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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

GIA

FIVE WEEKS LATER…

We’ve been home for a week now, and it’s official. I want to move to a new house.

This little home was ideal for me. It was mine and Jaxon’s dream, but it’s no longer a fit for us.

It’s a dream that never fully transpired, and it’s also too far from the city center; Reed has had to spend the occasional night away from us and at his apartment because of late meetings and early morning starts, and to say he was beside himself was an understatement.

He hates being away from us, and as much as I try to remain strong, I can admit I want him here. I miss his heavy arms wrapped around me, the way he looks longingly at me when he places Jax on his chest and gently strokes over his dark head of hair. The way he insists on waking Bryce up for breakfast and feeding him a concoction of the organic shit he keeps attempting to persuade him with, only to then give in and offer him the Chunky Chips Cookie cereal my son is obsessed with, and the way he calls Bubbles every swear name possible but then smiles affectionately at the connection Bryce has with her.

The birth of Jax has been difficult, due to me also recovering from a C-section, and throw in my emotions being all over the place, I miss Reed terribly while he’s at work.

I swear I have some sort of dependency on him, something I swore to myself after losing Jaxon I would never let happen again, yet here I am, counting down the minutes to his return.

The girls have become an extension of my own little family. Their support has been incredible, and again, another reason I want to move closer to the city, somewhere halfway, maybe. That way, Bryce can remain in his current school, and give us the security of our found family. I can also commute to the community center and continue to fulfill my ambition of helping those within the community I so desperately want to support. My little way of giving back something from the way they welcomed me.

My mind floods with ideas about towns within close proximity to the city while I stir the pasta sauce, and I smile at how excited Reed will be at the prospect of us having a house together, one we choose and build our future in.

He’s not mentioned another word about moving since the day we had an argument, but something tells me he’s itching to make his original plans a reality.

The doorbell rings, snapping me from my thoughts, and I move the sauce off the heat, glance at Jax asleep in his travel crib, then head toward the door.

I make a male silhouette out from behind the glass, and when I open the door, anger flashes through me at the sight of Kevan staring back at me, shifting from side to side.

Great. Now is not the time to be dealing with this shit, especially with my emotions all over the place. I grit my teeth. “You can’t be serious!” I snap and step back to close the door in his face.

“Gia. Please wait. It’s important.” He wedges his foot in the door, and I still, but when I glance up, looking for a sign of a threat, I find none. Instead, all I find is remorse. “Please, just a few minutes of your time.” His eyes implore mine. I’m not sure what it is in his tone that has my body on high alert, but something about the way he speaks, almost a plea, has my body stilling and my mind complying. I take a deep breath and hope I’m not about to regret my decision. “Okay,” I whisper, and open the door farther to let him inside.

He stops in the hallway, and I motion toward the living room. When we walk inside, I wince when I consider him witnessing the mess of a newborn and young boy in such a small space.

“How are you feeling?” he asks pensively.

I clear my throat. “I’m getting there.” Casting my eyes over him again, I take in the envelope in his hand, but he’s unable to meet my eyes. Something he’s never struggled with before. I swallow back the nervousness in my throat. “What are you doing here, Kevan?” I gesture toward the cryptic envelope.

He takes a deep breath, and I know whatever he’s about to say I’m not going to like. Scrap that, I’m going to hate it. It’s going to destroy me.

I know it.

For weeks, my life has been incredible, and that envelope holds something that will obliterate it.

He clears his throat, and the guilt rolls off him in waves. “I’m doing this for the right reasons, Gia. Once upon a time, me and Jaxon were friends.”

“Before you tried it on with me in a bid to break us up, you mean?” I snap.

He blows out a breath and swallows. “Yes. It was wrong of me. I’ve been controlled by your father for a long time.”

“And before you tried to get me drunk and follow it up with a kiss?” I continue with my little tirade, delivering blow after blow of all the stunts he’s pulled over the years in an effort to follow my father’s instructions and win me over. “And when Jaxon got the job at the hardware store, and you complained he’d been abusive, and the manager let him go? We needed that job, Kevan.” I exhale.

“That wasn’t me!”

I glare back at him, and he winces. Then he holds his hands up.

“It wasn’t, I swear it.”

I shrug. “Whatever. What are you doing here?”

He glances away again before bringing his eyes back to mine. “I’m sorry.”

“About?”

“Everything. The past, the present, and more importantly, your future.” He holds the envelope up, and a feeling of dread sits in my stomach like a lead ball. “This is a contract that Reed signed with your father.”

My heart hammers precariously. “What contract?”

“He agreed to fight for custody of your son unless you signed the shares over to your father. That way, Reed can purchase the community center land.”

A crushing feeling takes over my lungs, filling my body with a poison that threatens to bring me to my knees. He wouldn’t, would he?

My throat becomes dry, and I tremble as I contemplate his words while I try to maintain the man I love would never do that to me, to our son. I shake my head and stare at the envelope. He wouldn’t use us as pawns in his quest for money, would he?

“It’s true, Gia. Look for yourself.”

“Why are you telling me this?” My voice crumbles as the words come out of my mouth like ash on my tongue. The bitter truth of Reed’s lies burning through me like gasoline.

“Because I want you to know his true intentions.”

“Why?” I snap, then wince at the cruel tone behind it, but I straighten my spine, determined to remain the strong, independent woman I became, yet feeling anything but. “So, you can step in and marry me? Take the shares from me too?” I shake my head, and tears stream down my face. Another broken home, another betrayal, all by the men meant to love me above and beyond anyone else. None of them can be trusted. Not a single one. “You’re power hungry and heartless. You cheat, steal, and prey on those who are vulnerable.” I stab my finger into his chest. “You’re cowards. You’re all goddamn cowards!” I scream as my hands ball into fists, and I hammer against his chest.

His arms band around me, and I sob against him. “I’m sorry,” he whispers brokenly. “I’m sorry.”

His words are my undoing and bring me back to my new reality. He’s sorry? Well, I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I ever met Reed Johnson and allowed him into our lives.

I step back with renewed vigor, and as I swipe the tears from my face, I stare Kevan in the face. “He can have the shares, but he’ll never see our son again.”

Kevan shakes his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

My eyebrows knit together.

“I came here to give you this.” He holds up the envelope, and I take it. “It’s a copy of the contract and a copy of the shares I own, signed over to Bryce from today.”

My eyes widen.

“It’s what I came to tell you. You have the power as Bryce’s guardian to have full control over the company. I don’t want to work with George Fanzio any longer. He’s gone too far, Gia. I’m only sorry it took until now for me to see it.”

Shock reels through me, a wave of emotions hitting me one after the other, but not a single one of them as powerful as knowing the man I love betrayed me and used our son as a bargaining tool to get what he wanted.

He’s not the man I thought him to be; that man doesn’t exist. He never did. I swipe at the lone tear trickling down my cheek. It was all a performance, a way to get what he wanted. He played me, played with all of us, and that thought sends a tremor of devastation through me. An animalistic sob rips from my chest, and I grip onto the living room chair to hold me up as the room spins.

Kevan steps forward, and I shake my head. “Can you leave now?” I whisper through racked sobs. Leave and never come back, I want to say, but I no longer have the power to utter a single word.

Kevan nods, then swallows thickly. “I’m sorry, Gia. Truly, I am.”

As he closes the door behind him, I sink to the floor and stare at the contract in my shaky hand.

How could he do this to us? He promised. My lip quivers as a deep-seated stabbing, like a knife is being twisted inside my chest, causes me to suck in sharp stuttered breaths, yet I still don’t feel like I’m breathing. One attempt after the other as a sickening wail lodges in my throat, and the feeling of it tightening has me clutching at it.

“Pl-please, no.” My tears fall freely now, and I will them to come.

The soft sound of our son cooing has nausea rushing through me, and I snap my gaze toward him.

Oh Jesus, he was going to take Jaxon from me. The man I love was going to tear out my heart, my reason for living. He was willing to destroy our family for a piece of land.

For money.

Betrayal, hurt, and devastation ravish my crumbling heart. He lied. It was nothing more than a lie.