His Greatest Treasure (Greatest Love #4)

Chapter 34

34

OLIVER

This guy is a fucking leech that’s sucked the light out of Avery right before my eyes.

He watches her chase after their daughter with a deep-rooted possession that has me bristling. His presence is all wrong. A stain on an otherwise perfect day.

I knew a conversation had to happen between Chris and me, but I wasn’t expecting it to be today or in a situation where Nova was bound to get hurt. The last thing I want is to see that little girl with tears in her eyes. Her sniffle hurt to hear and called to a protectiveness that I now know has been dulled my entire time.

I’ve never felt it as strongly as I do right now. Like I could push myself over the edge of every one of my limits to make her smile again and would do everything to succeed. It’s an instinct.

“You talk to the women in your life like that often, Chris?” I ask, stepping into his face to block his view of my girls.

I’d call them that to his face if I didn’t think I’d be sporting cuts and bruises that I’d have to explain to Nova later.

“It’s not any of your business.”

“I’m making it my business. It has been for a while now, and you’d be smart to start accepting that it will be for the foreseeable future. ”

His laugh is short and angry. “Avery tell you that?”

“It’s what I’m telling you. Don’t think about her. Don’t talk about her either.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. We might be separated right now, but Avery knows she’s mine. She likes to flex her muscles and keep us apart when she wants to prove a point, but it won’t be long until she’s calling me drunk in the middle of the night and asking me to come back home again.”

Again . The word lingers longer than I want it to before I shake it away.

Chris’ smirk is sleazy as fuck. “Didn’t tell you about all those calls, did she? I’m not surprised. She always plays the embarrassment card the next morning.”

“A drunk phone call in a moment of weakness is all you’ve got?”

“Did you need more?”

“I don’t give a flying fuck how many times she’s called you after a night of drinking. I can guarantee you it won’t be happening again in this lifetime or the next. You’re not going to scare me off. I’m not nervous that you’ll somehow get her back. Avery’s too smart to open that door for you again. You’ve got my word on that.”

No number of drunk calls she’s made in the past matters to me. I won’t hold those against her, especially not when I know how much she’s struggled.

Chris tenses his jaw but doesn’t back down. Instead, choosing to dig deeper with his attempts to piss me off.

“She’s mentioned you before. Years ago. Oliver, right? I recognize you now from all those times I’ve caught her scrolling through your social media pages. You’re one of those kids from her childhood. The one she didn’t give a shit about back then.”

“Avery cared about all of us. You’ve never met the rest of her family, though, right?”

“You’re not her family. She hardly mentioned any of you,” he spits, eyes flashing.

“No? But she talked about me enough for you to know she doesn’t give a shit? You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. The first time we met, you swore you had no idea who I was.”

He takes an arrogant step toward me and huffs, rage making his features spasm. “They’re mine . Avery’s trying to prove a point with this fucking house of hers and new life here without me. But Nova’s my fucking daughter, and Avery’s supposed to be with me. We’ll raise her together.”

“They’re not possessions,” I grit out, voice deep and rigid. “They’re people, and I’m going to try not to stand between you and the relationship you have with Nova, but there’s room in her life for me too, and I’m not going to waste my chance to be there for her the way you have.”

“You don’t know shit about me!”

“I’ve learned more about you in the past few minutes today than I’d have in years. You don’t want Nova and Avery in your life because of genuine love or care, but only so you can say that you have them. You don’t mind yelling at them or making your daughter cry with your angry words because you know it’ll only take a weak apology for her to forgive you. You take advantage of their love and kindness and use cruel words and inconsiderate actions to wear them down until they don’t know their own worth. They can and have done better than you. I’m here to prove that to them.”

He snaps a hand out and grips my shirt. With a tug, he pulls at me, and I allow it, keeping my arms pinned at my sides.

“You don’t know anything,” he says coolly.

“You’re wrong,” I mutter, staying just as cold. “And I’m going to be here helping them realize that what they had before with you was nothing. That it isn’t worth remembering. I’ll give them everything they want and show them that they’re so fucking much more than two trophies on a shelf. They’re everything, Chris. Dammit, they’re every. Thing . How have you not been able to see that? ”

The fingers curled in my shirt relax before disappearing. I step back, and he does the same. The tight lines in his expression don’t loosen despite the new distance.

“You won’t stick around,” he says.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Avery wants to move back to Sweden one day.”

“I’ll go with her.”

Shaking his head, he scoffs and looks out at the street. “I thought that at first too. Thought a lot of things.”

“Like you were ready for a family when you weren’t?”

“No. I knew I never wanted one of those. Nova was an accident. A mistake I made by not being responsible.”

I flinch, physically repulsed by the words. “Don’t call her that again. She can be unplanned, but never, ever , a mistake.”

“I did what was expected of me. Stayed and took care of them. Avery decided that wasn’t enough, but I never agreed to her finding someone else to take over my responsibilities when I’m capable of handling them myself.”

“They aren’t responsibilities. They’re choices someone makes when it comes to caring for those they love.”

“You don’t love them.”

It’s easy to tell him otherwise and easier to admit it to myself.

“I do. I love the two of them more than I’ve ever loved anything. They’re my family, and I’m not here out of obligation. I want to be here more than anything else. I chose them, Chris. And I’m not letting them go. Not right now with you spitting mad in my face, and not in twenty years. So, either get over the fact we’ll be seeing a lot of one another or don’t and continue having every meeting with them feel like this. Either way, I’ll be here to put you in your place.”

“She’s hard to love, buddy. Expects someone who can move mountains with his bare hands and will turn up her nose at anything less than. I gave up trying to be the man of her dreams years ago.”

It’s comical. So much so that I toss my head back and laugh beneath the weight of his poisonous stare. Never in my life have I heard anything so fucking wrong.

Laughter finally ceasing, I say, “Avery’s so incredibly easy to love that I started falling for her when I was just a kid. The problem has never been her, buddy. It’s all you. Always has been.”

Chris is shit at hiding his emotions, and when his top lip curls, I swing out of the way before he can hit me with the fist he sloppily throws at me.

I take another step back to create more distance between us. “Collect yourself and get the fuck off my property. If you try to hit me again, I’ll have the cops here before you can run off with your tail between your legs. Don’t let your daughter watch you get driven away in the back of a squad car.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t enjoy that? It would make it easier to take her from me,” he hisses.

I swallow, a sudden sadness seeping into my blood. With a slow shake of my head, I stare past him at Avery’s house, wishing I was there with her instead of here.

“She’s not a possession. I don’t want to keep you from her. If you can’t see past your own selfishness when it comes to them, that’s on you. I’m not fighting you. I’m fighting for them. And Nova deserves better than to witness her father make a fool of himself again.”

“I won’t let you turn them against me,” he threatens.

Every word I’ve spoken has fallen on deaf ears. It becomes obvious that nothing I say will ever make a difference with him. He’s stuck so far in his own habits of selfish manipulation that he can’t see the truth right in front of him.

“Alright, Chris. Don’t let me, then. It won’t make an ounce of a difference once you’ve done it all on your own.”

I leave him in my yard, deciding here and now not to give him another second of my time when I could be next door with my family. Nova has Avery, but who does Avery have?

“Tell her that we need to talk,” he says from behind me. “ Alone . ”

Closing my eyes, I halt. “If you want to speak with her, call tomorrow once you’ve both had time to cool down. I’m not your middleman.”

“You know what? I’ll talk to her right the fuck now.”

I’m spinning and planting a hand on his chest before he makes it a single foot on her lawn. Anger bleeds into the calm fa?ade I’ve slipped on.

“One more step.”

“Until?” he goads.

“Do you have any idea how lucky you are? I’ve known several men get handed terrible custody agreements and take them on the chin because they didn’t want to cause a stink with their kids. But you? You get served with a generous one and still take it for granted.” I scrape a hand over my jaw, chuckling in disbelief. “Any judge worth a dime would take one look at you and know you deserve far less than one weekend every two weeks. Your threats would mean nothing to Avery with something written in ink.”

“She won’t take it to court,” he snaps.

“Maybe not before, no. But now? You’ve just threatened her, Chris.”

This time when I turn and leave, I let his next words drift away on the wind. He’s not worth my time. Not worth anything when it comes to Nova and Avery.

His threats to Avery were worthless in my eyes, but to her, they might not mean the same thing.

They could mean everything.