Her daddy? Marek is this little girl’s father? He has a daughter, and he never told me? And what did the little girl say about a mommy? Is Marek married? Divorced? What is going on here? All of these questions rapidly fire through Tinley’s brain, and she has no idea how to process the information that was just thrown her way by this tiny girl. All Tinley knows is this is the last place she wants to be, and she needs to get out of here quickly before Marek comes out from wherever he’s currently hiding and finds her—at least she has to assume he’s home right now, because where else would he be since he wasn’t at work?
She puts on a smile, albeit a forced one, and sinks down to the little girl’s level. “My name is Tinley and I’m a friend of your dad’s. I just wanted to drop this stuff by. Since we haven’t met yet and I don’t want you to get in trouble for answering the door and talking to a stranger, I’ll just leave it here, okay?”
“Okay, Tinley.” She furiously nods her head up and down. “I like your name. It’s very pretty. My daddy tells me all the time that my mommy named me Luna because of Harry Potter. He won’t let me watch it though he says I’m too little. But I’m a big kid. Did your mommy pick your name from one of her favorite movies?”
This little girl is so incredibly sweet, and if the circumstances were different, she could see them getting along just fine. But, Marek chose to keep them apart, and whatever his reasons are, Tinley doesn’t plan on sticking around to find out. She takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. She doesn’t want to traumatize this little girl by breaking down in front of her. She doesn’t know if it’s hormones from the pregnancy or just shock in general, but it’s taking everything within her to hold herself together.
With another deep breath, she looks the little girl in the eyes and says, “Your name is pretty too. I’ll have to ask my mom where she came up with my name. I honestly don’t know.” She shrugs and rises from her position offering a little wave. “I’ll see you later, Luna.”
The last thing on her mind right now is where her mom came up with her name, not that she can even remember if that conversation has ever come up. Not like that really matters right now anyway. Why is she even thinking about that?
“Bye Tinley. I’ll see you soon,” Luna says with a small wave of her hand.
Tinley’s body goes into autopilot as she drops the basket of food on the floor inside the door then turns around and walks back out of Marek’s life like he didn’t crash into hers like a tornado. Blowing in with so much emotion and passion and leaving just as swiftly. She keeps her head held high as she goes around the front of her car and gets inside. To think she was so excited that the sun decided to grace them with its presence today. She shuts the door behind her, and a single tear falls down her cheek. The man she’s in love with has a daughter and didn’t tell her… how can this be? Her hand floats to her abdomen again, and the floodgates open up. She’s been sitting with the news of her pregnancy for a week now and was so excited to finally tell Marek. She’s been so nervous about how he would react, but at this point, it’s obvious she doesn’t even know him after all. How did she end up in a situation like this?
She glances back up toward his house and sees Luna still standing there with the door wide open. She’s waving furiously at Tinley, who raises her arm to wave back. Part of her wants to go back and tell her to shut the front door; it’s not safe for her to be standing there. Just as Tinley’s hand goes to her door handle to get back out, Luna whips her head around and slams the front door. Marek—or whoever is watching her—must have found her. Without another thought, Tinley puts her car into drive and forces herself to leave.
As she pulls to a stop at the corner, her phone starts ringing in her cup holder. Tinley doesn’t even have to look to know who’s calling her, but part of her has to see just to make sure. She quickly glances down to see Marek’s name flashing across the screen. That’s all it takes for the floodgates to open up all over again. He has a daughter? Is he secretly married too? How could he do this to us? To me?
The thing is, she’s seen her—that woman she saw him with when she was shopping with Tara. Giselle, the gorgeous woman he was with at the coffee shop—she has to be Luna’s mother. Their similarities are uncanny. They have the same long raven hair and striking blue eyes. Why didn’t she ever question him after they first decided to do this? Oh, that’s right, because she’s dumb and didn’t want to believe something like this could happen. That had to be his wife. Bile builds up in Tinley’s throat just thinking about it. She has become the other woman, and he did this to her. He can screw around on his wife if he wants to, but it won’t be with Tinley—not now, not tomorrow, not ever. They are through, and that’s the end of it.
Tara and Tinley’s father made their mother the other woman and she was never strong enough to leave him. Instead, he stayed with his “real family” and knocked up their mom twice. When she got too old for him, he dropped her like a used condom. Which they probably should have used in the first place. Both her sister and she have never met their father and based off the drunken stupor their mother spends her life in when she’s not working herself to death, she probably would have been better off never meeting him either.
She wipes away the tears that have fallen and vows to never shed a tear for Marek Outlaw ever again. Instead, she focuses on moving her car forward and forcing herself to leave him behind with each mile that separates them. It’s almost comical how brightly the sun is shining today. They’ve had nothing but shitty overcast weather recently, but then the sun finally decided to come out, which Tinley took as a sign that it would be a great day, maybe even fantastic. Sure, she was terrified to tell Marek about the baby, but she knew it would all work out in the end. Now she can’t help but laugh at how naïve she was. He had her fooled real good, that’s for sure.
Tinley comes to a stop and parks in a local coffee shop parking lot. She’s only a few miles away from Marek’s house, but she’s unsure of what she should be doing right now or where she should be going. Just thinking his name throws a whirlwind of emotions through her. It was a risk starting something with him in the first place. He’s a supervisor at work and both of them put their jobs at risk by starting up a relationship. She was willing to risk it because she loved him, but obviously, Marek didn’t feel the same way about her or else he wouldn’t have kept such a huge secret.
The last place she wants to be right now is at home, especially since she still hasn’t said anything to her roommate and best friend, Dakota, about Marek. Now that seems like a moot point seeing as she can’t even think about being with him when he’s kept something so huge from her. Rather than risk falling apart and telling her roommate everything while her emotions are so haywire, she decides to go to the next best place. She hops onto the freeway and loses herself in the haze of the fast—moving traffic.
It doesn’t take her long to arrive at her new destination and she parks her car, focusing on her breathing, attempting to pull herself together. The last thing she wants to do is have a breakdown. She takes one final soothing breath then exits her vehicle. Her hands slide down the front of her sundress, smoothing out any potential wrinkles, and in her mind, the same mantra is on repeat: I will not break down. I will not break down.
She hobbles up the walkway toward the house and feels like a complete idiot. How could I be so stupid? Reaching the front door, she knocks and waits for an answer. As soon as it opens, she knows she came to the right place, and a small bit of the weight on her shoulders falls free. She looks up with a small shrug, knowing her face probably looks a mess. She’s never been a fan of waterproof mascara, and the fact that she cried in the car is probably evident all over her face.
“Hey, what’s going on? Are you okay?”