athornedmarls:
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.
***
Nothing about life in this moment in time was simple or easy, it seemed like since he got the call about William’s body being found a domino effect of bad situations decided to come flying down, his jaw clicked as Marley responded to his comment about Annabel, “ A few days ago. “ he muttered under his breath. It was as if his chest grew tighter while they sat there and conversed about the new situation at hand, when he first saw the picture of Kai, all of his sense alerted but he had talked himself into believing James’ was indeed Kai’s father, Hunter didn’t know how to accept the reality of it all. James knows he’s not the father, perhaps that was a good thing, it gave them time and the fact he was the only other person that knew currently made it a little easier to handle. “ Does he know I’m Kai’s dad? “ Hunter had never liked James, the man had always left an uncertainty in the pit of Hunter’s stomach but he was never going to question Marley’s happiness, he had no other reason to. And Kai was a great child so Marley and James had done more than Hunter could ask for in raising his kid.
Hunter felt defeated, everything weighing heavily on him as she finally admitted that she didn’t know what was going to happen next, the fact there was so many thing to figure out next was reeling in his head. His head fell back down into his hands as he rubbed his palms into his forehead, there was a part of him that was wishing it was all a dream that he was going to jolt awake any moment and things would go back to normal, “ I don’t know. “ he admitted aloud; it was rare that he didn’t know what to do in a situation, but he had no clue what to do or what to say anymore. “ I think we should figure all of this out another time. “ the words burned as the left his lips, he didn’t know if he wanted Marley to stay or leave, he didn’t know how to feel anymore and it was starting to worry him. Everything was changing and he had no control and that’s one thing he can’t accept.