Page 58 of His Greatest Treasure

The front door slams behind me, and I wince. Shame sinks in right alongside years of unresolved anger and resentment until I’m overflowing with too many negative emotions to think straight. I take a stunted step back and push my hair out of my face.

Every good moment from last night and this morning is spoiled by Chris. The man who has taken so many happy memories from me that I’ve lost count. He’s ruined more than a handful of days, but these ones . . . it bites harder than usual.

Oliver moves into my space, completely obliterating any distance between us while palming my back, fingers drifting slowly back and forth. Despite my efforts, I melt a little at his touch.

Hot breath sears my ear when he whispers, “Go see Nova. I’ve got Chris.”

I stare up at him, and I know there’s doubt there. He curls his fingers in the back of my shirt and shifts closer somehow.

“I won’t bloody him up. I’ll leave that to you next time. Your daughter needs you, and I can handle this. Let me help.”

The sincerity in his gaze is enough for me to force myself to agree, taking a risk with my trust for the first time in too long.

With a final glare at Chris, I say, “Go home. You have two weeks to get your life together because if this happens again, we’ll be renegotiating our current custody agreement, and this time, it will be written in stone.”

He sucks in a breath, surprised by the threat, but I’m stalking off before he has a chance to argue with me about it.

Two days every fourteen. That’s it. And it’s still too many.

My heart aches as I step inside the house and go straight for Nova’s room. The door is shut, her backpack left outside in the hall. The sound of angry cries is enough to crack my heart clean down the middle.

Pushing the door open, I sneak inside and sit beside her hunched-over body on the bed. She’s got the pillow pressed to her face and her knees curled into her stomach.

“I’m sorry you had to come back early,” I murmur, smoothing her hair. “What do you need from me?”

She shakes her head, face still hidden in her pink pillow. I keep smoothing her hair and kiss the sliver of the right cheek she has exposed.

“I’ll leave you alone, okay? Just come get me when you’re ready to talk, and I’ll be here to listen,” I tell her softly before pushing to my feet and leaving the room.

After closing her door behind me, I go back to the front of the house and steal a glance at the two men who are still on the sidewalk from the front window.

Chris is in Oliver’s face, spouting shit that I’m glad I can’t hear while Oliver stands there and takes it, his hands steady on his hips. His calmness is sexy, and a devilish part of me wants to see just how long he could keep that same calm exposure in a more personal, intimate setting . . .

A car door slams, and I flinch while focusing back on the window. Chris is pulling away from the curb in his car, and Oliver’s climbing the front steps, swinging the door open a beat later.

“Do I want to know what he was saying out there?” I ask the minute he’s in front of me.

“He doesn’t want me near either of you.”

“So, the obvious stuff, then,” I mutter with a grind of my jaw.

“What did you see in him?”

I turn away from him, fidgeting with myhands. I’m so used to keeping things to myself that I’ve been dumping information on Oliver in loads, and now is no different.

“I was young and stupid. Starved for male attention after being so sheltered growing up. My dad made it impossible to date, and the one time I did, it was with someone he wanted me with. Someone with an NHL career in their future and an ego to match.”

“The guy you brought with you on vacation. You introduced him to everyone.” His tone is darker now, colder.

Curiosity has me turning back around. His tense expression and crossed arms aren’t what I was expecting to see.

“I didn’t think you even noticed. You didn’t speak to me once that trip.”

“You were busy. Didn’t want to interrupt you,” he says.

There’s a tingle in the back of my mind, like there’s a memory I’ve forgotten over the years and can’t seem to bring back.

“Either way, yes, I brought him, and he met everyone, and it was fine. But I wasn’t about to marry him or anything. I convinced my dad that he wasn’t the guy for me, and he let it go. Fast-forward to when I moved here, and it was the first time in my life I had complete freedom. I dated often and made a million mistakes in only a few months on my own, but when I met Chris, he was everything I thought I was wanting.

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