My curled fists tightened. The tight rein I had on my anger slipped, just a fraction. “How could he do that?”
It wasn’t even a question. I just couldn’t fathom a father rejecting that kid.
That amazing kid.
An old kind of sorrow shook her head. “At first, I thought he was in shock. Processing it in his own way. But time wore on, and it only got worse and worse. The only thing he cared about was inheriting his grandfather’s company, working day and night, his life consumed with earning that spot. Wanting the money. That became the only thing his life was about. I tried to hold out faith until there wasn’t any faith left to hold on to.”
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and she pressed the stick into the last lollipop, sinking into a chair from where she was standing.
Like she couldn’t remain on her feet anymore.
“He—” She slammed her lips together and harshly shook her head, like she was about to admit something and then stopped herself. She hesitated for a couple seconds before she tentatively cut her gaze my direction, admitting what she thought she could, “It all finally came to a head a year ago, and I knew I couldn’t keep my son in that house for a second longer.”
Without a doubt, she was keeping the details veiled. Hidden. But I wanted to know it all. Every element. Fuel for the hatred that coursed and raced.
She cleared the thickness from her throat. “I packed our things and left. We were hiding out at Jenna’s house, and of course, he showed up there demanding for us to come home. She threatened to call the police if he tried to get through her door. I petitioned for divorce. I asked for full custody and nothing more. I’d saved enough that I could put a down payment on this little house. I didn’t want his support or his time or anything because he has never wanted anything from Evan. All I wanted was a quiet separation and our freedom.”
Lines of pain tweaked all over her face, her voice rough. “I did what I thought I had to do, Kale.”
There was so much in that statement. Something she wanted me to know and couldn’t bring herself to say.
Anger swelled in the room. A swilling wave threatening to take me under.
Because this? I didn’t know if I could handle it. Hearing about someone doing either her or Evan wrong.
Her inhale was sharp. Cutting. “He fought me from the beginning . . . saying I would regret it if I left him. I told him the only thing I wanted was my son free of his influence, so he did the one thing he knew would hurt me most . . .”
Head dropping, she choked as tears streaked down her face. When she finally looked up at me, her eyes were nothing but devastation. “This last week, I received a counter to my divorce claim. He’s asking for full custody. The whole point of my leaving was to remove Evan completely from his life, protect him, and now he’s trying to take him away from me.”
My teeth ground as that rage clattered around my ribcage, and I couldn’t remain sitting any longer. I was moving around the table. My discarded gloves hit the floor a split second before my knees did, and then I was cupping her face, urging her to look at me. “There is no chance on this earth that any court would declare you an unfit mother, Hope. None. I don’t want you to worry about that.”
Sniffling, she gave me one of those believing smiles, the kind that made her glow.
Sunshine.
Could feel it heating those vacant, dead places inside me. That place riddled with fear when all I’d ever wanted to be was the one who was brave.
The goddamned hero.
Or maybe it was the hatred that flamed. Hate for a man I hadn’t even met. A man who was the one who was going to be feeling all the regret if we ever crossed paths.
“That’s what Jenna keeps saying, and I’m trying to cling to that belief.”
I ran my thumb under the hollow of her eye and then dropped my hands. “Good. Believe it. Hold on to it. Don’t ever, ever give up on hope.”
She smiled this wistful smile. “My heart has always been hung on hope.”
My chest squeezed. Because I got it. She was an incredible woman who carried her entire world on her shoulders. And, fuck, I wanted to bear some of that weight.
I knew I didn’t deserve the jealousy that raved through my insides. But it was there. Alive and thriving. “So, if he rejected Evan, why the hell would he want custody?”
A shrug of her dainty shoulders and a tug of her bottom lip between her teeth. “Part of it is because I left him. Because of his pride. But I can’t help but feel it’s more than that. He says he still loves me, but then he always blamed me.”