Late Nights & Love Lines (Single Dad Hotline #2)

31. Tonight

31

TONIGHT

SEBASTIAN

“ I hate the number twenty-two,” Rowan mutters the second I’m able to pull her into my side.

My heart is breaking as I stare at her, yet I don’t even know what the fuck is going on.

“Grow up, Rowan,” the angry little gargoyle hisses in Rowan’s face again.

“I’m sorry, Rowan. I never got to tell you that,” Jacob says from behind me.

“Don’t apologize to her,” the woman seethes.

“Someone had better tell me what the hell is going on right now,” I demand.

Rowan trembles in my arms, and violent storms of rage swirl through my body. A crowd begins to form, and I find more than one member of the gala board standing on the perimeter, so I usher her farther down the hallway, hoping for some semblance of privacy.

“I was engaged to Jake,” she says quietly. “Well, he told me his name was Jake. I trusted him with…everything. I—I couldn’t stay after him.”

If I weren’t holding her arms, I’d stumble back a step. Is she saying this is the fuckwad who broke her trust so badly she never set down roots anywhere?

“We lived together for two years.” Her voice grows distant. In slow motion, I’m losing her, right here in my arms. “He told me he didn’t have any parents and worked two jobs to go to school. It— Was it all a lie?”

My head whips around to Jacob fucking Coleman.

The fucker actually looks pained, but it’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to him.

“Being with you was the most real thing I’ve ever had in my life, Row. But…” He waves his hands around the hallway of this luxury hotel as if that’s the only explanation she deserves.

“Don’t call her that,” I bark. He doesn’t deserve any piece of her.

She shudders, and her body convulses as if she’s about to dry heave.

“I caught him fucking my stepsister, Haley, in my bed.” She points to Jacob’s wife, who sneers back. “It was the last time I allowed her to hurt me. I moved out of our apartment and finished college living in Junebug…until Pappy came to visit, anyway.”

“You’re pathetic and got what you deserved.” Haley laughs, and Rowan’s entire body flinches at the sound.

“Shut the fuck up, Haley.” Jacob doesn’t raise his voice—he doesn’t have to. We all stand silently staring at the woman in my arms.

Someone laughs. It’s a cocky one that raises the hair on the back of my neck. I direct my glare at Nick. “What the hell do you have to do with all of this?”

“Unfortunately, not a damn thing. But if I can’t take credit for crumbling your empire, I’ll take great pleasure in knowing it happened because of your fuckbuddy. Coleman.” The prick snaps his fingers. “Our deal is still on the table for twenty-four hours.”

“You’re done,” I promise Nick with lethal venom coating each word. “All of you. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Remember what I said, Rowan.” Jesus, Haley’s voice is grating, and I hate the reaction it stirs in Rowan. “It’s all up to you how things will play out for him in the end.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but if I don’t get out of here soon, I might break something or someone, so I do the only thing I can. I scoop up Rowan and storm out of this fucked-up charity gala—consequences be damned.

The car pulls up quickly, and I usher Rowan out the back of the event hotel. She’s quiet on the ride back to where we’re staying, and she’s pushed herself into the corner, pressed up against the door as if she can’t create enough space between us.

She’s running, and I don’t know how to help her.

In our suite, she excuses herself to the restroom, and moments later, the shower turns on.

Removing my bow tie, I let it hang off my shoulders and text Beck.

Me: We have a problem.

Beck: I saw.

Beck: (video sent)

Fuck me.

Someone recorded us in the hallway. From this angle, it appears Rowan is in the middle of a circle with me, Nick, and Coleman surrounding her as she attempts to explain her relationship with Coleman.

Devastation is written all over her face.

I don’t bother reading the headlines. It’ll all be lies anyway.

Me: How did you get this?

Beck: I have notifications to ping me anytime Coleman is mentioned in the press. Rowan was just caught in the crossfire.

Beck: Alexei’s working on damage control, but…

He doesn’t have to say it. We both know he’s about to rip into me because if we lose Coleman, we’re fucked.

The phone rings in my hand.

“Yeah,” I answer.

“How is she?” Beck asks with a heavy sigh.

“She’s showering. I don’t even know what the fuck happened.”

“There were rumors,” he says. His unease crosses through the phone and into my body.

“What rumors?” My chest heaves with the need for oxygen.

“Jacob never wanted to take over Coleman Enterprises. From what I heard through the grapevine, he went off the grid, completely away from his family for a couple of years. He built a life with someone in upstate New York where he went to college, and then, out of nowhere, he got married to someone else and became a VP in his father’s company. He went nose-to-nose with his father for weeks, accusing him of blackmail, but the news died out faster than it started. Before stories could spiral, he was married with a kid, who may or may not be his, and was left stewing in a high-rise office.”

The bathroom door opens, and Rowan stands there, wrapped in a towel with steam rushing past her.

I hang up on Beck without so much as a goodbye.

“She told me she was pregnant.” Rowan’s voice is flat, devoid of any emotion at all, and it hurts me more to see her this way than it did to find my wife with my best friend.

“They’d been having an affair for about four months, but the vendetta Haley had against me began the day she moved into my father’s house.”

“Come here.” Opening my arms, I say a silent prayer that she won’t shut me out. But she has to come to me. Run to me, Rowan, please. Run to me, not away from me.

She closes the distance and drops her forehead to my chest, and I sag with relief.

“If it hadn’t been Jake, it would have been someone else.” Her monotone voice cuts me to my core.

Taking her hand in mine, I lead her to the sofa. I sit, and she flops down beside me. My arm drops to her shoulders, and I take a deep breath when she leans into me.

“Haley’s father is a horrible man. A financial advisor by day, preacher on Sunday’s, and the worst kind of monster behind closed doors.”

My heart is beating so hard I’m almost surprised it isn’t leaving an imprint on my T-shirt with each crash against my ribs.

“The abuse started as soon as he moved in. He had to retrain me because my father had failed. That’s what he said. My father had just died, and Tony told me all the ways my father was a failure.”

“I’m so sorry. It’s inadequate, and nowhere near enough, but I am sorry.” We should have saved her.

“It’s not your fault,” she says quietly. “Haley learned quickly that her punishments were lessened the more I received. We never stood a chance at having a relationship. We were pitted against each other from day one. My mother was indifferent toward me, but she loved Haley. I became the family punching bag. Now, here we are. She spent her childhood learning how to one-up and outdo me, and she figured out early on how to inflict the most amount of pain while doing it.”

“Fucking hell.”

Rowan smiles up at me, but it’s so sad my eyes well up.

“She made sure I caught them having sex. It was March twenty-second—the anniversary of my father’s death.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I made sure no one would ever be able to hurt me again after that.”

My hand slides under her back, and I pull her into my lap.

“That’s my story—that’s why I’m the way that I am. Now you understand why you need to focus on your family. Mya’s sick, Seb. And because of me, you might lose?—”

“I’m not losing anything,” I interrupt.

“But Mya, the kids. You have to speak to her.”

“Tomorrow. Tonight, the only thing I need to do is hold you and know that you’re okay.”

Her breath catches in her throat, but she nods. “Tonight,” she whispers.

We sit in the silence of what she didn’t say—she didn’t give me her tomorrows—and eventually, she starts to doze off. Then I carry her to bed, once again feeling her slip through my fingertips. I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do to make her stay this time.

“Are you sure you want me to go with you? It already feels a little antagonistic. Don’t you think having your hookup sit in on a meeting with your ex-wife will make things even worse?”

We’ve never put a label on what we are. Rowan utilizes tactics to put space between us, and calling herself a hookup is one of them, but I won’t have it. I have a six lane pileup on my hands, but she’s the one element I need to untangle all the rest.

The reality is, I need her by my side. Even though she’s itching to run, I need her to stay with me through all these tiny battles so we can win the war. I’m stronger with her by my side.

“Don’t do that, Peach.”

“Don’t do what?” She tries to slip her hand from mine as soon as the elevator doors open, but I hold tighter.

“You’re not just a hookup and you know it. I love you, Rowan Melody Ellis. I need you here.”

She gulps but nods, and I lead her into the restaurant. I changed our meeting location at the last minute to mitigate any more fallout from landing on Beck’s doorstep. Mya also won’t make a scene in this hotel, so that’s a bonus.

I spot Mya as soon as we enter. Every ounce of love I thought I held for this woman evaporated when I found her with Nick. And now I can’t even muster an ounce of sympathy.

She spots us as we weave through the tables, her gaze glued to where I clutch Rowan’s hand as if I’ll never let it go.

Pulling out Rowan’s chair, I wait for her to sit, then fold myself into the empty one next to her and clasp my hands together on the table in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of Tilly. She’s facing me while her husband has his back to me, and I throw up a silent prayer of thanks.

Mya doesn’t keep us waiting. “He talked about you a lot.”

Rowan’s head snaps up to meet Mya’s gaze.

“That’s not what we’re here to talk about,” I hiss.

Mya shrugs. “It makes sense now, why you could never love me. You never had control of your heart.”

I slam my fist onto the table, not caring that all eyes turn to us. “I was a good husband, Mya.”

“You were,” she says flatly. “You did everything a good husband is supposed to do, except love me. I was dying a slow death trying to get you to love me the way you loved Seren, and then Miles, and then Kade.”

Rowan stiffens next to me, and her knee starts bouncing. I drop my hand to her thigh, and she settles.

“You’re insane, Mya. It will never be a competition between who I love and my children.” Shaking my head, I try to organize my wild thoughts. My world is burning down around me, and I have to decide which fire to put out first. “What do you want?”

“I’m dying.” She says it so bluntly my mind goes blank. “Have been for a while. I won’t say the brain tumor is what made me act out, though the doctors said it’s possible, but I’m owning my actions.”

“Then what the fuck do you want from me?”

For the first time since we sat down, she shows a glimpse of real emotion. A glimpse of the woman I thought I’d loved. That woman never would’ve done what she’s done. How did we go from what we were to this?

She used to be gentle, kind even. When Seren was born, I’d never seen her so happy. But now, all I see is a vacant shell with no love left to give.

I may never understand her outside of my part in our downfall. I cared for her as a husband should care for his wife, but if I’m honest, I was never in love with her, and now any positive emotion I felt toward her is gone. I should have known better than to enter an arranged marriage to make my father happy.

“When we divorced,” she says quietly, “my father went ballistic because his only hope of keeping his company from collapsing was with a merger between Fitzgerald and Walker, and now that will never happen. Now he’s in a rage and partnering with Nick. They’ll keep taking aim until they ruin you. I’m telling you as a courtesy, and because I want to say goodbye to the kids.”

Rowan sucks in a breath that might have siphoned all the air from the room.

I rub my hand over her thigh, then look back at my ex-wife. “Your father needs a merger because he’s a terrible businessman who is in more debt than he can ever crawl out of, and even if we had stayed married, I never would have accepted a deal with him. Nick is a fungus who will feed off the infestation and slowly suffocate himself, so neither of them are a threat. But you? I hate you, Mya. I hate you for everything you’ve put my children through. I hate you even more now because I know you’re going to hurt them all over again. I won’t keep you from seeing them, but I will be the one to pick up the pieces you leave behind. Again. And one of these times, they won’t be able to forgive you.”

She opens her mouth, but I hold up a finger to interrupt her.

“I said I won’t stop you from seeing them, but I will insist that a therapist is present at all times because this will break them all over again. You may not care because you didn’t stick around to see the fallout of your actions, but now that I know who you are, I will take all steps necessary to protect them, especially from you.”

Her gaze darts from me to Rowan, but before she can reply, my phone rings. Removing it from my pocket, I hit silence, then place it on the table, only for it to begin ringing again.

Beck Hayes flashes on the screen.

I hit silence, and once again, it rings.

“What if it’s about the kids?” Rowan whispers.

Mya and I look at her. She loves my kids. Her concern wraps around her tone as her eyes plead with me to make sure they’re okay.

“You’re right.” I hit the accept button, but all I hear is Beck shouting. Plugging my free ear, I stand, trying to get better reception. When that doesn’t work, I glance between Rowan and Mya. The last thing I want to do is leave them alone, but when Rowan tips her right shoulder up, I nod and move as efficiently as I can toward the door.

I stop in the doorway and glance over my shoulder in time to see Rowan’s entire body stiffen.

What the fuck?

“Sebastian?” Beck yells into the phone.

Knowing I have to start somewhere, I exit the room to take Beck’s call. I’ll deal with fucking Mya and whatever she said to my girl next.