Anna gritted her teeth and stood her ground. She had no idea what triggered this little display, but this was not like him. Kai drank socially or for fun, never drunk alone or at home, and never got this bad anymore. It wasn’t how he faced life’s issues, and it frustrated her more, not knowing what brought this on. What he was doing this for?
Anna continued disposing of the empty cans and started bagging up unopened ones, ignoring his protests because she knew better.
It was Chang, and he swayed on his feet but shook his head to try and sober himself up to answer it.
Anna was busy hiding the remains of his drink stash under the sink while he was not looking and turned to see him on his cell. More than irritated that he had obviously been vetting calls and ignored her all day.
“Tell me.” Kai seemed to stop and become statue-like, the real tension of what this was sobering him up almost instantly, and he held still as he listened to Chang oblige. The tearing of paper, the rustle of documents, and the short silence. It felt like hours he waited, and Anna walked up behind him, honed in on the sudden change in his whole manner. She said nothing but walked around him, sat down, assuming it was a business call, and was ready to take it from him if he made a fool of himself.
“I’m her dad? Yuelin is my kid?” Kai finally let out a whispered repeat, and Anna’s eyes widened in shock at what he said. She hadn’t heard the first part of their conversation, and this floored her. She thought it was business or Tian.
Anna sprang up, her heart pounding through her chest, eyes misting over that she didn’t just hear that right. A state of disbelief enveloped her entire body, so her blood ran cold.
“I’m Yue’s dad?” Kai was trying to let it sink in, and the slight lift in his mood and heart made him realize what had made him so messed up these past few days.
He had been so sure she was Sans.
He had been dreading the moment that Meilei’s denial, her trying to convince him all those years ago that she wasn’t San’s lover, was proven outright untrue. Deep down somewhere, he guessed he had never wanted to accept it. A tiny part of him had held onto the slight possibility she didn’t lie even though all the evidence was stacked against her and confirmed it entirely. A match to San’s DNA would have destroyed the tiny pieces left of him.
She was too innocent and sweet to be the product of what they did. Allowing them to create such a good, pure thing and give it his sister’s name after what they did to her, to him. It was all tied up in a bubble of confusion and conflict for him.
All of it washed over him like a weight of tons had been lifted from his heart, and he sunk down, aware Chang was still connected.
He was a father.
Yuelin was his kid.
He had no idea how to believe it.
“Kai?” Anna was whimpering in disbelief that he was now finding a child after all these years of never seeing him give any woman real space in his life. That was a whole different thing. And who was the mother? How old was the kid?
“I don’t need this right now, Anna.” Kai hung up on Chang and dialed Tian’s automatically. The knee-jerk reaction of a friend needing his friend. Holding it to his ear and was oblivious to the tearful mess on his couch. Anna stared at him in open-mouthed shock.
“I’ll be right there. Are you home?” Tian closed his laptop, knowing his friend sounded shellshocked, and the telltale slur said he had been drinking.
“Yeah.” Kai was not one to ever rely on anyone else unless it was extreme, but in this case, he needed his best friend here.
Kai hung up and stared at his cell long and hard. It lit up with a text from Chang, and he clicked it, seeing a download for an image. On opening, it was a photo of the positive paperwork, and he stared at it before zooming in to read himself, right there in black and white.
The probability of parentage was more than 99%. It was conclusive, with no room for mistakes.
Yuelin Liu and Kai Xuchen right there on the paperwork. Biological match of father and daughter.
She was HIS little girl.