"How?" I leap from the couch to kneel before him. "Hunter, please. Tell me what's going on."
He leans forward, his hand cupping my jaw. "I've only ever tried to protect you and Cory."
I nod. I reach to cradle my hand over his. I've been so desperate for his touch. I've missed feeling his hands on me. "I need to know."
"I'll never let anything happen to you." He closes his eyes briefly as if he's chasing away an image of something dark and sinister.
"I know." I do know that he's always tried to protect me. I also know that by keeping this from me, it's created a wedge between us that is slowly destroying both him and me.
He pulls his hand from my face and balls it into a fist in his lap. "Once he realized that he had a son, he started demanding things from me."
"Things?" I correct myself immediately. "You mean money?"
"He's a greedy bastard, sunshine." He pushes my hair from my forehead. "He's so much like Christina."
"You gave him money to stay away from Cory?" I don't want the question to sound as judgemental as it does. I don't want him to think that I'm assuming anything. I can't really understand the position he's in. All I can understand is the depth of his love for Cory.
He caresses my cheek again. "I just want him to go away and leave me alone."
"You said he was in prison?" I shudder at the thought of Hunter dealing with anyone in prison. "Why? What did he do?"
"Armed robbery, assault, there's a lot." His jaw tightens. "The guy was a fucked up mess from the start. He thinks he's hit the lottery now that I'm Cory's dad."
I feel a rush of anger course through me. I know that he had to pay Christina a lot to get her to agree to let him adopt Cory. I can't imagine what this other man was asking of him.
"What about the adoption?" He hasn't spoken of it since he first mentioned it months ago when he came back to Boston.
"He was going to petition the court to get his name on Cory's birth certificate." He bows his head down. "We're still negotiating that."
Negotiating that. They're negotiating Cory. The thought makes my stomach turn.
"He belongs with you." I rest my head in his lap. "He's your boy." I just want the world to disappear. I don't want to think about how these people are trying to manipulate Hunter by using the love he has for Cory.
He strokes my hair. "No, he belongs with us, sunshine."
I feel a rush of emotions as the gravity of the situation hits me. "That's why you took him to California? It was because of all of this?"
"Christina demanded I bring him." I feel the tension in his thighs as he says her name. "She told me if I didn't, she'd give Peter my address here."
"Peter?" I repeat the name back. "That's his name. The name of the man..." I can't call him Cory's father anymore. I can't. A real father wouldn't use his son as a bargaining chip.
"He's out now." Hunter reaches down to pull me up so I'm resting in his lap. "I don't want him to find us."
Suddenly all the pieces are falling into place. "That's why you want us to move?"
"We're going to move." He runs his hand over my shoulder. "I want us in a place that Christina doesn't know."
We're running. We're hiding. He must feel real fear. "We can stay at my apartment." It's a weak offer but it's something.
"Your apartment?" He shifts his body so he can see my face. "Your brother lives there, doesn't he?"
"No. He moved out," I whisper. I don't want to do this. I don't want to talk about Dylan when we're focused on what's going on with Cory's parents.
"You were leaving me, weren't you?"
"What?" I pull my gaze up to his.
I feel his hands tighten around my waist. "Just now. You weren't getting things together to study. You were going to go back there, weren't you?"