Every fiber of his being was burning, he couldn’t tell if it was rage or if it was pain at this point but his skin was burning as he continued to press his fingers into his scalp, rubbing the backside of his head as his elbows left bruises in his thighs, everything felt so intense in the moment that liquid filled his eyes, the tighter he forced his eyelids together the more pressure built in his head, Hunter’s lips parted as he exhaled longly while listening to Marley speak, keep it together, he kept repeating inside of his head. He knew he couldn’t break, he had to collect himself, they needed to discuss this and figure out how they were going to handle the situation now that was thrown upon them while dealing with the reality of their past coming back to terrorize them. Swallowing thickly before finally releasing his head to sit up, he stared at the wall for what seemed like eternity before he collected his thoughts, Marley’s words were almost like daggers to his chest, so many excuses but it was him, and that’s what confused him the most, they had always been so open with each other, especially when the affair was happening and perhaps that’s why it hurt him the most.
“ Annabel and I are no longer engaged. “ he started, his tongue briefly wetting his lips as he turned on the bed to face her, it almost burned a hole into his chest to look at her in that moment, “ Kai’s my son. “ it was surreal to be saying that, Hunter had never thought of himself as father material, he had always been appalled by the idea of himself having children after everything he endured with his own parents, he had vowed to never make the same mistakes they did with him. “ Who all knows that James isn’t the father? “ There was no telling how any of this could end, how the investigation was going to go and now how anyone was going to react to the fact Hunter and Marley had a child together, mostly James. Hunter’s eyes scanned Marley’s face, if there was anyone in the world who could break his heart it was the woman sitting in front of him, and he swore that’s what was happening in this moment. “ I don’t want to talk about the why’s on why you kept this from me, I want to discuss what and how we’re going to do things right now. “ he maintained the neutral demeanor he had perfected over the years, right now emotions were the last thing he wanted to show or express.
Marley made sure to watch Hunter’s reactions before and during her confession. She felt her entire body being broken and she was numb. It was all of her faults - she was the one that hid the fact that Hunter was the father of Kai and the one that kept it for as long as she did. She had nobody else to blame but herself but in this whole situation, it felt like there was no winning. She was going to lose her best friend and the one that she loved more than anything because she didn’t want to tell him the truth. They had always been honest with each other, through everything - the assaults, the murder, the affair. Hunter was the one person that she knew she could talk to about anything and he would never judge her or make her feel as if she was a burden to him. Her chest ached as she looked at his face to process all of this and she wanted to understand how he was feeling but with Hunter, he was very good at keeping a calm face through things that were rough and this was one of those times.
When he mentioned that Annabel and he were no longer engaged, her jaw dropped slightly. “Wait, what? Hunter” she paused, “When?” Her head bowed, her hands kept in her lap and she picked at her nails as she nodded her head. “Yes, Kai’s your son.” She knew that it was going to take time for him to process the fact that he was a father and a father to a five-year-old but she knew that he was going to be a good father - especially watching their interactions at his birthday party. At his next question, she bit the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t tell him that Sebastian knew about this before he did and besides Sebastian knowing, there were not many others that knew. “James knows he’s not the father, but other than him, you’re the only other person who knows.” When James found out that he wasn’t the father, it was far from a good time between them but now that he’s been gone for a little while, things have gotten better. She let out another breath that she didn’t realize that she had been holding as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I mean I guess the next step would be to tell Kai and I don’t know if you want to be there when it happens or what to do. And about like custody or whatever, we’ll have to figure that out, too, I guess.” The tears that she had held back came falling down her face but she immediately wiped them away before he could see.