My throat was nothing but sheers of broken glass when I accepted the pad. My eyes moved across the messy marks scored deep on the page.
I helped my mom make those. She said a nice man came in and bought them all so we need to make more. We gave all the money to the babies with bad hearts like mine. Was it you who bought them all?
My nod felt like a confession of a crime.
He grabbed it back and scribbled some more.
You are nice. I’m glad you’re my new doctor. If you think I’m going to die, don’t tell my mom. I don’t want her to be sad.
Emotion screamed through my throat. Racing the length. Winding down to fist my heart and crush my ribs. With a shaky hand, I took the pen from him and wrote my own message below his.
I’m glad I am, too. Really glad. And you aren’t dying, Evan. Not even close. I promise I won’t let that happen.
I thought he might be more alive than anyone I’d ever met.
His grin lit up the room when he read my answer. He gave me a thumbs-up. Apparently, he thought that was simple enough for me.
When I’d never felt so complicated in all my life.
Hope gathered him by the hand. She cast me a remorseful glance, those green eyes telling a million secrets that I knew she wouldn’t allow her tongue to speak. The two of them started out the door. Evan dashed out ahead of her.
Before she could make it all the way out, I snatched her by the wrist, unable to keep it back.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” It came out harder than I intended.
An accusation. A demand.
I didn’t know.
She spun around, all that red hair swishing around her like a red, violent wave. It was almost terror that rippled across her gorgeous face.
It wrenched through me.
Tripping me up.
Bringing me to my knees.
“What was I supposed to tell you? I told you what you needed to know. I told you my life was complicated, and I didn’t have room for anything else.”
“You could have at least told me you had a kid.”
Disbelief pinched her eyes together. “And what then? What difference would it have made? He’s my priority. My only priority.”
Her tone swung into desperation. “And right now, I’m fighting for him. I’ve been fighting for him since the second he was born, Kale. But this fight I’m in the middle of right now? It’s one I didn’t see coming. One that’s going to take all of me to win. Sacrifice.”
Instead of releasing her, anger tightened my hold, none of it directed at her.
“What does that mean?” The question hissed between my teeth as all those threads had suddenly laced together became clear.
Venom seeped into my veins.
The implications of her confessions.
“He wants to take everything from me.”
I suddenly understood what kind of fight she was talking about.
Motherfucker.
I could feel the emphasis of it twist across my brow. “He’s trying to get custody?”
Fuck. I didn’t even know who he was. But I hated him. Hated him more than I thought I’d ever hated anyone in my life.
And that shouldn’t be possible.
Her entire being winced, her chin trembling before she gave me a small nod. “The suit is asking for joint.”
She pressed her hands to her chest. “Which I know sounds fair to most people, but if you knew . . .” She inhaled a sharp breath. “If you knew how unfair that is to my son . . .”
I gritted my teeth, fighting the rage that bloomed in my blood.
She swallowed hard. “Do you get it now? Why I can’t do this? Why I can’t risk it?” Those green eyes moved across my face, searching for understanding.
And I got it.
I got it on every level.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t seething inside. Wanting to hunt the piece of shit down.
She blinked, like she was trying to break the connection, the band of understanding that stretched and pulled between us.
“We never should have done what we did, Kale. I shouldn’t have. That’s on me. It was selfish, but I wanted to experience it for a little while. Being with a man like you. But it was a mistake.”
It was.
I knew it was.
But I wanted to counter her claim.
Refute it.
Tell her I’d just been getting started.
But Evan was my patient.
My fucking heart-transplant patient.
“Shit.” Dropping my hold and the power of her gaze, I ran a frustrated hand through my hair.
“Shit,” I mumbled again.
What had I done? How could I have let myself get into this position again? But that was the way it happened. Without your knowledge. Without your permission. You got caught up, and before you even knew it, you were in deep.
Swept away.
Hope reached out to caress my jaw with her fingertips.
Sweet.
Soft.
Heat.
Her lip trembled as she traced across my chin before she tilted her head and looked up at me with the warmth of those green, earthy eyes.