One Night

Chapter Five- Father Against Father

Sitting in the hospital with Lila bouncing on my knee, we waited for the doctor to speak our name in order to learn of her paternity. With Luke absent by my own neglect to keep him from learning of the truth in case it did not fall in his favor, I found myself growing increasingly nauseous. But as I placed myself steady in preparation to what I would hear, a set of heavy steps moving with devotion to my direction had forced me to lift my eyes. 

"What are you doing here-"

"Did you think I wouldn't know? I have a right to." Nate spoke as he took the open seat beside me. Once again, Lila began to cry as he was present. To this day, I'm not sure if it was because of his strong cologne or overall attitude, but Lila picked up on it right away. 

"How did you-" once again he interrupted me with an answer. 

"I have a right to know my daughter's appointments. I have very high connections, you know." He spoke with a tone that sounded as more of a threat than a comment made from care. 

"Anna and Lila?" A doctor emerged as all three of us rose, Lila only doing so as she was in my hands. As the man looked to Nate, he then looked back down at his notepad before then finally looking at me. 

"Perhaps we should speak in one of the rooms…" he commented before moving towards the hallway. 

"It's okay doc, I'm the dad." He spoke with a cocky arrogance that now annoyed me as it once aroused me. Nate led the way behind the doctor as we were brought to a small examination room. 

"Well...Lila is impeccably healthy and even ahead in her growth and adjustment into the world…." I hung onto his every word; knowing this would change everything when he would tell me. "We had to wait the two weeks for the results and…" he paused, pulling the screen towards us both to show me the results. 

"As you can see...this line represents her genetics...this is the sample you had given us…" I paused, literally on the edge of my seat. "It isn't a match." Everything else around me felt numb. I had only given Luke's DNA as I did not want Nate to learn of my plan to know the identity. But hearing this, I knew Nate had to have been her father. It was clear as day before me. But my body and my words began to ramble. 

"But how?"

The doctor looked at me, stunned. 

"She looks nothing like him and the dimples-"

"Genetics can be quite tricky. There are cases where caucasian parents have given birth to an African American child...and those with blonde hair can come out with red. It all depends on the chromosomes and the-"

Without another word, I pulled myself from the examination room and into the hallway. Fearing Nate was on my heels, I quickly made my way outside and into the bus, where I held Lila against my chest. I couldn't believe the pain in my heart from this as things seemed to change so quickly. To admit it now makes me sick to my stomach, but at the time, I had only seen Lila as an obstacle. But with times such as these, when it felt as though it had been her and I against the world, I knew she was mine and I was hers. 

But even now as tears strewn down my face, all I desired was to see Luke. But as I stood outside his hotel room, I felt guilt wash over me. I did not allow him the chance to open the door before I had turned on my heels and left him watching me escape the scene rapidly. As he called my name, I increased my speed before being stopped by a set of stairs occupied by people. 

"Anna...what happened?" He asked as Lila was also crying against my chest. Sensing I needed my hands free, he took Lila into his own grasp before walking me back towards his room. I often wonder how things would be different if those stairs would have been open to descend. 

I froze. He was the one person I felt I could trust...but how could he then trust me? I was about to tell him everything when a hard pounding sound echoed throughout the room. As Luke went to approach the door, a deep voice on the other side spoke to us. 

"Police...open up!" The pounding happened again-this time accompanied by Luke's name being spoken as well. I paused in fear while trying to console Lila. 

"Go into the bathroom...I will talk to them-"

"They will hear her...it will get you into more trouble." I had believed at this moment that the best thing would have been to evade a struggle; either emotionally or physically. But if I would have known what would have followed, I never would have pressured him to open that damn door. 

As it flew open, cops forced Luke onto his knees and then his chest before taking Lila from my arms. As I tried to learn the context of what was transpiring, I made my way behind the police as they took Luke to the back of their squad car and saw Nate holding Lila. When his eyes fell to me, he approached me with a wicked smile. 

"You won't ever get her away from me. I may be an adulterer...but I am more fit to be her guardian than you. Unless you want to take me to court and we can let all your dirty laundry out." I knew he was right. Not only the cost of a lawyer, but the things in my past that I tried to keep there...he had knowledge of them all. 

Arriving back to my apartment as Luke was forced into interrogations, I slid against the wall directly beside my door with the dark paper bag at my side. I hadn't given into the amber temptation within the bottle in almost three years...but today of all days, I had been the most weak. Before I could recall the repercussions this would have, I placed the bottle to my lips and drank. And drank. And drank. Up until all I felt was the buzz from the whiskey. 

Everything that followed past this had become hazy until I woke up in the bathroom midday lying in my own vomit. It wasn't the stench from last night's supper regurgitated on the floor that made me sick, but the fact that I had broken my sobriety. I wasn't strong enough to break this...I couldn't stand up strong and give myself a pep talk out of it all.. I knew I had slid backwards to step one; and I could feel my body pull me even further to rock bottom.