Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
He stared at me solemnly, as he said, “Yes, Mommy.”
My heart squeezed. As much as I wanted him to be mine, I didn’t want to see him get his little heart broken when Jessica, the only person he had known and loved for three years, left.
“Well, here he is.”
I smiled. A real genuine, full-of-love smile.
He gave me a tentative smile that slowly spread all across his face.
“Hi, Kayden,” I said, a feeling of sureness coming over me. Whatever happened, I was going to take care of him well. He was my own flesh and blood.
He moved away from his mother and came to me. His steps were tentative and yet fearless. I followed Jessica’s example and crouched down. He stood close to me and openly studied me.
I cleared my throat.
“What did you do today?” I asked, figuring it was a good point to start a conversation.
“I played hide and seek with Stacie and I won,” he bragged.
I chuckled. That’s my boy. Winning from the age of three. I assumed the youngish woman who had disappeared through a connecting door when we entered the room was Stacie.
I couldn’t remember ever being so enamored with a little human. I just wanted to keep talking to him.
“What did you eat?” I think I just wanted to hear him speak. For reasons I could not explain, I wished that Willow was there to share the moment with me. To meet my son. To share in my joy.
He took some time to think about what he ate, and when he answered he gave me a precise answer, detailed to the number of peas he had eaten.
I laughed. “Do you always count all the peas you eat?”
“Yes. Mommy said I have to eat at least ten,” he informed me solemnly.
“Ten is a good number. That’s why you’re growing to be so strong and healthy.”
Kayden abruptly raised his arm to flex it and I saw a large bruise on the inside of his arm. The fury that coursed through my body was such, I had clenched my hand into a fist so the kid would not see me angry and become scared of me. I knew where he had got the bruise. I looked at Jessica.
“You’re a natural,” she said.
I touched the bruise. “Where did this come from?”
She looked sad then. Really sad. “That’s why he’s coming to live with you.”
I let my anger go. “He looks well. You’ve done a good job raising him.”
“Thanks,” she said, sorrow in her voice. “He’s an easy boy to love.”
Yeah. Except for that asshole she had decided was the man she loved. But thanks to him, I was getting a chance to get my son back. I shuddered when I thought of what might have happened had he wanted to raise Kayden as his own.
I would never have known the kind of love I was feeling.
Afterwards, I said goodbye to him, promising to return the next day. Jessica walked me to the elevator. We agreed that she would give me a day to organize myself.
“I’ve compiled a list of everything you’ll need to get for him and also his routines. He hasn’t started school yet so you’re free to choose the school you want him to go to.”
I knew nothing about schools, but Kayden would obviously go to the best school.
As I turned away from Jessica she started to cough, but she coughed in a way that made me turn back and look at her. There was blood in her handkerchief.
“What’s going on, Jessica?”
“The big C got me,” she said with a weak attempt at dark humor.
“What?”
“Yeah, it’s one of these new aggressive cancers apparently. It started off at stage four. I have, at best, a few months left.”
I stared at her. No wonder she looked so ravaged and now that I looked properly, I saw that she was wearing a wig. “You have to have a second opinion. I’ll arrange for you to be seen by the best oncologist in New York today.”
“No, Rex. No. I’m not doing the chemo thing again. It nearly killed me the first time. I’ve made my peace. Now that I know Kayden will be safe with you, I’m ready to go.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
She shook her head and smiled. A big smile that came straight from her heart. “You’ve already done it.”
As I rode the elevator down, I felt a strange mixture of sadness and elation. I felt sorry for Jessica, but Kayden was now mine. All mine.
My heart pounded erratically when I saw a message from Willow. She wanted to go out for dinner. I would have loved to have said yes, but I needed time to think.
I had to find a way to make Willow accept that Kayden and I came as a package even after she had clearly, with heartfelt emotion, sworn she would never allow herself to be a stepmother.