He Called Divorce Papers A Joke I Called It Done Chapter 08

He Called Divorce Papers A Joke I Called It Done Chapter 08

I almost laughed. “You really think she needs a father like you?”

I used to picture it, too. The three of us, living the kind of ordinary, happy life people take for granted.

Him kissing Mia’s cheeks on his way out the door. Bringing me flowers when he came home. Weekend walks in the park with the stroller.

Him teaching her to walk while I filmed from behind. I really believed that was coming.

“Can you honestly stand there and tell me you’ve been a good father?”

He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

“The night our daughter was rushed to the ER with that terrifying fever, I held her for hours on end. Where were you? Out bungee jumping with Harper. You couldn’t even be bothered to pick up the phone.”

“Mia screamed night after night for weeks. I barely slept. You told me you were drowning in work. Then I saw you and Harper posting vacation pictures from Coral Bay.”

“You didn’t even bother to hide it from my feed.”

He’d held her a thousand times. But he didn’t know when she woke up at night. Didn’t know how many ounces she drank at a feeding, or how long to burp her after.

I kept going. My voice was so steady it didn’t even sound like mine.

Somewhere along the way, the love I’d been clinging to had completely burned out.

“You were never there. Not once, in an entire year, when Mia and I needed you.”

“But the second Harper had a problem, you’d drop everything for her.”

“You sacrificed us for her, Declan. Your own wife and daughter.”

The color was draining from his face, slow and steady. I watched it happen.

“Remember the night you slept with Harper at the hospital? Mia and I were stuck in the very next room.”

“Imagine your daughter growing up and finding out what kind of man her father really is.”

“Do you think she’ll even want you?”

He stared at me. His lips moved, but nothing came out. He had no answer.

Then Harper called. And whatever was left of his argument collapsed.

She was pregnant.

Her lawyers weaponized the pregnancy, using it to dodge jail time and get her placed on temporary house arrest instead. That was it.

But karma had its own timeline. When the families found out, everything detonated.

Declan’s parents were completely blindsided—his mother had a severe panic attack, and his father nearly gave himself a stroke. And despite Declan’s denials, Harper swore the baby was his.

She and her parents came as a united front, demanding the Hayes family take responsibility.

“I’m not marrying you.”

Declan’s voice was wrecked but steady. He stood in the Quinns’ living room and didn’t flinch.

“Elena is my wife. Mia is my daughter. If they won’t come back, I won’t marry anyone.”

He stopped. Looked at Harper. Something almost like pity crossed his face. “I don’t want to marry you, Harper. I never did.”

“What?” Harper’s voice shattered. Her eyes filled with tears. “All this time — you never felt anything for me?”

Silence.

“That’s not possible. You don’t blow up your life and sleep with someone unless you feel something, Declan! You handed me those papers. You were going to leave her for me.”

He tried to speak, but Harper wasn’t finished.

“I don’t care. I’m done playing the ‘just friends’ game. I’m having this baby, Declan. And you’re going to marry me.”

Harper had her claws in deep and wasn’t letting go. Declan stepped back. He opened his mouth, winced, pressed a hand to his head.

Then, in front of everyone, he staggered back, clutching his chest as a massive panic attack ripped the air from his lungs, his knees finally buckling under the weight of it all.