Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(109)

“Is that right?” she asked, facing Ramsey once more.

“Yes. Just some paperwork.”

Lexi crossed her arms and glanced between them. Something didn’t feel right, but she didn’t know what it was. Why did she have to bring him paperwork to his house? Why couldn’t it have waited until tomorrow? Why couldn’t she have called him into the hospital? Nothing looked out of place. Ramsey’s suit was immaculate. Parker didn’t look guilty or anything. She just looked run-down as per usual—maybe even a little more worse for wear.

“What kind of paperwork?” Lexi asked.

Parker stiffened at the question, and Ramsey wouldn’t meet her eyes. Aha! So, she had touched on it—what neither of them wanted to talk about.

“Ramsey?” she implored.

“You should let Parker go. She doesn’t need to be here for this. Then, we should talk.”

Lexi’s heart thudded in her chest. We should talk. It sounded like a death trap. Of course, she had come home early because she wanted to talk to him about the wedding, but…but this sounded different. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she tried to get herself under control. This couldn’t be good.

She moved out of the way, and Parker left the room as quickly as possible. With her gone, she thought that the tension would fall off of him…but it didn’t.

“What’s going on, Ramsey? You’re as white as a ghost.”

“She had a miscarriage.”

“I’m sorry. What?” she snapped, her mind going to the worst possible place.

His green eyes locked onto her, and he shook his head. “When we were dating in college…she had a miscarriage.”

Lexi’s mouth dropped open slightly. A miscarriage. “How do you know? I thought there wasn’t any proof.”

He walked back to the desk and grabbed the paperwork. “See for yourself,” he said, shoving it into her hands.

Lexi snatched the papers from him and scoured the paperwork to try to decipher what she was looking at—discharge paperwork for an abortion clinic.

“What?”

“Admitted and discharged in the same hour. She didn’t go through with it.”

“Where the hell did she come up with this? Is that really suspicious to you that she just magically appeared with the paperwork to prove her point?”

“She went to the clinic right after we broke up and tried to get some paperwork, but the person she spoke with said they had no record of her being there. She didn’t go to the doctor because she was scared that her family would find out. She went back just to see if someone else could be more helpful, and they were able to find this.”

“Don’t you find it odd that she continues to corner you to talk about it? And now, she can prove her innocence even though she knows you’re marrying another woman?” Lexi demanded. “Why did she even have to bring this up? What does she gain?”

“I don’t know, Lexi. I’ve been accusing her of having an abortion for years. It must have been hard to have someone think that you were lying. I guess she gains absolution,” he said softly.

She thought the reasoning was bullshit. Parker was doing this to get back with Ramsey. She might want forgiveness, but she damn well wanted Ramsey, too.

“And you don’t think these papers magically appeared because she wants to get back together with you?”

Ramsey stared at the ground and shook his head. “We had our chance. She didn’t want that after the break, and she doesn’t want that now.”

It was convenient how Ramsey didn’t say that he didn’t want that. Though, she knew he had told her that countless times. She knew that he had always said that he didn’t want Parker.

Lexi ground her teeth together and rifled through the papers, wanting them to say more, wanting them to give her the answers. In frustration, she tossed the papers up in the air and let them settle down on the ground. “These don’t prove anything!”

“Lexi! Jesus!” he said, scrambling to pick up the paperwork she had just discarded.

“Why does this even matter to you?” She gestured at the paper, still scattered on his office floor. “Why the f**k won’t you just let it go?”

“Because I ruined my life years ago over nothing!” he bellowed.

Lexi stood very still. “Ruined your life? I didn’t realize that your life was ruined without Parker,” she whispered scathingly.

“I didn’t mean that,” he said, fisting his hands into his hair. “Don’t you at least understand? We broke up because I thought she had taken away my kid without talking to me. Do you know what that does to someone? And then to find out you were a complete and total ass**le to the one person who had always believed in you…I just feel like such a douche. And I know it shouldn’t matter to me because I have you, Lexi, but it does. It matters. I can’t explain it. It’s like watching a wall I’d put up for years crumble to the ground in an instant.”

“Do you still love her?” Lexi whispered.

“I love you.”

“I know you do,” she said, swallowing back the lump in her throat.

“I just need time to process this information. It doesn’t change anything with us, Lexi. It doesn’t change how I feel about you. I just never expected this to happen. I was so certain that it was an abortion. It was the only thing that made sense to me. I couldn’t believe Parker, and I couldn’t believe Bekah. Oh Bekah—f*ck!” he cried, sitting back into the chair. “I was an ass to her about this for so long.”