Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 60131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
“Well, duh. I was sixteen when I had her.”
“And?”
“I’m not ready to be a mom, a single-one at that.”
“You’re not even trying.”
“I’m doing more than trying, Pierce,” she said. “I asked the most responsible person in my to take care of her.”
“Temporarily.” I gritted my teeth.
“I don’t know why Mama Raya refused to take her on for me,” she said. “She said she could do a month or two at most and that was it, as if ‘being retired’ is a thing. This is all her fault!”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sending a jet for you tonight. Get on it and come see your daughter.”
“Noooo, it’ll have to be another day.” She whined. “I have a networking event.”
“That’s more important than Olivia?”
“I’m so close to getting where I need to be,” she said, not answering my question, “I can’t help that single moms in Hollywood aren’t a draw.”
“Excuse me?”
“Casting agents might pass me over for roles because they’ll worry if I can commit to the schedule. Would you really make me give up my dream to be a mom?”
“You can do two things at once.”
“Says the guy with a full-time nanny.” She scoffed. “I’m not in a good place for this, and I’m not a billionaire like you.”
“Most moms aren’t billionaires…” I clenched my jaw. “When exactly do you plan on paying her a visit?”
“When I can. I mean, you know I call her every weekend, right?”
“Right.”
“Then we’re all good! She’s growing up with a freakin’ billionaire and all her needs are taken care of.”
“She needs her mother.”
“She’ll get her eventually, I promise. Oh! Gotta go. This is my agent.”
She hung up without another word.
Usually, I’d tell Olivia to join me on a late-night drive to make her feel better about this, but I needed to let her see the truth slowly.
Her mother was abandoning her, and I hated that I could relate all too well. Before my biological mother perished in a car accident, she’d left me at a fire station and vowed to “come back later.”
It didn’t dawn on me for years that she never intended to return. My father—whoever he was—wasn’t interested in picking me up either.
Sighing, I braced myself for a blunt conversation with Olivia before returning to her room.
She wasn’t in her bed.
I checked the living room and heard laughter from the kitchen.
Rounding the corner, I spotted Olivia and Harlow dancing amidst clouds of flour with the twins.
There’s no point in hurting her right now…
~
Several school poetry recitals, Baby Yoga sessions, and nights of family baking later…
THIRTY-ONE
HARLOW
The best ice cream stand in Central Park begged me and the twins’ to pay it a Thursday morning visit.
Pierce took the day off and came along with us.
“Can I have a vanilla cone with crushed strawberries and two cold marble cups with lemon toppings?” I asked the vendor. “Can you also make me a hot chocolate.”
“Of course, Harlow.” He smiled at me. “Coming right up.”
I handed him the black card as Pierce adjusted the stroller’s awning.
“Is it always this quiet when you walk with them?” he asked.
“Yeah, unless one of your security guards is following too closely and updating Jerry about our every breath.”
“They don’t report on your every breath.”
“One of them jumped out of the trees last week because William coughed too many times for his liking.”
“I’ll have to give that guard a raise then.” He took the treats and handed them to the twins. “What’s the next part of your route?”
“To the fountain and then past the new pavilion,” I said. “That’s where I show off the empty cafe I plan to buy some day.”
“Why don’t you call the bank now and ask for a loan?”
“Because my name isn’t Pierce Dawson, and I already owe the bank money.”
He laughed. “Noted.”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
“Of course.”
“What type of relationship did you have with the twins’ mother?”
“An ‘off an on’ one,” he said. “We were never truly exclusive.”
“Why couldn’t you remain ‘on’ if you don’t mind me asking?”
“She wanted a family, I didn’t.” He paused. “That argument came up all the time and I refused to budge, so she decided to go off and have that with someone else. Or so I thought…”
“Do you regret not ending up with her before she passed?”
“I regret that I couldn’t tell her goodbye, and that the twins will never know her.” He sighed. “But I can’t regret anything else. She wanted the ultimate fairytale from me and I couldn’t give her that.”
“Are you going to ask me about my exes?”
“I don’t take notes from failures.” He smiled, and I laughed.
As we approached the fountain, his phone sounded in his pocket.
“It’s Denise,” he said, pulling it out. “I need to take this.”
I pushed the stroller to a bench and heard a laugh I’d know anywhere.
Dad?
He rounded the corner with Lauren at his side.