"What?!" exclaimed Myles, looking at his sister in disbelief.
"That's at least what she claimed… That the baby was yours…"
Anne watched him carefully and she could feel her nervousness rise as she could see his rage increase. It wasn't very surprising to see this emotion in him; any respectable man would probably feel the same way if he heard that he had a child, who he didn't even know about. A practically grown-up child in this matter, which he found out about almost twenty years later than he should have.
He could barely control himself. He felt like running around screaming and tearing everything apart. He wasn't sure if he has ever felt as furious as in this moment and the more his mind processed the information, the worse it was becoming. Was it true? Did Toni leave knowing that she was going to have a baby with him and didn't try to tell him? Despite Anne's words, he didn't doubt that the baby was his, it had to be. She wasn't with anyone before him and she was way too honest to cheat on him while they were still in relationship. Even when he left for college, they didn't break up and he trusted her enough to know, that the fact that he was away wouldn't change it. The truth was that if she was pregnant indeed, then he could even guess when it actually happened; there was just one time when they it could have happened - their last time together.
He remembered perfectly how surprised he left, when he was completely alone at home and opened the door to find her, standing there and hoping to spend some time with him alone before he would leave. It quickly became obvious that she had a plan, and one point of it was to seduce him. She might have not been the best of seductresses or had a huge amount of experience, but didn't really need to try hard. Toni always had a huge effect on him, much stronger than any woman, who got a place in his life after her, and it wasn't like he would say no to her. He should have, when he realised that they had nothing to protect themselves; he should have been more insistent, that it could turn out to be a bad idea even if she claimed it should have been safe, as it obviously turned out not to have been. But she made him want her so much, that it was very difficult to resist it, especially that she so obviously wanted him, too and they could not have another opportunity to be together for quite a while.
He really couldn't believe, that she didn't want him to know. Perhaps she did try to tell him, considering that Anne was aware of the fact, but how come that the information never reached him? And why didn't she say anything to him now? The answer to the last question seemed fairly obvious. If she did try to contact him and never heard back from him, she must have assumed that he didn't want to have anything to do with her and the child, but did she really think about him as about such a person? Yes, he wasn't perfect and he never really tried to hide that he didn't feel comfortable around children, but even at eighteen, he would have never backed out of relationship in order to avoid responsibility, because his girlfriend had gotten pregnant. He loved her, he hoped they would get to have a serious, maybe even lifetime-long relationship without the need to sneak around and hide, maybe a family one day. He would have taken care of her, of them, somehow and she must have known that so how could she do this to him?
It was also clear that Anne not only knew about it all, but also that he had absolutely no idea about anything. Why didn't she tell him then? She had a lot of opportunities, even all those years ago. Their relationship then couldn't be called great, but wasn't it important enough to get over it and just talk to him? And, if she didn't want him to know as it would suggest, then why was she suddenly insistent that Toni should talk to him, that he deserved to know. He really couldn't understand it, and by getting one little information about the circumstances of Toni's moving, he now had even more questions than before.
"Let's go to the living room and talk." he said, his voice not leaving doubts that it was better not to object. "I want to know everything."
"Myles, look, I really don't know much." she sighed, when she noticed his furious glare; there was no way she was going to avoid giving him an explanation. "Mom and Dad made sure, that I don't know any details. If it all went how they wanted it to, I would never even know about this fact, but I accidentally overheard them talking about it. From what I could understand, she must have come to them and informed them that she was pregnant with you, and you can imagine that they weren't pleased. I couldn't really hear anymore, because when Mom brought this topic up, Dad wanted to make sure that nobody heard them. I almost got caught and went to my room. I never heard them talking about it, again."
"And why didn't you tell me anything?"
"I wanted to, believe me. It's just there never seemed to be a good time for this sort of conversation… Whenever I tried to talk to you, we fought before I had the chance to bring it up and when we didn't, I kept bumping onto Mom or Dad. A couple of months passed and I didn't know how to bring up something, what I overheard so much time earlier and then I moved to college…"
Myles nodded his head, knowing what she wanted to say by that. When they were still living at home, they were talking every now and then, even though they were quite hostile towards each other and fought a lot. However, when they both started college, their paths divided completely and they didn't really talk to each other until the memorable investigation, when they decided to reconcile and give their relationship a chance.
"And now… Now I didn't say anything, because I completely didn't know how! What was I supposed to say? 'Myles, you remember Toni, your first girlfriend? Because I think you should know that she got pregnant and there is your almost grown-up child somewhere in the world.'? I don't know if I would ever bring it up… But she's here, in DC, so unless she had an abortion or gave the baby up for adoption, it is here, too!"
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands. He would have never guessed that it could be such a mess. But, the truth was, that this all seemed to get a little clearer. He felt quite certain that the reason for her sudden disappearance from Boston must have been the pregnancy. If his parents found out, there could be no doubt that they tried to do everything to make her get rid of the baby or make her life so difficult, that her family would have no other choice but to leave. He knew Toni well enough to know, that she would never have an abortion, so it must have been the latter.
Toni's reaction made it rather clear, that she didn't want him to know. So, it also meant that she wasn't happy about the idea of him, appearing in their child's life but even if he managed to convince her to give him a chance, how would he do that? How was he supposed to even address the child, an ADULT child and what was he supposed to say after all those years of not being present in their life?
First of all, however, he needed to talk to Toni. He might have avoided talking about the past, but he wasn't going to do that anymore. He was grateful for this coincidence, that the two women met; if it wasn't for Anne, he might have never found out about it. Now, he had to know everything and he wasn't going to waste anymore time.