about my marriage. My wife is amazing and I will never have trouble getting it up. Not that it’s any of your business. I am here about my daughter.”

She leaned over the counter and scrunched up her face. “Come again? Ty, I have no idea what you are blabbing about. I haven’t seen or heard from you in years and you come to my house to talk about your kid. Are you on crack?”

I put my hands up to my face and tried to calm down. I have no idea why being around this chick always made me feel like I wanted to punch her in the face. I’d never hit a girl, but damn I wanted to hit her. “She’s not really mine, Heather.”

“Did that bitch trap you only for you to find out she wasn’t yours later and now she is all knocked up with your real children?” If she calls my wife a bitch again, I’m going to go bat shit crazy up in here.

“Jesus Christ, would you just shut up and hear me out. Please?” I stood up and started pacing around the room. “I’ve known Miranda my whole life. My cousin Colt is her cousin from his other side of the family. We grew up celebrating holidays and spending summers together as kids. We even used to tell everyone we were related, even though we weren’t. She got involved with this piece of shit, who got her pregnant and abandoned her. When Van left me for my cousin Colt, I drove down to Kentucky with her and just by chance she and I helped deliver Miranda’s daughter, Isabella. From that moment I fell in love with that little girl. The loser boyfriend came back into the picture and beat the shit out of Miranda, so she and Izzy came to stay with me. She didn’t need to know the other details. I would have been here all night. I think you can figure out the rest of the story.”