"Just because this guy wrote to Tiffany doesn't mean he's going to try and take over as her father," Veronica said to Tom. "I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."
Tom stared at her blankly. "I don't mean to be rude, Veronica, but you're hardly the person to be handing out advice on paternal rights. Aren't you the one who took off before your son's father ever had a chance to be a father?"
"It wasn't like that at all! Ron was married and he made it quite clear to me that I was nothing more to him than a casual fling. How could I stay here and let my son be humilated by a bad choice that I had made?"
"You should have talked to Ron first," Tom said stubbornly. "It wasn't fair of you not to. It wasn't fair to Ron and it wasn't fair to your son."
Veronica could hardly believe what she was hearing. Tom sounded so self-righteous, so holier than thou, so completely unlike the boyfriend that she'd been slowly falling in love with over the past few months. He's upset because someone else might be Tiffany's dad. Try to be sympathetic.
But it wasn't easy. The whole topic of paternal rights was a touchy one for Veronica. Tom had to realize that she would have been more than happy to let Ron be Kirk's father if she'd thought for one moment that the man wanted the job. "So what did this Vlad guy say?"
"He said that he's coming back to Schuyler Square. He has a job at the college. He wants to meet Tiffany."
That didn't sound good but Tom didn't need to hear that. "When is he getting here?"
"For all I know he's already here." Tom's expression grew dark. "How is Tiffany supposed to handle this? She just found out that I'm her dad and now there's another guy who says he might be her father. She's going to have a nervous breakdown!"
"No, she won't. She's a strong girl."
"She's not that strong. I agree that things have been getting better for her up until this point but it looks like that's over now that Vlad is back."
Veronica put her hand over Tom's."It will be all right," she said softly.
Tom looked totally unconvinced. "I don't think so. Not this time."
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