Read Online Outer Core by Sigal Ehrlich - Free Book Online Page A

erase given it is shoved in my face in the form of a child .” It’s safe to say, my irritation with the situation is back.
    â€œAlleged child, for fuck’s sake. Can you not be that girlfriend now, Hayley?” He echoes my gaze.
    Angry fire licks all the way up from my belly to my mouth. “For fuck’s sake, Daniel, which girlfriend? The one that feels sick to her stomach thinking about you screwing someone else? Oh, I’m sorry for being that kind of . . . fi-an-cée .” I lean on the hall’s wall, needing space. Needing to calm the heat storm gathering velocity in me. Needing badly for everything to be a bad joke.
    Daniel mirrors me, leaning on the opposite wall. “No, the one that brings back something we agreed to bury a long time ago and starts a shitfest about it.”
    â€œI can’t believe you sometimes,” I snap.
    â€œIt’s you I can’t believe sometimes.” Daniel spreads his hands to his sides in frustration. “Christ Hayley, I . . . Can . . . Not . . . Rewrite . . . Our . . . History.” Silence falls between us after Daniel’s last words dissolve into the fury, confusion and multitude of uncertainties we’re sharing. “Why are we fighting?” His voice is softer. His head leaning on the gray wall, his eyes on mine. Weary.
    â€œWe aren’t.” An unbidden tear rolls down my cheek.
    Daniel pushes himself from the wall with a start. With one hurried step, he’s cupping my face, his eyes soulful. In a tender, worried voice he says, “Hales, you’re crying.”
    Something about his concern, the candor of his voice, the look in his eyes that can never be more caring, brings me to burrow under his arms. Pressing my face to the hard planes of his chest, I let him hug my bruised ego and heart. “I’m not crying; it’s just stupid liquid frustration,” I murmur under my breath.
    Daniel lets me be, embracing me tight, pressing soft kisses on the center of my head. Wordlessly, he slides to the floor, taking me with him. Until he is leaning on the wall with me cuddled under his arm.
    For a long beat, we stare at each other, processing. Daniel brushes a lock of hair over my shoulder. His hand comes back to rest on my chest, his finger retracing my collarbone. “I didn’t want you involved because I knew just how upset it would make you. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I have people working on it.” He takes a silent breath. “I’m not sure how it started circulating. It’s hard to keep these kinds of things under control when the other party is trying to do the exact opposite. For the money, publicity, or God knows what.”
    I just stare at him, listening to his voice. I’ve lost the will to talk about it any longer. I’m left with a sense of bitterness that’s soaring around my heart.
    â€œHave the paternity test,” I say with an exhausted sigh.
    â€œI will if that’s what you want.”
    â€œYou should want it too. You need to know.” Jekyll is definitely fighting Hyde and whatever was about to come out of Daniel’s lips remains unsaid. The next words to leave my mouth jostle my insides before they meet air. “The articles online said that the two of you are friends. That, that’s what Rob – what she said.” I can’t even bring myself to say her name.
    Daniel closes his eyes for a stretch. “Baby, we met once. There wasn’t much talking. We’ve never met after that. I didn’t even know her name before Brian, my PR guy, told me about it. There was never anything cordial between that woman and me, let alone any sort of friendship.”
    â€œI believe you,” I say in a dainty voice.
    His eyes grow softer. “I love you. I’m sorry you have to go through this.”
    I rest my face on his chest, closing my eyes. Daniel wraps his arms