GoodReadJeffrey had prepared an outpouring of confessions, heartfelt truths, but at that moment, Karen had cornered him into silence, leaving him with just one line.
"So what now?" Karen didn't want to drag all those issues out into the open, but he kept pressing, leaving her no choice.
"As long as we don't break up, I'll agree to anything you say, okay?" "But all | want is to break up with you, cleanly and completely.” Karen didn't look at him, her back turned to Jeffrey.
"Karen, ever since I've been with you, | stopped going out, and | haven't been involved with anyone else. Paige was just...
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtsomeone | didn't know about! If | had known, | would've never let that child be born." Karen scoffed.
"What's the use in saying that now? The child is already here. She's your daughter!” "I can deny her. | can give Paige a sum of money, and have her take the child and leave, okay?" Jeffrey raised his hand in an oath. "I, Jeffrey, swear on everything that | will never see them again! From now on, you are the only one in my eyes and in my heart." Once, such words might have touched Karen, but now they left her unmoved.
"This is so pointless, Jeffrey." She frowned, steadying her emotions before looking him in the eyes, "By doing this, | end up being the villain! I'm the one keeping you from seeing your child, the one breaking up a father and his daughter. Have you thought about that? Your daughter will grow up! Then what? How is she going to see me?" "I... I just won't let her know who her father is!" "Stop joking. Secrets have a way of coming out." Karen had no desire to play the villain.
She might not have experienced a life without parents, but empathy was enough to understand the hardships of such a life.
The harder the life, the deeper the resentment, and that could lead to trouble later on.
Karen didn't want any part of that.
"So tell me, what do you want to do? I'll listen to you! | could even take the child from Paige and have my parents raise her, so she wouldn't resent you! Or maybe... maybe... she actually..." has a serious congenital heart condition.
But Jeffrey couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.
He couldn't wish death upon his daughter, not when he had just learned of her existence.
"Jeffrey, I've said it before, | won't be a stepmother.” Karen's stance was firm, "And my parents wouldn't agree either. I'll admit, that day outside the hospital, | was willing to give us a chance to get back together, but that was before | knew about your daughter! These past few days, I've thought a lot, and | even considered accepting the reality, but in the end, | couldn't convince myself." Karen took love seriously.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmEven if it wasn't about 'till death do us part,’ at the very least, she didn't want a third party always in the picture! Paige would always be a special existence.
And as their daughter grew older, that special existence would become even more pronounced.
What would she do then? Like before, if the child needed her father because of a serious illness, could she really keep stopping him from going? Karen couldn't be that heartless, but it would make her feel uncomfortable.
Call her selfish, say she lacked compassion, but she just wasn't willing.
"Please go. Let's pretend we never met." Karen turned to leave.
Suddenly, Jeffrey grabbed her sleeve, his eyes reddening as he looked at her and asked, "What about our child then?"
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