One Sentence to Change Your Life ||Phoenix
It was about 2 o’clock in the morning when Phoenix heard his phone ringing. With a slight sigh, he rolled over and grabbed his phone, slipping out of the bed carefully. He didn’t want to wake Ainsleigh next to him as he got up. Walking out to the balcony of their room, he answered the phone, still half asleep.
He hadn’t bothered to look at the caller ID so when an unfamiliar voice began talking, Phoenix rubbed the sleep from his eyes and focused on what was being said. ”… from New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Is this Phoenix Coulthard?”
He had totally missed the nurses name, but that’s who he assumed was calling considering the fact they were from a medical center. Though he was extremely confused as to why a nurse from Wilmington was calling him since he no longer lived there, but he would find out before long. “Uhm, yeah. This is him. May I ask why you’re calling?” He questioned, leaning up against the side of the house.
"Of course. Do you know a Brynn Edwards?" The nurse on the other end asked. Phoenix knew the name, it was one he hadn’t heard in a while but he still remembered the name and the face. He’d had a one night, drunken hook-up with Brynn his freshman year of college. After that, he’d never seen or heard about her again. She had literally disappeared off campus and pretty much the face of the earth. She was from out of state, and no one really knew her considering she disappeared not long after school had started. Her roommate surely knew something, but she wasn’t telling if she did.
"Yes, I know who she is. I haven’t seen her in years. What does this have to do with her?" He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, but he couldn’t just hang up on the nurse.
"Well, she was recently admitted to the hospital after a fatal crash and she passed a couple of days ago. She left behind a daughter and when we checked the child’s birth certificate, you were listed as the father. Seeing as how the child has no other family members, and has been staying with a friend of Ms. Edwards’s while she was admitted and while the funeral arrangements were made, you will be the one who receives custody of the child." Phoenix heard every word that was said, but he couldn’t seem to process the information. He had a kid? with Brynn? That was impossible. He remembered that night fairly well and he was 100% sure that they had used protection. With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair, lightly hitting his head against the wall once. He didn’t for a second believe that the child was his. Brynn was known to go to parties and get drunk, but that was all people really knew of her. But he couldn’t have been the only one she had slept with, and he couldn’t have been the last. But, to keep everyone off his back and to keep his conscious from eating him alive, he would go and take a paternity test to prove that this child wasn’t his.
"I’ll be there as soon as I can, I have to fly from Hawaii, but I would like a paternity test before anything else. I was never informed of this, and want to be sure the child is mine before dropping something like this on my family." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. "What’s her name?" It wasn’t really something he wanted to know, but something that he needed to know. There was always the chance what they were saying was right, and he wanted to know her name going in to it. He’d missed four years of his potential daughters life, he could at least show up knowing her name. Nekoda Dawn Coulthard. Well, she had his last name, but that didn’t mean anything. It just meant that Brynn was claiming she was his.
After getting a little more info from the nurse, Phoenix hung up the phone then went back into the bedroom, seeing that Ainsleigh was still asleep. Walking over to the bed, Phoenix leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her cheek before he walked out of the room silently. Getting a bottle of water from the fridge, he wrote Ainsleigh a note:
'Ains,
Something urgent came up and I had to go on a short little trip. I’ll be back in 48 hours or less. As always, I’ll have my phone with me if anything comes up. Please don’t ask me to explain. It should be done in person, and I promise I will tell you everything as soon as I get back. Love you so much, and I’ll see you soon. Call me if you need me.
Phoenix’
After leaving the note, Phoenix grabbed his wallet and took one of his credit cards out, leaving it on the note in case she needed it. Sure that she had everything she’d need for a couple days, he grabbed his car keys and ran out the door, only pausing to lock it behind him.
Getting in his car, he drove off to the airport, parking in the area reserved for the ones who owned planes there. Locking his car, he walked inside, going to the desk and going through the usual procedure for when he used their plane. Twenty minutes later, he was in the plane and they were heading down the runway. He had almost a 10 hour flight ahead of him but he couldn’t sleep. He needed to know the truth. Why hadn’t he been told? What would he do if he was the father? What would Ainsleigh think? Why didn’t he know about her sooner? He couldn’t turn her away if she was his, he didn’t have the heart to do that.
Almost ten hours later, they were landing in Wilmington. A place he had called home for four years of his life. Once they had landed, Phoenix rushed off the plane and through the airport. He hadn’t messed with a bag so it didn’t take long for him to make it through the airport and outside to one of the many taxis that were lined up. Getting in one, he told the driver where he wanted to go and handed him money for the trip. He didn’t care how much it was or how much of a tip he was going to leave, he just wanted to get there.
Twenty minutes later, he was jumping out of the taxi and going inside to the nurses station, giving them his name and asking about the paternity test. He wasn’t sure of the nurses name from earlier, but apparently he had been lucky enough to find the right one on the first try because she was leading him to a room. They took him to the room and explained what they were going to do before they did the test. He had to wait for the results, but in the meantime the nurse asked if he wanted to meet the little girl. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to, but he found himself nodding his head and suddenly, he was on his feet, following the nurse to a different room where the little girl was sitting with another girl beside her.
As soon as he saw the girl, he knew she was his. He didn’t need the test results to know. She looked too much like him not to be his. There was some of Brynn in her, but not much. When the little girl looked his way, he smiled warmly at her before turning back to the nurse as she suggested Phoenix and the older woman talk while she watched the little girl. Seeing the other woman nod, Phoenix stepped outside the room and waited.
The older woman, who he soon found out was Katrina, Brynn’s best friend, quickly told him everything the little girl knew about her mother, and him. She knew much more than he had expected. No one knew how much she really understood, but she did know that she was going to live with her dad now that her mom was gone. However, she didn’t exactly know her mom was dead. Just that was was in a very pretty place where kids aren’t allowed. That was good enough for him. Phoenix thanked Katrina for filling him in before he offered to go pack up the little girls things from her house. He wasn’t all too surprised when Katrina said that the three of them could go pack everything for the girl while they waited for the results. Even though Phoenix didn’t need them to know, he knew that he would need them to show Ainsleigh, and for any legal matters in the future.
Within another 20 minutes, the three of them were in Katrina’s car, on the way to the house that his daughter had grown up in. He had yet to really talk to the little girl, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her so he waited for her to talk to him. He didn’t have to wait long though, because once they were at the house and in the little girls room, she began to tell him all about her favorite toys and games to play. Having a little sister, he knew what to expect her to say and he went along with it, promising that they could leave some of her dolls out to play with on the way to her new home with him. It was weird, how they got along so easily and how she was seemingly okay with everything that was going on. Then again, she probably didn’t really understand.
"Hey Nekoda, do you want to see who else you’ll get to live with in your new home?" He asked, pulling the little girl into his lap as he took a short break from packing up her things. He was pulling out his phone when he heard her say that she liked Koda and Kody better than Nekoda. Apologizing, he unlocked his phone and went to his pictures, pulling up one of Ainsleigh. "This is who else you’ll get to live with. Ainsleigh is my girlfriend." He told her softly, flipping through a few more pictures of her and of them before he looked at her with a smile. He wasn’t totally sure how she would react to the little girl, but he was doing his best to think positively. He wanted to hope that she would get along with her as well as he had from the start.
About two hours later, they were done sorting through everything and packing what she wanted to keep. He only had about two suitcases and two duffle bags full of clothes and three boxes of toys that she insisted they had to take. Somewhere within those two hours, Nekoda had fallen asleep on the couch and was sleeping peacefully.
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Sometime, Katrina and Phoenix had fallen asleep. Once again, he was awoken to the sound of his phone going off. This time, he recognized the number as the same one as before. The results were in. Standing up, he walked outside and began talking to the nurse once again. She, of course, confirmed what he had known from the moment he saw Nekoda that evening. It was a five minute conversation that consisted of a ‘congrats, she’s your daughter, we’ll need you to sign the birth certificate before you leave.’ Hanging up, he went back inside and gently woke Katrina up, telling her the news before gently waking Nekoda up and getting her to the car so they could go to the hospital. While Katrina got her ready, he loaded Nekoda’s things in her car then got in, waiting about five minutes before they were both in the car.
The hospital took about an hour and a half, then they were all on the way to the airport. The plane was waiting, all he had to do was take the bags out there and have them loaded then it was time for goodbyes and they were off. Almost ten hours in the air and they were landing. It was all too soon for Phoenix. In thirty minutes, he would be home with his daughter, where his girlfriend and sister were waiting.
It didn’t take long once they landed. All they had to do was take the bags from the plane to the car and they were off. Nekoda had fallen asleep on the flight, so Phoenix carried her to the car, getting her carseat that Katrina had sent with him in the car and putting her in the seat safely before he got in and drove home.
At home, he got Nekoda out of the car and carried her inside. Her things could wait. He needed to get this over with quickly. Like a band aid. Just take her in there and get it over with. It wasn’t a puppy. He couldn’t leave her in the car while he explained it. That wasn’t fair to her. This whole situation was unfair, for everyone, but it was out of his control. She’d understand, eventually. She had to. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t do it.
"Ainsleigh ? Come to the living room. We need to talk." He called out, sitting in the chair with Nekoda on his lap. "You’re a surprise for Ains, okay? She might be kinda shocked at first, but it’ll be okay." He whispered quietly as he heard the footsteps of his girlfriend.
