I've been on and off the phone with my lawyer Mark all fucking morning. I'm trying to see what is the best course of action to take with this woman my son apparently impregnated in a god damn one-night stand. She wants to have the baby adopted and Seth being Seth he'd said no. I blow out a long agitated breath feeling like fire ants are crawling under my skin.

I wouldn't be surprised if I had a few kids of my own out there that I didn't know about. The amount of women I'd had one-night stands with before Monica is fucking monumental. How she's the only one who ever got accidentally pregnant by me is a fucking shocker. I always wore a condom though, well, besides when I was with Monica, and luckily none of them broke.

That was my number one rule. Always wear a condom. Double wrap my dick because there is no way I was father material. But here we are twenty plus years later and I'm about to go into this woman's shitty fucking apartment building, in this shitty part of town, so I can help clean up her shitty fucking life and hopefully make sure my grandchild doesn't get adopted away to some random family. If it is indeed my grandchild that is. I, personally, am still on the fence about that one.

The fucking irony of this situation isn't lost on me though. I'd gotten clean so I could give myself a better life and I'd stayed clean so that I could give my family a better life. Now, here I am, stepping inside this, well, what I'm almost positive is, addict infested building.

I'm about to to give this woman Katie a large sum of money for her to live an alternative lifestyle. I'm going to take her out of this hell hole, if she's willing. I hadn't really thought it through yet but maybe I'd get her a nice hotel room for her to stay in until she's due. Then maybe she'd just give Seth custody instead of feeling the need to give the child up for adoption.

I jog my way up the stairs remembering walking up a similar set of stairs when I'd lived in this part of the city. Monica and I had lived not too far from this dilapidated building. They were all similar apartments and that's because they were all shitty.

Once I make it to her door I knock a few times. I run my hand threw my hair and tug at the ends, hating the fact that I'm even here. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing this. I wish my fucking son had enough common fucking sense to realize a girl he'd slept with was fucking pregnant.

The door opens and I feel like all of the air has been stolen from my lungs. I blink a few times and look over the young woman in front of me. I close my eyes and shake my head before opening them to look at her again. She looks just like Monica had when she was her age.

"Can I help you?" Her soft voice asks and fuck me because even her voice is similar. "Is there anything I can help you with?" She asks again because I'm just staring at her painfully.

This poor beautiful woman. I shake my head, trying to gather my thoughts. God is a fucking sadist. Because only a sadist would put me in this situation.

"Hi, I'm looking for Katie." I look down at her very pregnant body with the assumption that this is definitely her.

"Yeah, and who the fuck are you?" She's got a slight Bostonian accent, one Monica never had. "And what the fuck are you doing here?" I can't help but smirk.

She's got a mouth on her.

"I'm Seth's father." Her eyes widen and she begins to back into her apartment, closing the door. I place my hand on it, not letting her close it on me. "Wait, I think we need to have a conversation."

"I told him I'm giving it up. You don't have to worry about anything. You... you..."

"Katie, stop. Just let me inside. Please?" She looks up at me with frightened eyes. "You don't have to be scared. I'm just here to help." Which actually wasn't originally why I was here. I was just going to bribe her to stop sucking off her landlord until the baby was born and then who knows what. But now that I've seen her I can't do that. Monica wouldn't want me to do that.

"Okay." She opens the door and lets me inside her small studio apartment. I look around and it all seems so familiar yet so distant. "What do you want? I hope you're not one of those freaks with a weird pregnancy fetish."

"No." I said, cutting her off. "No. You're not going to be doing that anymore. You're coming with me. I'm taking you out of this fucking shit hole."

"What?" She looks at me incredulously. "I don't even know you. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Yes you are. You're coming with me and you're going to stop sucking off your landlord because you don't have the money for rent."

"I've only done it a few times. I just... I didn't have the money and I didn't know what else to do." She gives me a disappointed look as tears and self-hate fill her eyes. I'm all to familiar with that face. "I- I haven't been doing it my entire pregnancy or anything. I just needed to keep my head above water after getting fired... I just..." She breaks down in tears. "I can't be a mother. I'd make a horrible mother. Just fucking look at me. My life is a fucking mess. I'm a fucking mess."

A fucking beautiful mess.

As much as I want to hate this woman for endangering what is possibly my grandchild I can't. Seth is furious with her. He's irate with her and by all means most people would be. Most people who don't understand coming from nothing and what it's like trying to get ahead with no footing underneath you. But I understand.

"Will you let me help you?" I plead with her, "please, Katie."

She blinks her tears back, getting them under control. "Why do you want to help me? Just because I'm carrying Seth's baby?"

"Isn't that reason enough?" I step toward her and cup her face in my hand. Her face is so familiar it hurts. Knowing she's living this lifestyle because she feels like she has no other option is killing me. "Let me help you."

And I feel like a giant weight on my chest has been lifted when the defiance is snuffed out of her eyes. She nods into my palm and says, "okay."

✩✩✩

"You are fucking kidding me right, dad?" Seth is practically shaking in fury in the doorway. "You let her fucking move in with you? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

I step out into the hallway saying, "keep it down, she's sleeping." His eyes blaze furiously. "Don't look at me like that. The girl needs help. The last thing she needs is to hear you talk about how terrible she is. She feels terrible enough."

"She is terrible. She's sucking some guys fucking dick for rent while she's pregnant. That makes her no better than a whore."

"If I ever hear you talk about the mother of your child that way again I will not hesitate to hit you upside the fucking head." I square up with him because I'd taught him better than that. "You got her pregnant. You. Your cock. That is your child inside of that woman. And from what I hear your psychotic ex-girlfriend is one of the reasons she's in her current predicament."

"Why are you sticking up for her? I don't even know if it's my kid for sure. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Because I have the means to help her. And because that beautiful woman was living in that fucking shit hole apartment climbing a fuckton of stairs every single day while pregnant. She was fucking degrading herself because she thought if she went to you for help your fucking crazy ex-girlfriend would harm her. Maybe even kill her. Even if it isn't my grandchild it is still a child. Get over yourself, Seth."

"You like her." He looks me up and down like he's disgusted with me and his facial expression reminds me so much of his Uncle Samuel. "How can you like her after knowing what she was doing?"

"Because we both come from a similar background. She was just doing what she thought she had to do to survive." I shrug my shoulders. "She wasn't just handed everything in life like you were, Seth."

His jaw ticks and he places his hands on his hips. "So, she's sleeping?"

"Yes. She's not going to be doing anything but resting. Which is all she should be doing. Do you understand?" I give him a hard stare because I know my son and his aggressive attitude. He's not going to be unleashing any of that on her. Not if I can help it. "I asked you if you understand me?"

He nods his head but his jaw ticks angrily. "How long is she staying with you?"

"I don't know." I hadn't really thought that one through yet. "All I know is I'm going to take care of her until that baby is born." Maybe even longer than that. "I went with her to her doctors appointment. She got bloodwork done and she's healthy. The baby is healthy." I give him a small smile. "She's having a baby girl."

Seth looks dazed. Like he's digesting all the information I just gave him. Digesting the fact that he's possibly the father of a healthy baby girl.

He surprises me by saying, "thank you."

"For?"

"For taking care of her." He wraps his arms around me in a big hug. "I'm so fucking scared, dad."

I close my eyes and hug him back. "It's going to be okay, son. It will all be okay."