Frankie’s world was spinning. Seconds ago he plucked up the courage to knock on Ruby’s door. After all these years he remembered her subtle honeysuckle scent. There was no questioning that this was the one that got away. He was floored by how beautiful she is, but not as stunned as seeing the picture on the front of the album of her heavily pregnant at the same age when he spent the night with her. Her reaction alone confirmed all he needed to know. I got her pregnant. I have a child. I’m a father!? I-All this time I-I had no idea I had a
“Erm, who are you?” Normally no one would be able to sneak up on Frankie and his nose, but his mind had been totally preoccupied with the revelation that he got Ruby pregnant, to notice the woman turn the corner from the stairs and walk towards the apartment. Frankie inhaled deeply and took in the scent of lavender…and something else that was really familiar. He half-turned to look at her and was stunned. A teenage girl wearing stood before him. She wore trainers, ripped jeans with her knees exposed, and a baggy black and white jumper she tucked into the front of her belt and overhung her backside. Her long brown hair rested long down her back and she had a messy block fringe to her eyebrows.
Oh her eyes! They were his eyes. Steely blue and so sharp. She chewed her lips under the scrutiny he gave her and darted her gaze to the door timidly. “Erm, this is my apartment and my Mum will be home so-”
“Ruby is your mother?” Frankie took an anxious step towards her and his hands opened and closed by his sides. A lump rose to his throat and his sensitive hearing heard the sound of chains and locks being frantically undone.
“Yeah? You know my Mum?”
“Yes, or, I did know her. Briefly.” The door started to open and Frankie panicked. “I’m your father.”
“…what?” Nella’s jaw dropped. Whatever she’d been expecting the stranger to say, that wasn’t it.
“How dare you!” Ruby marched out of the apartment and got between Frankie and Nella. “No you’re not!”
“Oh I think we both know I am.” Frankie sidestepped to get around Ruby. “Look at you? You’ve got my eyes.” And my smell. That almond scent under the lavender is mine. She is mine. Frankie’s wolf’s reared its head and wanted to howl to the world that she was his pup.
“What the hell?!” Nella shouted in frustration. “Mum?”
“Nella get inside right now.” Ruby took hold of Nella’s arm and dragged her through the doorway. The distraught blonde tried to shut the door and put a barrier between them, but Frankie got his foot in the way. She was no match for his werewolf strength as he pushed the door open and held it open. “I will call the cops!” Ruby screamed and shielded Nella, who cowered against her back.
“Wow, wait, no need for that.” Frankie stood in their doorway and put his hands up. “I just didn’t want you to shut me out. I won’t come in. I just want to talk.” He kept his hands up and kept looking between the two women. “I nearly died recently. I thought I was going to die, and my last thought was of the beautiful woman I spent a wonderful evening with, only to vanish on me the next morning. I really did just come to see you Ruby. I…I had no idea you got pregnant otherwise I would have done right by you.” Frankie begged them to believe him and fought against the heat trying to reach his eyes to make them glow.
“She’s not yours.” Ruby lied and ignored the hurt across his face. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. We had a one night stand, sure. But she isn’t yours.”
“I know she is.” Frankie scowled and pointed over Ruby’s shoulder towards Nella. “She has my eyes. She looks like a Monroe.”
“Lots of people have blue eyes!” Ruby raised her cellphone in a silent threat. Frankie still had his hands up but his wolf was starting to growl behind his eyes. Nella was his pup, and he was not leaving without her.
“Alright? There’s an easy way to prove that she’s mine. DNA test. Right now.” Frankie took his cell from his back trouser pocket and started texting with both hands. “Being a fire chief I have made many friends across the emergency services. Including doctors and paramedics. I am so confident that Nella is mine, that I’ll pay private for a paternity test and the additional fee to get it rushed through. We can all be at Portland hospital within the hour and have the results before the end of the day. That’s how confident I am. How about you?” Frankie challenged her and lifted his steely eyes from his cell.
Ruby’s lovely green eyes welled up and she chewed her lips. He was calling her bluff. “I am her father, and had I known she existed, I would have been her father. Granted, you didn’t know my last name or how to hunt me down either, so I’m prepared to forgive you for that. But I know now. Nella?” Frankie placed his left hand on his chest over his uniform. “I don’t want to take you away from your mother. I swear I don’t. I didn’t know you existed five minutes ago. But I’m a good man and I can’t walk away from you. It will take time, but I want to be in your life. I want you in mine.”
Nella was crying and her hands were braced on Ruby’s shoulders. She stared at the man she had dreamed of knowing and felt conflicted. This guy was a stranger that came out of nowhere, and her mother wasn’t happy he was here…but he did have a point. He didn’t know he had a daughter. He did now, and wanted to do the right thing?
“You told me he died?” Ruby grimaced and knew she deserved the accusation in her daughter’s voice. “You told me my dad was a firefighter who died in a fire?”
“I…” Ruby looked at Nella and didn’t know where to begin. “Look, I’ll tell you everything later, just-”
“Is he my dad?!” Nella took a step to the side and her steely eyes pierced Ruby’s heart. Frankie was right. She had his eyes. “Is he? Because if he is, you’ve lied to me my whole life.”
“It’s not as simple as that.” Ruby reached for Nella but the teen leaned away from her touch. “All I know about him was he was a firefighter and his name was Frankie. From out of town for some presentation and leaving again the next day. Two weeks later I find myself pregnant and no idea how to even begin looking for him.”
“But why tell me he’s dead?”
“Because I wanted you to think your parents loved each other and your father passed away a hero, rather than think of your mother as someone who got drunk and had sex with a stranger.” Ruby palmed her face, knowing one day she’d have to tell her daughter the truth. Never in a million years did she think it would happen like this. “I was so hungover the next day I kept throwing up. I…think I probably threw up my daily pill for the next two days and that’s how I got pregnant. It can take up to three days, the doctor told me, for sperm to find the egg so…yeah.” Ruby shoved her cell into her back pocket.
The cat was out of the bag now. Frankie sensed her surrender too and put his phone away.
“That makes sense. I remember you telling me you were on the pill.” Frankie cleared his throat, a little uncomfortable talking about sex in front of a teenager at the best of times, never mind one that turned out to be his daughter. “Listen, I’m out of my depth here too, but…can I come in?” He asked cautiously.
“No.” Ruby insisted and pointed at him. “I don’t let strangers into my house.”
“But I just want to talk. Don’t you think we need to talk about how to proceed?”
“Proceed with what?” Ruby narrowed her green eyes on him and saw in his eyes what he was about to say. She was already welling up before the words left his lips.
“Joint custody, of course.” Frankie nodded to Nella and smiled. “I’m smart enough to do the math. You’re still a minor…17?”
“Yeah…but…?” Nella held her elbows and looked to her mother as the blonde marched right up to Frankie. She poked him right in the chest and glared with her lips peeled back over her teeth.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Turing up after all this time and talking about joint custody? Nella is my daughter. You want to talk about seeing her? I’m open to that, but she’s not coming to live with you for any amount of time. You’re a stranger!”
“I am her father and I have a legal right to know and raise her.” Frankie didn’t move from the doorway and put his hands on his hips. This pretty little thing didn’t intimate him or his wolf. “I’ve missed out on the last 17 years, and that was not my fault or yours. I accept that. What happens next though? I can do something about that.”
“Oh really?” Ruby ignored the angry tears on her cheeks and pointed to the fire department badge on his left arm. “You’re not even from Portland. How exactly do you expect to have shared custody of her? She has the best part of a year and a half left high school left, her most important years, and you want her to-”
“In Glenn Valley we have an excellent education uplift program. There she would be funded not just through high school, but also through college. All fees paid for, no matter what she studies, as long as she goes to Portland University.” Nella’s eyes widened. “That includes her tuition, utilities if she lives on campus, and a monthly basic wage to support her. All she has to do is come home once a month to qualify. Furthermore?” Frankie looked around the tiny little apartment, the cracks in the wallpaper, and recalled the lack of security he passed in the building. “I’ll pay half your rent and give you the child support you are entitled to, which will get you a house in Glenn Valley. A nice one with a big garden and at least three bedrooms.” He noticed Nella looking at him with curiosity and intrigue. She was imagining the rosy life he was offering her already. Ruby? Not so much.
“Go to hell.”
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