Page 105 of His Greatest Treasure

“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,” hespits, 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’remine. 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’reevery. 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.”

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