“That’s not—”
“It is,” Cade snapped.
“She literally tried to bribe you to be a father.”
His father rubbed his face with both hands.
“I tried to do better, Cade. It just took me longer than it should have.”
“Eleven years?” Cade said.
“What made you come back now?”
His father gestured toward the envelope.
“The trust.”
“I wanted to make sure you knew about it.”
Cade stared at him.
“What do you really want?”
There it was.
That familiar look Cade remembered from childhood.
Calculation.
“I’m not asking for all of it,” the man said quietly.
“Just some. I’m sick, Cade. Really sick. Medical bills… I just thought maybe—”
Cade almost laughed.
“Even if I wanted to, I can’t give you a cent.”
His father blinked.
“But you’re their guardian.”
“The trust can only be used for them,” Cade replied.
“And I’m not giving their future to a man who abandoned them in diapers.”
The man took a step closer.
“Wouldn’t it actually be better for them if I was… handled?”
Cade felt something cold settle inside him.
“You’re asking me to pay you to stay away,” he said slowly.
His father nodded.
“When you put it like that… yes.”
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