The Player | SPORTS ROMANCE | 18+

Chapter 25

TITUS REYES

She didn't believe me. I could feel it, and I could see it. She didn't fucking believe me.

It killed me that she didn't believe me. That she thought I would ever turn away a woman that said she was pregnant with my child.

If she came up to me six years ago, after our night together, I would have fucking believed her. She was the only woman I had been inside raw. Ever.

In hindsight, sex with a stranger without protection was a mistake – a pretty big one at that – but I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. Not only because it had resulted in Arturo, our son, but because she had felt unreal. Fucking amazing. Like nothing I had ever felt before. Every other woman afterward was a mere distraction, but none of them stuck. Not like Sal.

I still had wet dreams about this woman, but she couldn't even bring herself to look at me.

There had to be a reason for this. There had to be more to the story because there looked like there was more Sal was upset with.

"I have a feeling there's more to the story." I murmured, turning my body so I faced her completely.

The way her shoulders tensed confirmed my theory.

"Can you tell me everything please? I normally trust my brother, but he's never lied like this to me before. I don't know what to believe anymore."

"How do I know you're going to believe me?" Sal shot me a look. It was harsh, and would scare most men away, but I saw underneath it. I saw the way she was hurting under the hard exterior. I saw the toll all of this had taken on her, and I cursed my brother for doing this to her. To both of us.

My brother and I were always as thick as thieves but right now, he felt like he was my worst enemy.

He had stolen all of this away from me. He manipulated me and kept my son a secret from me.

"Because I will believe you, Sal. Whatever you say, I'll believe you. Even if you tell me the sky or purple and aliens live amongst us." I threw in the last part to lighten the mood, and when she cracked a smile – though tried to hide it – I grinned in triumph.

It wasn't where I wanted to be right now, but it was something. It was certainly more than I'd had these past six years, so I wasn't going to start complaining now.

"I started throwing up three weeks after we slept together. I thought it was food poisoning at first but then it wouldn't pass. I went to see a doctor and he was the one to suggest that I may be pregnant. I realised I missed my last period and he checked to confirm straight away that I was pregnant." There was a large smile on her face as she told the story, a fond memory that she was now able to look back on and laugh, but I couldn't imagine that she had first reacted that way when told the news.

I should have been there. For the first scan. For the pregnancy test. For the morning sickness. For it all.

I should have been there for all of it.

"I couldn't believe it at first but when he printed them out for me and I held them in my hands for the first time, I pictured holding my baby in my arms. I always wanted to be a mum, but figured it would be when I had a solid partner and I was closer to thirty instead of twenty and just started an apprenticeship in construction. It was difficult to adjust to at first, especially since some of the men on those sites are pretty sexist, but I made it work. I would bring him to work with me and he'd hang out in the reception. He had his own little day care there with him as the only child. Even those that gave me a hard time about it, I'd sometimes find them taking their breaks with him, playing, or showing him a video on the phone. I eventually worked my way up the ranks and now I'm in management so it's much easier taking him into work with me if I have to. He either hangs in my office or the breakroom, but wherever he goes, he has everyone wrapped around his fingers. Even when he was a baby."