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“The day before you got locked up and I was kidnapped,” she whispers, dropping her gaze to her hands as she fidgets, “I took a pregnancy test and it was positive.”

My mind struggles to catch up but when it does, I suck in a breath and force her gaze back up to mine. “We were having a baby?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, baby,” I whisper, crushing her to me as I struggle with the news. It’s everything we ever wanted but I know there is no happy ending here. “What happened?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing happened. I carried him for nine months down in that apartment and gave birth to him in late January. A week from now actually.”

“Him? We have a little boy?” I ask, confused and unsure how to feel. Obviously, there is no child here but she’s talking about him like he’s alive. A soft sob shakes her body as she shakes her head.

“After he was born, Oliver took him away to get a checkup and when he came back, he told me that he didn’t make it.”

Agony rips through me as I think about Kady going through that all by herself and I mourn the loss of a child I never even knew about. Tears sting my eyes and I grit my teeth as she burrows closer to me, searching for comfort.

“I’m so sorry, Kady,” I whisper, my voice hoarse. “I’m more sorry than I’ll ever be able to explain to you and I promise I’m going to make this up to you. It will never replace him, our baby boy, but we can try again.”

“No,” she cries, shaking her head. “That’s the thing. We can’t. After I had Thomas - that’s what I named him… after his daddy…”

A tear slips down my cheek and I wipe it away quickly with my fist.

“Oliver brought in this doctor… I don’t think he was a real doctor or a licensed one anyway but he knocked me out and when I woke up, Oliver told me that he’d made sure I’d never have another one of your kids.”

My heart thunders in my ears and my vision clouds as the full weight of what he’s done to my sweet, perfect girl crashes down on me and all I can think is that death is too easy of a fate for Oliver Ford.

* * * *

My hands shake as I fist them together and rest my elbows on my knees, staring into the flames licking up the fireplace. Inside, I feel just like that - a raging inferno that won’t be quenched until I make Biche pay for everything he’s taken from me. I glance to my right at Kady as she sleeps on the couch, her nose red and her skin blotchy from crying all damn day and half the night as we talked about our baby boy and everything she went through when he died. My gaze drops to her stomach and tears spring to my eyes as I grit my teeth and resist the urge to slam my fist into the wall.

Fuck.

Our baby boy.

Before I got locked up, I was so excited to be marrying Kady and starting a family together but now, we never will. He took that from us and I swear he’s going to pay. He’ll pay for every family dinner that we’ll miss, for every t-ball game, for every Christmas that he’s not here with us. I’ll take my pound of flesh for each tiny experience that Kady and I will never get to have and maybe then the scales will finally be level.

Then again, maybe not.

Burying my head in my hands, I wonder what would have happened if I had just listened to her and gotten out of the club before everything went to hell. The knot in my stomach hasn’t gone away since she finally told me everything and in between my rage, I know that this is my fault. I got us both in a terrible situation and I’ve caused her so much pain that I don’t even know how she looks at me, let alone loves me. My heart is lying in pieces on the floor around her and I couldn’t even blame her if she just left them there, if she walked away, and never looked back. I’ve always loved her but I was so stupid and misguided that it’s hard to even look myself in the mirror right now.

I don’t deserve her.

I don’t deserve anything.

And even after everything I put her through, she still named him after me.

Fuck.

Pushing to my feet, I pace through the living room for a minute before walking over to Kady and kissing the top of her head. Her face finally looks peaceful now that she’s sleeping and my heart aches. Sucking in a breath, I walk to the door and turn back to take one last look at her, trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do with all this pain. Jack lifts his head from the pillow and I nod to him.

“Keep her safe,” I whisper and almost like he understands me, he lays his head back down on the pillow with a sigh. Stepping outside, I pull my jacket tighter around me and climb in my truck, unsure if I’m going to go find Biche and kill him or just walk out of Kady’s life altogether. At this point, the only justice would be if I was forced to live the rest of my life without her.

As I back out of the driveway, I stop by the broken motion sensor and sigh as I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Smith’s number.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks as soon as he answers the phone.

“The motion sensor at Kady’s house is broken. Think you can replace it for me?”

There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “Sure… but why can’t you do it?”