“Go screw yourself Nolan. I never asked you to buy me a car and I certainly didn’t ask you to barge into my life and mess it up.”
“How have I messed up your life?” he demanded.
Aubrey’s cry sounded on the other side and he bit back the swear words that bubbled to the surface. “Shannon, open the door, please. No more yelling, I promise. Just open the door.”
“Talk to my lawyer.”
“What do we need lawyers for?” he asked. “I thought we were trying to build something together for Aubrey…was I totally off-base? If so, what was last night about?”
At that the door flew open and Shannon’s eyes blazed while she juggled Aubrey on her hip. Aubrey reached for Nolan and he instinctually opened his arms to her but Shannon hissed and whirled Aubrey out of reach, saying, “I’ve got to hand it to you. You played me really well. I actually believed you were changing but I’m onto you now. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the rumors were false but I was wrong. You’re a womanizing w-h-o-r-e,” she said, spelling out the word whore to protect Aubrey’s little ears, but Nolan felt slapped by the venomous attack. “Next time you’re trying to convince someone that you’re anything but a b-a-s-t-a-r-d make sure you don’t end up sleeping with that person’s young, blabbermouth intern!”
And then the door slammed shut again and Aubrey’s cry followed. Nolan stared, at first unable to make sense of what Shannon had said and then an awful feeling came over him as he put two and two together. Fuck. He scrubbed his hands over his face and fought the urge to bust down the door, if only to explain but what could he say? He’d screwed up. He knew he should’ve listened to his instincts and stayed at the hotel. Damn you, Vince for convincing me otherwise. No, damn himself for not listening to that little voice he could only assume had been his good sense.
He took a minute to calm down but he was rapidly losing his ability to think rationally, mostly because he knew she was right. He hated that he’d screwed up so royally and this was the first time his money couldn’t save him because Shannon didn’t care about his money. “Shannon, at least take the car,” he managed to bite out. “Your car isn’t safe. I don’t want Aubrey in that piece of junk you call a vehicle.”
“I had it returned.”
“I know that,” he said, glowering. “If you don’t like it, pick out something else. Bottom line, it’s paid for and you need something more reliable when you’re driving my daughter around.”
“I don’t want anything from you, go away!”
Nolan’s mouth compressed to a fine line. She wanted to play with lawyers? Fine. Let’s see how her lawyer stacked up against his team of lawyers. By the time he was finished with her, she’d be lucky to see Aubrey on weekends for supervised visitation.
“See you court, babe,” he called out caustically and spun on his heel.
Shannon would find he made a terrible adversary — Buchanans made it a point to never lose.
Ever.
-9-
Shannon wept for days. Or at least it’d felt like days. CeCe had agreed to take over her duties while she sorted things out with Nolan and she was grateful for the intern’s help, although she’d never realized how competent CeCe was until this crisis had arisen. It made Shannon feel guilty for not giving her more responsibility but Shannon had taken one look at CeCe and worried mostly about her sleeping with half the team before her internship was finished.
How could Shannon have fallen so quickly and so hard for Nolan Buchanan when she’d only truly known him for such a short time? And given the circumstances, it was apparent, she’d never truly known him at all.
She stared dully at the paternity results, not surprised that Nolan’s paternity had been confirmed. Likely, Nolan had the results as well as they were each mailed the results. It was a formality insisted upon by the court and her attorney said it was necessary to establish child support. She’d balked. “I don’t want his money. I want him out of our lives.”
The lawyer looked at Shannon with exasperation. “It doesn’t work that way. He’s the father; he should pay. Technically, you’re considered low-income so any money the state has already paid for Aubrey will be docked from his paycheck. The money will be paid one way or another. Besides, you’re angry right now; when you come to your senses, you’re going to want him to help with expenses for the baby.”
But Shannon didn’t want Nolan to have any reasonable justification for being around Aubrey. He wasn’t father material in any way shape or form and she’d pointed that out to the lawyer.
“Is he abusive?”
“No,” Shannon answered, frowning.
“Is he a danger to the child?”
“No, of course not. He’s very good with Aubrey.”
“Then you’ve got no leg to stand on in court. You will be awarded 50-50 joint custody,” she’d said. “I suggest you get used to it.”
Hot tears burned under her lids. She felt helpless to stop what was happening and she was getting sick at the thought of handing over her daughter when the time came. She was down $5,000 and, just as the lawyer had told her, nothing had changed. The fact was, it didn’t matter if Nolan was a total lying, womanizing bastard, because he looked good on paper.
Oh, who was she kidding? He looked good, period. That was the problem. His handsome face and loose morals — bad combination!
A knock at the door sounded and she glanced up from her sodden pillow, tempted to ignore whoever it was. Aubrey was still taking a nap and thus Shannon had tried to do the same but sleep had eluded her just as it had been avoiding her at night, too. The knock sounded again and Shannon reluctantly climbed to her feet and hastily wiped the tears from her face before opening the door. A heavily pregnant brunette with cheeks pinked from the exertion of climbing the stairs smiled at her but placed her hand on her back with a wince, saying, “Are you Shannon Garrity?”
“Y-yes?”
“Oh good,” the woman breathed in relief. “I didn’t want to think I’d climbed those awful stairs for nothing. Would you mind inviting me in for a cool glass of water?”
“Who are you?” Shannon asked, moving aside with uncertainty. “Do I know you?”
“Not at all,” she answered with good cheer and settling into the sofa with a groan. “But I think you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”