A Few Days Later
Amari
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Justin asked.
"I'm positive." I nodded zipping up my suitcase. "It's just a quick business trip and I should be back soon. Besides, you have to make sure Julia gets back home."
"You're right, I do." He sighed. "If we leave her here alone, she won't get in the cab. We made her too comfortable."
I laughed at him and he grabbed my bags carrying them downstairs. He packed my car for me before kissing me.
"Be safe and call me when you land." Justin said opening the door for me.
"Yes sir." I pecked his lips and got into the car.
He watched me drive off until I was out of sight.
Hours Later in Pennsylvania
Tyler
"You can't fucking drive!" Amari screamed as I swerved around a car.
"Excuse me. I definitely can drive." I said. "They just drive slow."
"Please don't kill us." She sighed. "The passenger never survives the crashes."
"Only in movie." I said stopping at a red light. "What's the place called again?"
"Uh..." Amari pulled her phone out and went through her messages. "Baker's Dozen."
When Drew called Amari, we learned that she had did her own investigation using the same guy I had used.
Only, she found out way more than I had.
She found out that Janice had been raising Kyler all these years.
Our son, Kyler.
"That's so weird to think about..." I laughed to myself.
"What?" Amari asked opening her chips.
"We have a son who's 5!" I said.
"4." Amari corrected me. "And I guess."
"We would've never come looking for him if it weren't for Danielle." I shook my head.
"And her bad attempt at blackmail." Amari scoffed. "I honestly think I'm gonna get a restraining order against her."
"You and me both." I mumbled. "What do we do once we see her?"
"We talk to her." Amari said. "We try to understand why she secretly went and adopted our son after I told her not to."
"Do you think she'll let us see him?" I cleared my throat. "You know, say hi or something."
"I don't know." Amari looked over at me. "Tyler... You can't ask her to give him back to you. She's all he knows and, to her, that's her child now."
"But biologically..." I trailed off.
"Biologically nothing." Amari shook her head. "You can't do that."
I pulled up in front of the bakery and turned the car off.
"If you can't control yourself, you can sit here." She said unbuckling her seat belt. "And think about how wild you were driving."
"I wasn't driving wild and I can control myself." I mumbled getting out of the car.
We headed towards the bakery and I held the door open for Amari before walking in behind her.
There were people scattered around eating sweets, drinking coffee, and using the free WiFi. Amari and I walked up to the line and waited for our turn.
"Welcome to Baker's Dozen!" A young girl greeted us with a bright smile. "Oh, Janice! Are you back from your lunch?"
"I'm not Janice." Amari shook her head. "Is she here, though?"
"I'm sorry. You just look a lot like her." The girl apologized. "She should be back any minute now. I can call and let her know that you're..."
"No. That won't be necessary." I cut her off. "We'll just wait for her to come back."
"Okay." The girl nodded and we stepped out of line.
We sat at a table with Amari's back facing the window.
If Janice recognized us, she wouldn't come back. We knew that.
After minutes of waited, we finally heard Janice's voice.
"Sorry Cornelia! You can go now." Janice said rushing behind the counter and grabbing an apron.
"You're fine." The girl that had greeted us said taking her apron off. "I'll be back."
Amari and I stood up and walked over to the counter.
"Welcome to Baker's Dozen. How can I..." Janice lost her words as she saw our faces. "Amari?"
"When are you off?" Amari asked.
"Why are you here?" Janice asked disregarding Amari's question.
"Don't worry. We'll wait." Amari shrugged walking away.
Janice watched her leave before looking at me. I faked a smile for her before following Amari.
A While Later
"She's leaving." Amari slapped my arm pointing into the bakery at Janice who was clocking out.
I sat my seat up and started the engine.
Janice looked at us and sighed before walking out of the bakery and coming over to us.
I rolled the window down.
"I have an hour before he gets out of school." Janice said.
"We'll follow you to your house." I said.
"Okay." She sighed and went to her car.
When we got to Janice's house, she let us in before excusing herself to change clothes.
"Where do you think his room is?" I asked looking around the living room.
"I don't know." Amari shrugged. "Probably down the hall like hers."
"Do you think she'd show us?" I looked at her.
"If you asked. Probably." Amari laughed with a nod.
"I'm going to." I said.
"Sorry about that." Janice said coming back into the living room. "Now, why are you two here exactly?"
"To figure some stuff out." Amari said standing up. "Like, why did you adopt him?"
"I didn't adopt him." Janice rolled her eyes. "I just went and got him. It is my name that's on the birth certificate, anyway."
"I only used your name because you weren't supposed to come looking for him. You promised you wouldn't!" Amari yelled at her.
"Why not?" Janice scoffed. "Do you know how terrible the system is? I think it was for the best that he ended up with me rather than some stranger or no one at all!"
"She has a point..." I pointed over my shoulder at Janice.
Amari glared at me and I shut up.
"I definitely get that and I'm not mad at you for looking out for him, Janice." Amari said. "I'm mad that you agreed not to go after him then turned around and disappeared for years without saying anything about it or writing a damn letter! You could've kept in touch and went under a different alias or something. I told you that I didn't want anyone to find out about what happened."
"So? You didn't want him, Amari!" Janice said. "Neither of you did. I wanted him and I came and got him. I respected your wishes up until that point. And now, no one close to you two know about him besides us three. What's the problem?"
"That's not true!" Amari argued. "I wanted him, I just couldn't keep him! I was in school, Tyler had just gotten married and trying to focus on his grandpa's company. I didn't want to neglect him or put him off on other people! I also didn't want everyone looking down on us because of the decision we made. That was our business that we trusted you with! If you didn't approve of it, you shouldn't have helped!"
"There are lots of women that have children while still being in school." Janice scoffed. "And I only helped because it was you that asked."
"And there are lots of women who make sacrifices like the one I made to benefit the child." Amari shook her head. "Shouldn't you know about that or did you forget?"
"Trust me, I didn't forget." Janice laughed a bitter laugh. "But I never had the chance to make that decision, Amari."
"You made the decision, Janice. You just weren't able to put that plan into action. Don't criticize me and you were in the same situation 3 years before I was."
"I was 16!"
"And I was 19!"
"You both just need to calm down." I said stepping between them. "Take deep breaths."
They were shooting daggers with their eyes thinking of all the different ways to get away with murder.
And with Amari's hormones, she probably would actually kill Janice.
"I don't know about you two, but I would actually like to see him before making any decisions." I said.
"You're right." Janice took a deep breath. "Tyler, would you still like to see his bedroom?"
"Yes please." I smiled at Janice before turning to smile at Amari who was still upset.
We walked down the hall to Kyler's bedroom and pushed the door open.
"He loves baseball." Janice said looking around the room.
"Wow..." I mumbled looking around. "He gets his athleticism from me. Amari can't even run in a straight line."
"Haha." Amari mumbled her fake laugh. "Very funny."
"If you're going to be rude, you don't have to be here." Janice said.
"I really do, though." Amari said. "Because your dumb decision is coming back to bite us in the ass."
"Why are you here? I'm not giving him up." Janice shook her head. "And according to his birth certificate with my name on it, you really can't make me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Amari asked crossing her arms.
"Just that legally, I am his mother." Janice said.
"Legally, you aren't." Amari said. "Your name may be on the birth certificate, but you didn't properly adopt him, considering you aren't biologically his mother, and you didn't sign any adoption papers."
Janice opened her mouth to say something, but Amari held her hand up and continued to speak.
"You know what? You've obviously seen the birth certificate." Amari laughed. "You know that if you want to go there, I'll go there. Tyler's name is on that paper. Tyler shares DNA with him. If Tyler wants Kyler, he can very well take him."
"But I won't let that happen." Janice scoffed nervously.
I wanted to blame Amari's attitude on the pregnancy, but even I knew that Janice had taken it too far mentioning the birth certificate.
Kyler wasn't her kid and if Amari felt that we had to take precautions to make sure Kyler stayed off of Danielle's radar, Janice would just have to respect that.
"You don't really have a choice, though. Do you?" Amari raised an eyebrow at her. "You taking him to court is a waste of your own time and money because we have great lawyers, he has a higher income than you, and why wouldn't they put Kyler with him? Tyler could give him the childhood any kid wants."
"But he doesn't have anything to show for it." Janice said. "Tyler has never seen Kyler in person besides that one time at the hospital. They don't have a relationship."
"Will that even matter in court?" Amari squinted at her. "You're not his mother and this could very well be seen as kidnapping."
"But he wouldn't do that." Janice shook her head. "Right, Tyler?"
They both looked over at me.
"Tyler?" Amari asked.
Kyler was all she had.
But he was all I wanted.
He was my only kid and Amari being his mother was just a big plus for me.
He was already perfect and I hadn't even met him yet.
"What do you want me to say?" I looked at Janice. "He's our son. We get the final word."
"Biologically!" Janice screamed. "I raised him! To him, I'm his only mother! His only family!"
"Because you took him!" Amari yelled back.
"Why do you have to come and take him from me?" Janice asked letting a tear slip from her eyes as she sat on Kyler's bed. "You already have a perfect life! You're about to have another kid, now! He's all I have. He's my baby."
We watched her cry for a second before I heard Amari scoff.
"I need air." Amari rolled her eyes leaving.
I just wanted to meet him.
"So... Who's going to get him from school?" I asked quietly and Janice glared at me.
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Hey guys!
I hope this chapter wasn't too dramatic for y'all. Lmao.
Anyway, I realize the story has become increasingly difficult to follow recently, so I'm gonna just give you guys some notes to clear things up.
1. Amari and Tyler do have a kid together. It's Kyler and he is 4 almost 5 years old.
2. Kyler's conception date does not overlap with Amari and Justin's relationship, but it does overlap a bit with Tyler and Danielle's. (Remember that Amari and Tyler had a rekindled fling before she went off to college. And remember how when Danielle was trying to blackmail Amari she asked if Amari had been honest with Justin about the last time she 'saw' Tyler? And Amari thought to herself that she hadn't, because this one in particular was none of his business...)
3. Amari found out she was pregnant when she was 19 (During her first, almost second, year of college). She didn't start dating Justin until the end of her 2nd year of college, in fact, she didn't know until her 2nd year!
4. Janice Rose is Amari's 1st cousin. They look identical. Janice was pregnant when she was 16 (which is the flashback at the beginning of Chapter 34.) I don't know if I made this clear when she said, "Everything reminds me of him," but she was expecting a boy before she lost the baby.
5. Janice was supposed to pretend to be Amari while Amari went off and had the baby without anyone knowing. Amari lived under Janice's name while pregnant which is why Janice's name is on the Birth Certificate. However, before Amari came back to Arizona after giving birth, Janice left and went to Pennsylvania to get the baby without Amari and Tyler knowing. That's why she cut all ties.
6. Amari and Tyler went to Pennsylvania to find Janice and Kyler because of Danielle's attempt at blackmail. They don't want her to find out about Kyler because they don't know what she'll do if she did. (Also, they did a lot of illegal stuff for those of you at home who are following the story and relating it back to real life laws. I.E. Stealing identities, stealing a baby, the secretary helping Janice find the baby, the church just handing the baby over to Janice...)
7. Tyler might actually want Kyler and because he is the only one who won't get into any serious LEGAL troubles when it comes to wanting full custody, he could probably do that.
8. No one in their families know about Kyler except Janice. Tyler COULD ask Grandpa for help, but I haven't decided if he will or what will be the repercussions if he does. Remember from the last book, Grandpa is a low key racist who doesn't really like Amari...
That is all!