She nodded.
I started to cry in relief. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d sobbed like this. Blair, too, had tears running down her face. We sat at each side of Nicholas’s bed.
“Hi, my boy,” I whispered.
“Hi,” he answered groggily.
I patted his hand. “You’re gonna be okay, little guy.”
He looked into my eyes, just like he had that night in the bathtub.
The weight of what could have happened hit me all over again. “Daddy loves you,” I said. “Daddy loves you so much.”
I looked up at Blair, expecting to gauge her reaction to the words that had unexpectedly come from my mouth. But instead, what I saw was myotherson, standing behind Blair in the doorway.
Chapter 34
TATE
Blair turned to see what I was staring at.
When she looked back at me, her face had turned white.
And then Taylor disappeared, gone as quickly as he’d appeared in the doorway.
“Stay here with Nicholas,” I told Blair as I ran after him.
My heart pummeled against my chest as I looked around the hospital for him.
How had he vanished so damn fast?
Outside the main entrance, I finally spotted Taylor rushing through the parking lot.
I ran to catch up with him. “Taylor, please. Wait,” I said, practically breathless.
He stopped, turning to look at me. The color had drained from his face. “I don’t understand what’s happening here,” he said in a shaky voice. “But I didn’t want to scare Nicholas, so I got the hell out of there before I fucking screamed or did something to upset him.”
“Please don’t run away.” I attempted to catch my breath. “Let me explain what’s happening.”
Looking dazed, he shook his head. “I’m not sure how you couldeverexplain this, Theodore.”
Theodore. It had been a long while since he hadn’t referred to me as Dad. But I didn’t blame him one bit for reverting back to the name he’d called me for most of his life. He needed some distance from me right now.
Taylor’s lip trembled.
My poor boy.I never meant to hurt you.
And just like that, I lost my composure for the second time in a matter of minutes, tears running down my cheeks. “I know you want to run right now,” I told him. “I know that’s the easiest thing. But I beg you to let me explain this.”
Several moments passed as we stood facing each other, cars whizzing by on a nearby highway the only sound.
He just kept shaking his head. “I don’t understand.”
“Taylor...”
He looked up. “You’ve been having an affair with her since my wedding?”
Shit. He’d drawn the wrong conclusion. He thought I’d been playing house with Blair and Nicholas. I shook my head. How could he think anything else? The truth was so far-fetched.
