The Single Dad (The Dalton Family #3)(92)

Still, I didn’t worry about them.

They weren’t important at the moment.

I needed my baby out of surgery.

I needed her safely in my arms.

Where she belonged.

I didn’t know what her recovery was going to look like, how long it would take her to heal, but I knew I wasn’t going to leave her side until she was back to being the little girl she’d been before this fucking nightmare.

“Ford …” The sound of my father speaking my name didn’t come as a surprise.

I had known it was only a matter of seconds before he pressed his questions.

With my family behind me, I said over my shoulder, “Not now.”

“Not now, honey?” My mom walked over and placed her hands on my shoulders. “I just found out my granddaughter isn’t yours by blood, and you don’t want to talk about it?” Her bottom eyelids were dark and heavy, as though the weight of today was dragging through her. “Please, Ford. At least say something.” She waited. “I understand today’s been a tragedy—we’re all a mess over it—but the nurse said she’s going to be all right, and so are you once her surgery is over and you let them take an X-ray of your arm.”

Even though the pain was almost debilitating, my arm was the last thing on my mind.

I hadn’t even let them do more than give me a sling when I arrived at the ER.

My only focus was on my baby girl.

And Everly’s story was one I never intended on telling.

I was going to go to the grave with that truth.

In my mind, it was no one’s business.

Goddamn it, she was mine.

That was all that mattered.

But as I looked at my mother, I knew she needed something to satisfy her.

Something that jarred my patience.

“Fuck,” I gritted through my teeth. When I finally glanced up, I felt all the eyes on me. “What do you want to know?”

“What do we want to know?” my mother asked. “How about everything?”

“We’re all a bit flabbergasted right now,” Dominick said.

Kendall nodded.

So did Jenner, and he asked, “Why didn’t you tell us?” His eyes narrowed. “Have you known this whole time?”

I felt like I was standing in front of a firing squad.

I needed time to get my thoughts straight before I opened up and told this story. So, after I paced several times, I found the nearest wall, and I pushed my back against it.

I breathed.

And the moment Sydney walked through the door, a Band-Aid over the crease of her elbow, an expression I couldn’t quite read on her face, I knew it was time.

She shut the door behind her and walked over to me. “She’s still in surgery. The nurse thinks it’ll be about forty-five minutes until you can see her.” She ran her fingers over my arm. “Are you okay?”

I didn’t reply.

I just looked up at the group.

If I gave them pieces of Everly’s past, they would only ask for more.

They’d want the joints, the filler.

The timeline.

The legal process.

In this room, I’d be put on trial.

The only way to share this tale was to start at the beginning.

I pressed my foot against the wall and shifted my gaze across each of their faces. “From the very beginning, I knew something was off. Aside from you all asking if I’d gotten a paternity test, it went deeper than that. It was a feeling I just can’t explain, something that wasn’t sitting right, so I went and got the test done.” I took a breath, the exhale burning through my nose as I remembered when I’d read the results and how, even though I’d had my suspicions, the news had stabbed me in the darkest places. “As you know now, it proved I wasn’t her father. But I couldn’t let it rest. I needed the truth. Since I wasn’t able to find Rebecca, I hired Jefferson, our in-house PI, and he tracked her down. While Mom watched Eve, thinking I was on a work trip, I flew to where Rebecca was living, and she confessed and signed the paperwork I had drafted.”

Silence ticked.

The only thing I heard was their breathing, the sound of Jenner moving against the wall, Sydney’s hand as it traveled up and down my arm.

“I need to understand this,” my mother finally said. “I thought she gave you paperwork when she left Everly with you?”

“She did,” I replied. “Those papers were generated under the presumption that I was Everly’s biological father. They were legal documents that contained false information.” I stilled, breathing. “She knew I wasn’t the father.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” my dad said. “Why did she give you a child who wasn’t yours?”

“Everly’s father was a criminal. A son of a bitch who had quite the rap sheet. Rebecca knew he wouldn’t provide.” My hands fucking shook as Rebecca’s words echoed in my head, causing my arm to throb. “Aside from the father’s lack of interest in childrearing, Rebecca didn’t want to be a mother. What she had told me the night she gave Everly to me—the abortion attempt, the adoption arrangement—that was all true.”

“So, she devised a plan,” Dominick said.

I looked at my oldest brother and nodded. “Once she found out she was pregnant”—I lifted my uninjured arm, pressing my palm onto the top of my head—“I was the lucky guy who walked into the bar at just the right time.”