Page 50 of Return To You

“Yo, Noah, you ready?” Cameron asks as he knocks on the door. I look his way, but instead of looking at me, his eyes are on the wall, at the photo.

“We all fucked up, didn’t we?” he asks.

I nod. “We did.”

He swallows hard. “Will she ever forgive us?”

I chew the inside of my cheek, then admit, “You and Barn, with time, me….” I shake my head. “Probably never.”

He sighs. “She loves you, Noah.” I look down, grabbing my phone off the bedside table, and he continues, “I saw the jewelry, the tattoo on her wrist. She loves you, and she will forgive you. Just like me and Barn, it’ll take time.”

“I haven’t seen her in three days, Cam,” I scoff with a bit of bitterness. “How in the fuck did I go nearly two years without her?”

I look his way with so much fucking pain, his eyes tear up, and he rasps, “You drank yourself to sleep every night, and made yourself go numb.”

I nod, then shake my head and mumble, “Let’s go.”

He leads the way out of my room, bypassing Diego’s room that Mom has done up for me, and toward the stairs.

“Does Rose know you’ve done a room up for Diego?” he asks as we go downstairs, and I sigh.

“Not yet. I’m hoping to get her here soon to show her the house…herhouse. If I have my way, she’ll be moving in, it’s just convincing her to hear me out first.”

He nods as Mom squeals, “I can’t believe our baby is one already!”

I snort, raising a brow. "Way to go reminding me you had access to my son, Mom.”

She shrugs unapologetically. “I tried to tell you about him from the moment you arrived in LA after she admitted to being pregnant, Noah, but you blocked my calls.”

Nick chuckles, getting my attention.

He loves that Mom’s giving me her “told you so” crap. Wanting to wipe that grin off his face and take the heat off of me, I smirk, “Hey, Dad, do you know Diego’s middle name?”

He frowns, as does Mom, while Cameron and Barnett grin. Dad states, “She never told us, or his last name, for that matter.”

I nod and say, “Diego Nicholas Scott.”

Nick’s eyes tear up; she gave Diego Nick’s name as his middle name. I smirk and pat his back, happy to give him the news so he knows what he means to Rose, which means knowing what he means to me. Because Rose is the only person who knows what he means to me, what he gave me growing up.

He’s my dad in every way except blood.

Last year, I met my biological father, and not on my terms, either. It turns out his company was going in the red, and he needed a handout. He saw me in interviews and showed up at one of our gigs.

He said he was my father, and he needed help.

I told him I had a dad, and if he didn’t leave, I’d contact his wife. He tried claiming she knew about him and was the reason he wasn’t a part of my life, so I called his bluff and called the number I had for years as insurance from Mom.

He went pale as fuck when I said who I was to the poor, unsuspecting woman, and when I told her who my mother was, she flew off the fucking handle.

Turns out the fucker had a bet going. Whoever got my mom to fuck them would get the company that’s now failing, the company his wife wasn’t aware he had, only believing he worked as the CEO.

It turns out, my mother was school-focused until he ruined her, and made her think she was his forever.

Fucker….

It took three security guards to stop me from beating the shit outta him when I realized he mentally hurt my mother, causing her to drink the way she did, always believing she wasn’t good enough.

Mom sniffles and whispers, “Okay, let’s go, quick. I want to see our boy.”

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