"Val?"

She stared back at him guiltily, like she'd known all along that she was the real reason he was stuck in this mess.
"Hey Zacky. I'm...um, the birth Mom?" she said, almost like she was asking him a question- like she didn't even know if she'd had a baby or not. Zacky stared at her like she was crazy and she was about to say something else, but shut her mouth when she heard Linzee's laughter from the living room. Without saying anything, she pushed her way into the house and the living room, where Zacky had left the little baby.

Val was going to change everything- this crazy little world he'd built around Linzee was come to crashing down like a house of cards in the wind.
"She's so beautiful, Zee. She looks just like him..." Val whispered as Zacky entered the room to find her crouched over his daughters. His, not anyone elses. She was grinning and cooing at it like all women did around babies.

"Him? You mean Matt?" Zacky asked, falling down onto the couch. Val took a deep breath, and suddenly, shook her head. So the baby wasn't Matt's- then who's was it.
"His name is Jacob and it was a one night thing. I didn't realise I was pregnant until you guys had left for tour, and I didn't know what to do"
"So Matt doesn't know you had a kid? You were pregnant for nine months, how could he not have noticed!?" Zacky exclaimed, a sudden pent up frustration launching itself at his old friend. He'd known her all the way through High school, and she and Matt had been together forever- how come she chose now to have an affair.

"You guys were gone for six months, and three months in you don't even see a bump. I hid it pretty well from Matt, and when the baby was born, I gave her to a friend. You were always saying how much you loved children, and I wanted the baby to go to someone I knew and trusted- so I left her on your doorstep" Val said, leaving Linzee gurgling on the ground and sitting next to Zacky on the couch.

She seemed like a stranger now, like someone had taken the old Val and replaced her with this new stranger, the one that cheated on her husband and hid the fact that she was pregnant for six months.
"Why didn't you just tell him you were pregnant? He would've thought it was his" Zacky asked again.
"I was going to, but we ended up having this conversation about how he didn't want kids for another five years, and how he just wanted to keep things between me and him. I didn't want to kill his dream world by announcing I had a bun in the oven"

Zacky rubbed a hand over his face, wishing that he was stuck in a bad dream, and that he'd wake up any second now and his friend would not be the mother of his child. His best friends wife- how much like a soap opera was his life threatening to become now?

"You cannot tell Matt about this, you have to swear to me. I won't ever come and visit Linzee again, I won't even talk about it, but you have to promise me, Zacky, that you won't say a word" Val pleaded suddenly, grabbing Zacky's hands and staring up at him desperately. She didn't want to know this kid, she didn't want to destroy her marriage by admitting she'd had a baby with another man.
All she needed was the anonymous new father, AKA Zacky, to take the child and raise it.
And that's exactly what he could do.

"OK, I won't saying anything"

***

Just three hours later, Zacky broke his promise. Only a little, but he needed to talk to someone about what Val had told him, and his only option was to call his right hand man, and super Uncle himself, Brian.
"Hey, Zee, what's up?"
"Are you on your own?"
"Yeah, but if you ask me what colour underwear I'm wearing today I swear I'm hanging up on your ass" he joked, though Zacky didn't really feel like laughing.

Usually Brian was the only person who could make him laugh when the world was against him, but today, he was losing his mind. How could he just admit to Brian that Val was the real birth mom? It wasn't like he could just say, 'I had a good day, oh by the way Linzee's real mom is Val, she had an affair and didn't tell anyone she was pregnant until she had the baby'. What a great conversation starter that would be.

"How did the meeting with the birth Mom go? She doesn't want Linz back does she, because I was just starting to get that kid corrupted"
Zacky sighed, managing a small grin at the thought of Brian trying to corrupt his little girl. It was either now or never he supposed.
"The birth mom is Val. She turned up on my doorstep this morning and told me she had an affair and got pregnant. Linzee is the...result of that affair"

Brian didn't say anything, but instead made a noise that sounded slightly like a dying whale being hit by an anchor. Zacky could've sworn he'd almost dropped the phone, and it was a few moments before the two of them had something logical to say to each other.
"That's crazy- why would she keep something like that from Matt? They're married!" Brian cried, and Zacky sshed him, just in case someone was around who could spread that information around like wildfire.

"I know, I know. But as long as we keep our mouths shut, I get to keep Linzee"
"I don't care if she pays you to keep the kid, we have to do something. Listen, I'm coming over- don't go anywhere!" Brian announced and before Zacky could even begin to protest, Brian had hung up. Whenever his friend put his mind to something- it was usually only his father who could talk him out of it.

Slipping his cellphone back into his pocket, Zacky wandered over to where Linzee was peacefully sleeping, her fists curled up slightly and her legs spread out across the cot. Life was so simple when you were little- life's responsibilities hadn't quite caught up with you yet.

You were innocent.

"Little Linzee" Zacky whispered, brushing his hand over the top of her head.

"Who knew you'd be the one to tear Matt and Val apart?"