I met his confused gaze. “Maddox,” I clarified quietly.
“My grandfather’s name?” he whispered hoarsely.
His grandparents were the only family he’d ever spoken fondly of. It was the one thing I’d felt I could give him.
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“Christ,” he repeated, running a hand over his face.
“My bed, Ax,” I repeated, with a tilt of my chin in that direction.
“Right,” he muttered.
I put Maddox down, watching as his eyelids fluttered closed.
I straightened my shoulders, bracing myself for the hurricane waiting for me in my bedroom.
“How the hell could you not tell me?” he demanded in a strangled voice. He sat on the edge of my bed, his head in his hands.
“I wanted to,” I said quietly. “I couldn’t.”
“Why the fuck not? That’s my son! I missed how many months of his life?” he demanded.
“Six,” I whispered.
“Six,” he repeated. “I missed your being pregnant. Your labor. Fuck, tell me you weren’t alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” I answered immediately.
He shot me a look.
“The nurses were really kind,” I added with a sigh.
“What the fuck, Sophie!” he exploded.
“It’s complicated,” I tried weakly.
He narrowed his eyes at me.
“I know you’ll probably never forgive me but I did what I thought I had to. To protect you. To protect Maddox,” I explained passionately.
He stood suddenly, his size overwhelming as he stalked toward me. “You think there’s anything I would let happen to you or our child? Do you think I’d let anything hurt you?” His voice was raw with pain.
“I think there are forces bigger than you and me.” I swallowed, looking up at him. “And I think with that precious baby out there, I couldn’t risk it,” I whispered. “I did what I had to do to protect him. To protect you and my brother.” My eyes filled with tears as I tried to explain what had made me run. “But that’s all to hell now,” I added, my voice raw.
He stumbled back to the bed, sitting as though drunk. “All that time in Hawthorne you were…you were…”
“Pregnant,” I nodded. “I kept trying to tell you. But after the night we were together, you were so dodgy, so unsure.”
“So this was revenge?”
I reeled back in shock. “No! God no. I kept trying to tell you. I thought I had time to work up to it. And then...and then the threats just became too much and I knew if I stayed, I’d just screw up your whole life and Sal’s,” I shook my head. “I couldn’t allow that.”
“So you what? Disappeared on your own to go through your entire pregnancy alone? To be a single mother when you could have had me? Could have had all of us?”
His comment pissed me right the hell off.
“Would I have had you? You tell me, after that night we spent together and how you treated me afterwards, how the hell do you think I should have thought that!” I exclaimed.
