"I had to make a life for myself. I missed you, and when I heard about the attack, I wanted to call, but …"

"But what?"

"Ken wasn't comfortable with that."

"Ken?"

"My husband. We were dating then …"

"He told you not to call?"

"He said that we could never work if you were still in my life. By then, I'd missed a period, and it's always been like clockwork. I knew I was pregnant. What could I do?"

"I don't know. Tell me?"

Daphne sighed. "Maybe I should have …"

"Maybe?"

"But that's not what I did. And we need to deal with what's right in front of us."

"Ok. Fine. Let's do that. Does your husband …"

"Ken."

Justin sighed. "Does Ken know he's not Kayla's father?"

"He knows."

"He does?"

"Yes."

"How did he find out?"

Daphne shrugged. "His father was always suspicious about the timing of the wedding. He finally browbeat Ken into running a DNA test. I didn't know about it until after."

"And what? He doesn't want to raise her anymore?"

Daphne lifted her chin and replied stiffly, "No, actually. Just the opposite. He wants to adopt her."

"Wait … after three years of silence, you came here to tell me I had a daughter but only to turn around and ask me to give her up?"

Daphne didn't reply.

Justin threw his hands up in exasperation. "Wow. Just wow."

"Do you really want to be a father? You have a hot boyfriend and a loft … You're only 20."

"What, just because I'm gay, I can't want a family?"

"Are you ready for one? How long have you and Brian been together? And does he want a family? He has a child, but he doesn't live with him …"

Justin froze. "Wait, how do you know about Gus?"

"The same way I knew about Brian and your living here. When Ken found out about you, he hired a private investigator."

"Oh God, Daph."

Daphne smiled a little. Softly, she said, "You haven't called me that in a long time."

"Daphne, how could you? (Daphne flinched at the extra syllable). That's such an invasion of privacy."

"If I hadn't, I would never have found you. You're kind of off the grid."

Justin harrumphed, "Off the grid? More like abandoned by everyone who ever said they loved me."

"In either case … I had to find you. Ken can't adopt Kayla without your consent."

"Do you really think I'm gonna give it?"

"I know you don't make much money, and I know you've been having some problems with an ex-boyfriend. Ethan Gold."

Justin paled and took a step back.

"Sign the form, and all your problems will go away."

"What?"

"Ken and his family are rich. They can root out all the buyers of the sex tapes your ex-boyfriend is selling, pay them handsomely to lose them, and give you a nice nest egg on top of that."

Justin turned bright red. "Wait, what?"

Daphne's eyes widened. "You didn't know?"

"Ummm … no. I mean, I knew Ethan had secretly taped me and us, but I didn't know he'd sold the tapes. That the public had access to them." Justin suddenly felt sick. "You didn't see …" He took two more steps backward.

"No, no. Just the PI."

Justin swallowed hard and shook his head. "Brian tried to get them back, but then with the assault hearing …"

"If it makes you feel any better, Brian did manage to find one of the buyers himself. Paid him a king's ransom to get the tapes he had."

Justin's voice rose to that of a near panic. "How many buyers are there?"

"Ten others, I think. According to the PI, most of the buyers own hardcore porn sites. You need a membership to gain access, and you'd need dumb luck or a serious porn habit to find them."

Justin swallowed hard, ran his fingers through his hair, and looked down. "And if I don't?"

"If you don't what?"

"If I don't sign the papers, what then?"

"Oh." Daphne sighed. "Just sign them, okay? You and Brian can get a surrogate or something and have children of your own later if you want."

Justin slammed his fist against the nearest pillar, still not looking up. Through gritted teeth, he hissed, "If. I. Don't. Sign. What. Then?"

Daphne sighed again, this time more heavily and looked down. In a whisper, she said, "Then we buy the tapes and use them to prove you're unfit."

Justin's head popped back up. He was gaping. "Seriously? You'd do that to me?"

Daphne looked up at Justin helplessly. "Justin, it's not my choice."

"What do you mean?"

"When Ken found out, he gave me an ultimatum: him and our family or you."

"What?"

"He wants you to have no claim to Kayla. He wanted to blackmail you into it. I had to talk him into going another way. You know, giving something you want …"

"Oh my fucking God. You're trying to buy a child. You know that, right?"

In a monotone, she replied, "That's not the way I see it."

"There is no other way to see it."

"Justin, if you sign the papers, everyone is happy. You'd no longer have anything to fear from your ex … and you could finally afford to go to college … buy a house … a car …whatever you want."

"And if I don't … you bash me in court?"

"Ken will. And he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants."

"Like?"

"He'll use the tapes, your medical records …"

"My medical records?"

"You have brain damage from the attack …"

"Oh my God. Who are you? Not the Daphne I used to love, that's for fucking sure."

Softly, Daphne said, "We all do what we have to do to get by."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Daphne laughed. "When did you start swearing so much?"

"Daphne!"

Daphne rubbed her forehead with her right hand and then slid it down her cheek. "I married Ken because he could take care of me and the baby. Because my parents didn't want me to be an unwed mother. They said they couldn't take more shame. They said if I didn't marry him, they wouldn't help us. That I'd be on my own. That still stands if he divorces me. And I'd get nothing from him. I signed a prenup."

"He's threatened to divorce you over this?"

"Yes."

"All because he doesn't want to share custody?"

Again in a monotone, Daphne replied, "Ken doesn't share anything."

"Jesus, Daphne. You're putting me in a seriously fucked up situation."

"I am? You were the one who left me and Kayla."

"I didn't even know you were pregnant. If you'd told me …"

Daphne scoffed, "What? You would have supported us? You can barely support yourself."

"So we would both have had to work, and we wouldn't have lived in the Ritz …"

Daphne blinked a couple of times. In a near whisper, she asked, "You would have stayed with me, with us?"

"Yeah. I mean, not stayed with you stayed with you. That wouldn't have been fair to either of us. But we could have lived together. Raised the baby together. And you would have been free to find someone who doesn't treat you like property."

Daphne shook her head. "Ken's nice to me."

"When he gets what he wants. That's not love, Daph. I should know. And I don't want any child of mine raised in a loveless home. Whatever the consequences, I'm going to keep my parental rights and sue for at least shared custody."

"Justin, you can't even leave the loft."

Justin's breathing suddenly started to grow shallow. "That's not true. I …"

"The PI's seen you leave like twice in the last few months. You clearly have social anxiety disorder or PTSD, maybe both"

Justin shook his head and took yet another step back. He backed into a pillar. Hard. "I-I'm getting better."

"You have brain damage. You're gay. You have circulating sex tapes."

Justin's chest hurt so badly then. Like someone had hit him in the solar plexus. He could barely breathe. He clutched his stomach. "Those were made with … without my consent."

"Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how hard you're working to overcome whatever problems you have from the attack … doesn't matter that the brain damage isn't your fault … that you're privacy was violated with the tapes. All that matters is how that would affect Kayla. You don't have a house … you're not married."

Justin broke into a cold sweat. He leaned over, placing his hands on his knees. "That's not possible for me …"

"Doesn't matter. Your partner has only been your partner for a few months, and he's been arrested for assault."

"The charges were dis-miss..." The room was suddenly spinning. Justin dropped his head and closed his eyes, trying to even out his breathing, tried to push back the nausea. Even with his eyes closed, there were flashes of light at the edge of his vision.

"Justin? Are you okay?" Daphne sounded like she was at the end of a tunnel.

The nausea and the dizziness were suddenly overwhelming. Justin felt a hand on his shoulder. He recoiled. "Oh God. Stop. Make it stop." He tried to move away. To retreat to the bedroom. He didn't make it one step.

"Justin?" That wasn't Daphne's voice. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing, I swear …"

Brian just barely managed to catch Justin before he hit the floor. But Justin didn't feel Brian's arms around him.

TBC…