Status: On-going

Better in Time

Chapter 29: Tell Us the Truth

"Nicolas don’t be hasty. Just listen to what she has to say before you say anything hurtful" Haley continued to instruct as we made our way to the door of Daniel’s house. I rang the doorbell as I waited patiently for him to answer the door.

"Let me do the talking please" I said as I dug my hand into my pocket to make sure that I had the two papers that would change Daniel’s life.

"OK whatever you…" Nicolas began but was interrupted by the opening of the door.

"Mom. Dad. Steven. What are you guys doing here?" he asked as the sounds of a crying child were heard in the background.

"We need to speak son. Is Juelz here as well?" his dad asked as Daniel nodded before moving out of the way and letting us in. After he had closed the door behind us, he asked if anything was wrong. We all just kept quiet as we made our way to the living room. Walking in there we found a disheveled Juelz attempt to hush Junior down.

"Mr. and Mrs. Agger" she greeted happily as she attempted to pass Junior onto Daniel. He reacted by tell her to hold him because he had to get drinks for us in the kitchen. When he walked out Juelz asked what it was that we wanted.

"We’ll explain everything once Daniel comes back" his mother answered as she held onto her husband’s hand. We waited in silence as Daniel got glasses and juice from the kitchen and came back and poured us all a drink. Once every one had a glass, he and Juelz sat down and asked us what our visit was about. The three of us exchanged looks before Nicolas encouraged me to speak up.

"It’s about…" I coughed "Junior. He is not your son" I said as Daniel gave me a blank look.

"That’s stupid Steven. Of course Junior is his son" Juelz spat out angrily.

I merely shook my head at her answer before digging into my pocket and taking out the two envelopes in my pocket. I then placed them on the table.

"Wha…What’s that?" Juelz stammered out as she stood up to put a now calm Junior down in his basinet.

I didn’t look at her when I answered that it was 2 DNA test results that I had the hospital run on Junior after he was born. Daniel gave a look before reaching over and grabbing the two envelopes. He ripped both of them opened as he slowly read over what was written. He must have re-read the papers for 3 minutes straight as we all waited for his reaction. Once he seemed satisfied with what he read, he folded the papers and put them back carefully on the spot he had grabbed them from. And in slow motion he turned to Juelz.

"Is it true?"

"I-I don’t know" she cried as she walked closer to him.

"What does that mean?" he asked calmly.

She took a deep breath before answering.

"I did sleep with someone else while we were together Daniel. But it only happened once and there’s no way he can be the father when me and you have done it plenty of times" she justified as I looked on in disgust.

"Did you use protection?" he continued to question in a calm manner.

"N-no" she cried.

Daniel reacted by standing up from the couch and walking out the room. We debated for a while as to whether we should follow him but none of us stood up as we felt it was better that he be on his own for a while.

"Why are you doing this?" Juelz yelled at me as tears began to fall down on her cheeks.

"Me? You are blaming all of this on me?” I shot back as I stood up.

"Yes I am. I know you hate me Steven but to go and break up a happy family. I can’t believe you did this" she continued to cry as I rolled my eyes.

"Save your crocodile tears Juelz, it’s not gonna help you. All of this…" I said, pointing at the sleeping boy in the room. "Is your fault. Had you been honest from the beginning none of this would be happening. You came into an innocent man’s life and turned it upside down. Causing a poor man to lose everything he loved so you could have what you wanted" I yelled back angrily.

"That’s enough Steven" Daniel snarled as he re-entered the room.

We all turned our attention to him as we waited for what he had to say next.

"I think you and my parents need to leave now. Me and Juelz have a few things to talk about" he said threateningly without taking his eyes off her for a second.

With that instruction both his parents and I collected ourselves and headed towards the door.

"Call us if you need anything" his mother stressed as she gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked out.

"Do you think he’ll be OK?" his father asked once we were in the car.

"He will be" his wife assured him. "He is an Agger after all"

*

Daniel’s POV

I took a deep breath once I closed the front door and turned around in preparation to deal with Juelz.

"Daniel I can explain" she began as I walked in to the room. "I know it looks bad but Steven is lying. Junior is yours, we can take our own DNA to prove that he is lying" she began rambling as I sat down.

"Who was he?" I asked without even looking at her.

"It’s not important" she shrugged but when I turned to look at her she relented. "Juan" she whimpered out.

I just nodded my head as I began processing everything.

"Daniel" she began but I shook my head no.

"Just tell me the truth…please" I begged as looked over at a sleeping Junior.

She shook her head in defiance for a few minutes but when I refused to back down she took a seat opposite the one I was occupying and began explaining everything. This included how her and Juan met, their secret relationship, her plan to get me, what happened the night her and Juan hooked up in the alley of a club and her plan to trap me into believing that the child she was carrying was mine, even though she wasn’t sure who the dad was.

"Why didn’t you get in contact with Juan and tell him that this kid could be his?"

"Because I didn’t want him in my life any more Daniel. I wanted you to be Junior’s father. In my eyes you are his father even if genetics say otherwise" I shook my head no at her explanation as I kept on peppering her with questions that would shed some light onto her twisted way of thinking.

"Why did you choose me? It is because I have money? Is that what you’re after? Do you like the status of dating a professional athlete?" I snapped as her eyes continued to water.

"When you say it like that you make it sound bad. I just want the security of someone who can take care of me. Emotionally and status wise" she justified.

"Wow…" I breathed out as I stood up and tried to understand the real Juelz. "It’s like I didn’t even know you at all. I just saw what I wanted to see and overlooked the rest. I am so stupid. People warned me about you, I gave up everything because of you and for what?! A child who isn’t mine and a relationship built on lies?” I yelled as she listened. “I don’t even know how to deal with this because no matter what happens I still end up looking like a fool”

"That doesn’t have to happen" she said rather quickly as she stood up and walked towards me. Once we stood face to face she took my hand and looked me in the eye. "Daniel if you want to, we can still be together. No one else has to know who Junior’s real father is. You can adopt him and we can raise him as a family. We can still be together. Just forgive me and forget about all of this so we can be together like it was meant to be” she said sweetly while raising her hand to cup my cheek.

I shook her hand off before stepping away from her and checking on Junior, who was sleeping peacefully; unaware of what was happening around him.

"Daniel please” she pleaded but I just turned my back to her as I spoke.

"I need time to think things through. I’ll stay at a hotel for a couple of days. Don’t worry about clothes. I’ll buy everything I need" I announced before kissing Junior goodbye.

I just need time to sort my head and decide what my next step will be. Now that Juelz has been completely honesty with me maybe there is a chance of us starting over. For my so… for Junior’s sake. He’d need a father figure around considering I have robbed him of his biological one.

I attempted to reason as I got out of the house and into my car to drive myself to a hotel.
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To be continued...