“That would be wonderful. I’m taking my son out to see the city. Which way should I go to get to the toy store?”
She gave me a big smile, telling me about a candy store that her daughter loved.
“Did you hear that, Reid? A candy store.” My heart came to a screeching halt when I looked down to find him gone.
Swiveling my head, I scanned the lobby.
“He’s over there,” she said, pointing to the left where he was walking around with his head up, gawking at the murals. “I’ll have your bags sent up to the room. Have fun.”
“Thank you,” I said, running to get him. Eyes on him, I snatched him just as he was tugging on a man’s pants.
“Reid Nathaniel Hent, what have I told you about wandering away from me?” I turned him toward me, fear still shaking my limbs. “You frightened me.”
“He’s so tall, Mommy. Will I be tall like that?”
I peered up at the man, my heart slamming into my chest when hazel eyes with specks of amber met mine. My world spun, the pain I’d carried for five years trampling over any healing I’d done and ripping the wounds raw.
Chapter 18
Gabe
Adjusting my cuff links, I waited for my attorney to tell me the words I’d fought to hear since I was sixteen.
“It’s done. He’s still in the conference room talking to his attorney.”
Relief cascaded through me. It was over, and now I would walk into that conference room and tell my father his downfall had been my doing and Liv’s. Sweet revenge that had been too long in the making.
I shook his hand as he told me he would follow up with me later in the day. After I dealt with my father. Rolling my neck, I turned toward the hall that led to the special meeting rooms, but a tug on my pants leg stopped me. I peeked down to see a small boy with large eyes and a mop of brown hair gaping up at me.
“Reid Nathaniel Hent…” That voice and that name had my world turning silent as I watched his mother scold him. Her lush ebony hair slipped over her shoulder when cornfield-blue eyes locked with mine. The heart I’d buried behind layers of foundation and years of cold indifference cracked open again, the fissures spilling liquid lava into my veins. For over five years, I had mounted an attack on it, refusing to set it free again. Ignoring every flirty look, every pretty face, every invitationbecause there would never be another who held my heart. Another I wanted to touch, to kiss, to hold. To murmur that I loved her as she slept in my arms. There was and always would be only Tori who rose to her feet, her eyes still holding mine.
“Tori.” Her name came out in a fractured whisper.
She looked as beautiful as she always had, matured over the last years. Her style sophisticated, her hair loose in long waves that begged me to tangle my fingers in them.
“Gabe.” Emotion enveloped the word, and I could see it twisting in her features. The longing was there along with the hurt and anger I suspected she had carried since the night I left.
“Do you know him, Mommy?”
Her eyes flicked to the boy, and mine followed. Agony raked through me with the knowledge that she’d moved on. She’d left her love for me behind and found another man. What had I expected? That she’d wait around for me? After hurting her and leaving her in the middle of the night. But some part of me had. That same part that had clung to the thought as the only way to survive.
“A long time ago.”
I stared at the boy. He was young, maybe four or five. My sight jumped to hers, anger and hurt now rife in my blood, the walls refortifying around my heart. The ruthless man I’d become since that day, taking over.
“I see you moved on quickly,” I snapped.
She reeled back, her hands tightening around the boy’s shoulders.
“How dare you? After what you did, you have no right to even talk to me.”
Her words stung, but not as bad as the fact that she’d gotten over me so fast.
“You’re right.” I adjusted my cufflinks again. “I have a meeting to attend. It was nice to see you, Victoria.”
I walked off, knowing if I didn’t, I would falter, and it would leave me vulnerable. This was a moment for cold calculation and cruel vindictiveness, not memories and what-ifs. Every step reminded me of the day I’d left her, the pounding of my shoes against the marble jarring my nerves as I fought to leave her again.
My father was still in the conference room, and he looked up when I entered.
