The Free Pass

Chapter 68

Mallory

I walked into the bedroom and took several deep breaths. I was not going to fall apart again. That had happened far too often lately. I looked over to where Shawn had punched the wall. You couldn't even see where the hole had been.

"That guy did great work," I heard Shawn say from behind me. I hadn't realized he'd followed me.

He came up behind me and wrapped his good arm around my waist, pulling me against him. His head rested on the top of mine.

"You didn't let me finish," he said.

"What else is there to say? If Gracie isn't yours, we're over. If she is yours, we stay together, but I have to live with the fact that you were so willing to toss us aside."

He kissed my head. "Honey, what I was going to say, before you had to have the last word and run off, was that I'm with you no matter what. You're my wife. I love you and I'm committed."

I turned around and looked up at him. "The other day you said that being around Gracie would hurt too much. You said you couldn't do it."

"That was the day you dropped this bombshell on me and the day I punched a wall. I was not in the best frame of mind. I was wrong to say that. I was reacting without thinking," he said.

"You sure about that?"

He nodded. "I love you and I love Gracie. I could never stop loving either one of you."

Shawn then leaned down and brushed his lips over mine. I closed my eyes. He kissed me a second time, deeper and slower.

I pulled away. "I really need you right now. Gracie won't wake up for a bit. Please?"

He smiled. "I need you, too."

Later we lay in the bed, our bodies pressed together. Gracie's paternity still hung over our heads, but we'd managed to show each other that our love was strong.

"Mal, I'll take the test," Shawn said quietly into my neck.

~~~~~~

We waited until the next day to do the test kits. The test required a cheek swab of both Shawn and Gracie. Each swab was done three times and sealed up in carefully labeled baggies. All this got put in a mailing box to be sent to the lab. I walked it down to the outgoing mailbox in the lobby of our condo. Before dropping it in, I hesitated slightly. A tiny part of me wondered if Shawn was right. We could do nothing and pretend like we never knew there was this possibility. I knew, however, that this was wrong.

Once I got back up to our condo, I felt somewhat relieved. Within a week we'd get the results. No matter what they said, we'd be okay.

Shawn was on the phone with Andrew. His first single was dropping at midnight tonight. He'd been posting on social media three to four times a day to build up the hype. His heart wasn't really in it for several reasons. First of all, the album wasn't what he wanted it to be. He was a very tough self-critic and he was never going to accept that he'd created something below his normal standards. I knew it would have commercial success because he had such a huge fan base. Plus, I'd heard the songs. They were much better than he seemed to think they were. The other thing impacting his enthusiasm was the paternity issue.

"Okay. Yeah. Tell them to send me the graphics and I'll post them," I overheard him say.

I could tell Andrew was talking. A lot.

"Sure. I'll stay up and watch reaction videos. And I know I have radio interviews on Monday. Relax, man."

He was off the phone a few minutes later.