And I had no idea what to do with it.
“Say I go with you,” Michelle said.
My head whipped up to take in her determined eyes.
“Say I agree to this. Will I have a say in anything? Or do you simply plan to keep me prisoner for the length of my pregnancy?”
“Why the hell would I keep you as a prisoner?” I asked.
“I can provide for myself. It might not be glamorous like the life you lead, but it’s possible. In fact, a lot of children are raised in less-than-glamorous lifestyles and go on to be wildly successful. Like you, for starters.”
I clenched my jaw and locked my gaze with hers.
“I’ve got a job, so long as they don’t fire me for the little stunt you pulled tonight. I don’t need you to come in and rescue me.”
“You can’t possibly work in a place like that, Michelle. Those men were two clicks away from throwing you over a table and pulling your damn shorts down. And I’m not just going to leave my child in the middle of fucking nowhere.”
“It’s my child as well, Gray. You aren’t the one that gets the last say in all this. You don’t get to dictate my actions simply because we didn’t wrap it up.”
“You didn’t have an issue following my lead up until this point. What’s the problem now?”
“The problem is you left without me. Again.”
“I don’t want our child to be stuck in a place like this, Michelle!”
I stood and let the sheet slip from my body as I walked away from the table.
“And neither do I!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want my child to be stuck in a place like Williston. Or Stillsville. But I sure as hell don’t want to be thrust into the beautiful landscape of some fantastical mansion with a vineyard in the damn backyard and then be cast back out again, Gray! I’m done living that life. I’m done with the rejection and always being tossed out like garbage!”
“I didn’t toss you out on your ass like Andy did,” I said, as I turned around.
“No,” she said, as she stood. “You simply left me behind without so much as a second thought.”
“I just told you I can’t get you out of my damn head!”
“Yet you still left! Don’t you see how fucked up that is!?”
I started picking my clothes up off the floor and pulled them onto my body.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “We aren’t finished.”
“Whether you like it or not, I’m running this show now. Because you’ve been running it for a month and a half and you ran it into the damn ground, and took me along with it. Come hell or high water, Grayson MacDonald, I will find a way to provide a good life for my child.”
“Our child,” I said.
“Do you even believe that?”
She wrapped her apron around her waist as I stared at her with a steely glare.
“Exactly,” she said, with a snicker. “You want to fight like it’s your child when it means you have the upper hand. But once you don’t have control, it’s suddenly not yours.”
“Michelle, that isn’t—”
“We’re done with this conversation.”
“No we’re not,” I said, as I reached out for her arm. “This is our child, and I get a say just like you do in how this works.”
“Oh, so you don’t need a paternity test anymore? You’re going to slap your name on the birth certificate as daddy and live this fun new life you fucked your way into?”