His Greatest Treasure (Greatest Love #4)

Chapter 35

35

OLIVER

The door is unlocked, but I call for Avery before stepping further than a couple of inches into the house. When she answers with a short and sharp “come in,” I take my shoes off with a heavy stomach.

Once I’ve locked the door behind me and set my sneakers beside Nova’s new bright orange Crocs on the rack against the wall, I’m following the sound of hushed voices. The hallway is short but feels miles long.

“Cotton candy or bubble gum?”

“Both? In a waffle bowl?” Nova’s voice is dull, sad.

I clench my jaw and stop halfway down the hall. I’m close enough to see only one deep green wall and a sliver of the big white dresser through the cracked door to Nova’s room, but nothing more. My breathing is tight and ragged, but I focus on getting myself to calm down before joining them. They don’t need my anger right now.

“Sure, sweetheart. A waffle bowl. You can even get rainbow sprinkles and gummy frogs if you want,” Avery says soothingly.

“I don’t want gummy frogs today.”

“Are you sure? They’re your favourite.”

“I just don’t want them, Mom. ”

Invisible fists use my heart as a punching bag. Maybe I should go back outside and pummel the sorry fuck before he leaves?—

“You can have anything you want, mitt hj?rta. Vad som helst .”

“ Jag vill inte att Pappa ska skada Ollie. ”

The soft voice speaking my name amongst words I don’t understand is enough to have me moving again. I knock my knuckles against the door and slowly push it the rest of the way open before they notice me.

“Ollie?” Nova sniffles, pushing herself from her stomach to sit amongst the pillows on her bed.

The sight of her puffy red eyes fucks me up inside. My previous protectiveness grows tenfold.

“How are you doing, peanut?” I ask, fighting past the thickness in my throat.

She shrugs. “Is my dad gone?”

I look at Avery where she sits on the floor beside the twin bed, her knees tucked to her chest and arm splayed over them. One hand is clutching Nova’s on the bed, holding on so tight it’s like she’s scared someone will try to take her away.

She’s still wearing her bathing suit, but Nova’s buried in a sweatshirt I recognize the moment she shifts and the name stitched into the right corner becomes visible. Something settles inside of me. Slots itself into an empty crevasse left in my soul.

Avery sighs and presses her forehead to the edge of the mattress when she notices where my attention’s gone. The action nips at my gut, telling me something’s wrong, and I pay attention to the warning.

I trust myself completely. In my line of work, my gut instincts are all I have sometimes. And when this one demands I go to her, I don’t ignore it.

“Your dad went home,” I murmur.

Nova reaches for a fuzzy frog pillow from its spot along the inside edge of her bed and pulls it onto her lap. She picks at the material of it and rolls little bunches between her fingers.

“Okay.”

“Can I talk to Oliver for a couple of minutes, sweetheart? Then we can go for ice cream? Maybe you’ll be up for gummy frogs then,” Avery suggests with a pat to Nova’s thigh.

Nova blinks up at me, a small sparkle of hope in her eyes. “Can you come for ice cream too?”

“If you want me?—”

“No. He can’t. Not this time,” Avery interrupts, answering for me.

The rambled denial is unexpected. But maybe I should have seen it coming.

Nova’s voice takes on a different pitch than I’m used to. One that’s angry and raw. Stubborn. “Why not? I want him to come!”

She’s glaring at Avery now, her thin brows scrunched and lips downturned. I grapple with what the right thing to do is here and look at Avery for help or guidance, but a sullen, defeated expression is what I find instead.

Clearing my throat, I answer Nova so she doesn’t have to. “I have to go to see my mom for a few hours, peanut. She needs my help, and moms always come before ice cream.”

“But I want you to come with us,” she persists.

“We’ll get ice cream soon. When you’re up for getting a sore tummy from all the gummy frogs, okay?”

“If I get frogs today, will you come?”

My heart splinters down the centre. “Not this time.”

“Don’t argue on this, Nova. Please,” Avery pleads while pushing off the floor and gliding her hands down her ass to dust herself off. “I’ll be right back, okay? Why don’t you get dressed?”

“I am dressed.”

“You can’t wear that out, you’ll trip on it. And it’s not yours.”

“It’s not yours either! I found it on your bed.”

It’s hard not to beat my chest in satisfaction at that bit of knowledge. I’d give the both of them every sweatshirt and hoodie I own if they wanted me to. I’ve got so many of them that I didn’t notice Avery stealing one and bringing it here .

“If you listen to your mom and change into something your size, you can keep that sweatshirt, okay?” I offer.

Her entire face lights up. “Really? It would be mine and not Mom’s?”

“It would be yours.”

“Okay!”

She bounds out of bed and rushes to her dresser before starting to search through her clothes. I follow Avery out of the room and watch as she shuts the door behind us.

In the hallway, the silence between us is louder, more obvious. My nerves are buzzing, that terrible fucking feeling growing in intensity.

“What did he say to you out there?” she asks on a weighted exhale, sounding as if she’s been struggling to hold that question in.

“Nothing that matters.”

“Don’t try to placate me, Oliver. Tell me the truth. How bad was it?”

I reach for her, cupping her shoulders and holding her in place when she tries to start pacing. “Hey, princess. Take a breath with me. You’re getting worked up, and he doesn’t deserve this reaction from you.”

Her eyes focus on me, the crinkle between her brows softening. “What did he say about me, Oliver?”

“It was all bullshit. Repeating it won’t do anything but hurt you.”

“Tell me. Tell me so I know what to prepare for once he makes good on his threat and tries to take my baby away from me.”

My muscles harden to stone. “He’s not taking Nova from you.”

“You heard him. He thinks I’ve been sneaking around with you, and he . . . He wants to change our custody agreement. I won’t give him more time with her. Not more than he already has,” she rambles, face paling further with every word until she’s as white as the paint on the walls.

“Avery,” I murmur, reaching up to brush her cheek with my knuckle. The skin pinkens, but it’s not enough to settle me. “He’s not going to take any more time with her. I won’t let that happen. We won’t. He’s just upset.”

She shakes her head, forcing me to drop my hand too soon. Losing the heat from her skin feels wrong. Makes me colder than before I touched her.

“I have to fix this,” she whispers vacantly.

Arms wrapping tightly around her middle, she licks her lips and jolts back a step away from me. I keep my feet planted to the floor, even as I scream at myself to move toward her.

“You will fix it, Avery. He’s not a threat to you. I’m positive about that.”

“I always knew he wouldn’t let me be happy. He has a way of making everything about himself. It was all about Chris for years, and now that I’ve found someone who’s made me happy for the first time in years, he’s taking it all away from me,” she says weakly.

“He isn’t taking anything from you. Especially not Nova.”

Her eyes are wet with tears when she asks on a breath, “What about you?”

“Never me,” I declare.

Saying fuck you to the space she’s placed between us, I move closer. She doesn’t retreat, but the slight stiffening in her limbs is a sign as bad as any I’ve ever seen.

“He could fight me for custody. I have the financial resources for a legal battle, but when it comes to everything else? I’m not emotionally ready for that. Nova doesn’t need to live through that either.”

“Yes, you are. You’re strong and you’re brave and resilient. And I’m here. Just say the word and everything I have is yours. Every single thing already is, Avery. Let me be here for you. Share this weight with me. With my family and our friends. ”

It’s desperate and not anything I anticipated to do in this lifetime, but I lay it out on the line for her without a single regret. There’s no going back for me. Only forward, either with her or without.

“I’m no one’s charity case. I don’t need?—”

“Don’t say that you don’t need help. I already know you don’t need it. I’m saying you can have it if you want it. Not everything has to be about necessity and can be about what will make your life easier. Let me help you, baby. I really, really fucking want to.”

She lifts her chin, something unsaid solidifying her resolve. “I’m not ready to accept it yet. I’ve got to try and settle this on my own first.”

“How do you want to do that?”

“Chris needs to know that he can’t come here and stomp all over me. He’s not allowed to discard us and then come back whenever he pleases to snatch us back up and stuff us in his pocket.”

“You’re right.”

“But I want to do it on my own. If I don’t, he’ll think he’s won, and I won’t give him that satisfaction.”

I nod, but it’s a slow, laggy movement. “Okay.”

“It won’t be for very long, but once I’ve taken care of Chris, we’ll be able to come back together. You and me and Nova, we can be a family . . .”

I stop listening, not wanting to hear the rest of her sentence. It’s obvious what she was about to say. What she wants.

“Oliver?”

“I don’t want you to do this on your own. Without support again,” I mutter.

“As soon as you’ve done it once, you can do it a million times.”

Frustrated, I blow out a breath. “I’m not going to complicate anything for you while you do this. I don’t understand why we need to wait to be together until you’ve, what? Taken him to court? Dealt with a lengthy legal process against him all on your own?” I ask, fighting tooth and nail to keep my voice even instead of booming with the fear and nervousness building in my chest.

“If that’s what it takes. I don’t know. You’re just . . . you make me want to forget about everything else other than you, me, and Nova. A family like that can’t thrive with someone like Chris constantly swinging threats and bringing chaos into our lives. I want to start a life without looking over my shoulder for him, Oliver. But I have to focus, and you’re the biggest, greatest distraction I’ve ever known.

“You deserve better than the baggage I bring. I’m putting you first, the way you always fight to do for me. Please, let me.”

“Nova is not baggage. Chris is your past, but he isn’t baggage either,” I argue, taking her cheeks in my hands and bringing our faces a breath apart. “I don’t want to spend a single day without you at my side or waiting to come back home to you after work. Don’t make this decision for the both of us.”

Her smile is soft yet so fucking sad. “I’m a mom, Oliver. Making the tough decisions when no one else wants to and bearing the weight of them is my specialty.”

“I love you,” I say, the three words thick with clarity and vivid honesty.

I’ve never spoken them to a woman like this before, but nothing has ever been easier. It’s been a long time coming.

She kisses me, lips tasting faintly like salt. “I love you too.”