Page 12 of War

He’s oblivious of the way his wife treats me and ambivalent to the way Xander does.

Maybe I should hate him too, but he’s the only family I have. So in honor of that, I’ve worked to maintain some semblance of a relationship with Xander and Dory. Even if they couldn’t care less about me.

Or I should say I tried. Nowadays, I don’t make any effort at all. Unfortunately, Xander has become a fixture in my circle as of late. In a cruel twist of fate, he’s dating Ava. And since she’s best friends with Brooks’s fiancée and Aiden’s wife, it’s a real mindfuck.

If I didn’t despise her just as much as she despises me, I’d consider warning her. But fuck it. They deserve each other.

As the door to the conference room swings open and my attorney appears with a smile on her face, my anxiety easesslightly. “Did she sign?”

“She did. Once she confirmed that the money had been transferred, of course.”

Head hung, I punch my fist into my hand and blow out a breath. “Thank fuck.”

Stepping up in front of me so I’m forced to look up, Madi narrows her dark eyes. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. You have a long road ahead of you. And if you’re going to be a dad, you need to watch the language.”

A dad.Fuck.I can’t believe I’m really going to be a dad.

On autopilot, I shoot her my signature smirk. “Come on, who could say no to this face?”

All she gives me in response is an arched brow. Madison Scott is not easily influenced. A few years ago, she married movie star Duncan Scott in what can only be described as the biggest scandal to ever hit Hollywood. The woman is basically immune to my charm, and that’s exactly why I hired her. I don’t need a yes-woman. I need the best of the best, and I need a woman to give it to me straight. Fortunately, she’s both.

“You’re a single thirty-two-year-old man who travels for ten months out of the year and is known for getting into fights on the ice. You aren’t exactly the ideal candidate for adoptive father of not one, butthreekids.”

Her harsh words are like a slap. Damn. “I’ve got Maria to help, and Brayden is like a built-in babysitter.” Maria is a nurse I hired because one of the children I’m trying to adopt, Josie, is a cancer survivor and spent a good chunk of her little life in the hospital. Outside of me and Bray, Maria is another stable person in Josie’s life. That should count for something, right?

Madi seems unmoved by this though, continuing on in her explanation of just how difficult this adoption will be. “And Josie has spent a big chunk of her nine years on this earth in a hospital. She’s been abandoned by not only her birth mother, but her foster parents. She needs stability.” Madi’s lips pull down in genuine sympathy. “Scarlett’s only two. She’ll keep you on your toes, she may be yours now, but this entire situation is an uphill battle. I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”

Straightening, I cross my arms over my chest. “I never get my hopes up.” I don’t. I’m an eternal pessimist. In my experience, if something can go wrong, it will. Not one aspect of my life has been easy. Nothing has gone according to plan. But in comparison to what Josie has been through? What I’ve experienced has been a walk in the park. Between the four of us—Brayden, Josie, Scarlett, and me—I figure we’ve earned a little good luck by now. I blow out a breath. “But Scarlett and Bray are mine now, right? A judge will want to keep all the siblings together.”

It’s wishful thinking. I know this. I met Josie at a charity event last Christmas. Everyone at Langfield Corp knows her. She was diagnosed with lymphoma sixteen months ago, and when her foster parents received the news, they left her at the hospital. As in, they walked away and never came back.

The thought of her spending her days and nights alone in a hospital at only eight fucking years old made me sick for weeks. I could relate in a way, though my experience was completely different. It was just me and my mom, and she was the one that was sick, but I was still alone in that hospital. And after she died…

My jaw hardens. This isn’t about me. It’s about Josie.

After I met her, I wanted more than anything to cheer her up, to take away some of the loneliness, but I worried that visiting a little girl on my own would look weird.

So I brought Brayden along.

And week after week, I fell more in love with her.

Despite all the hardships she’s faced, Josie is filled with optimism. She radiates a goodness, a purity, so rare and special. And fuck, is she funny. The girl reminds me so much of my mom. Smiling through the pain, laughing through the hard days.

Within weeks, I was hiring an attorney and working out plans to adopt her.

But what Madi said to me today? It’s the same thing she told me a year ago. I’m single, I’m a hothead and I’m a hockey player. In other words, I’m not a good bet.

I’m not worth it.

Maybe it’s true, but it never sat well with me. I don’t have a family.Josie doesn’t have a family. I would move heaven and earth to be the person she can rely on. To give her a warm bed, food, and whatever medical care she needs. What else could possibly matter?

After Madi gave me the hard truth about my odds, I set out to find her birth mother, hoping that she could help me get custody of Josie. I knew she was only sixteen when she relinquished her rights, so I assumed—naïvely, of course—that she’d done it because she wanted a better life for her daughter. That when she learned that her little girl was all alone in the world, she’d jump at the chance to help.

I was proven wrong by yet another woman.

Krista Sternoff is no better than Brayden’s mother, Trisha.

When I first found Krista, I was sure I could convince her to help me. She was living in an almost bare studio apartment with her two-year-old daughter, Scarlett, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. That was this past summer. After that, I gave up my apartment in the hockey building and vowed to dedicate the rest of my life to these kids. I bought a house in the hopes of moving everyone in. Brayden, Trisha, Krista and her two kids. I paid for food and clothing and every other necessity. All I asked was that Krista stay sober and be a mother to Josie and Scarlett. I knew the situation wouldn’t be perfect, but it was the only way I could come up with that could guarantee Josie, Brayden, and Scarlett would be safe and cared for. That’s when I hired one of Josie’s nurses, Maria, to move in with us. To be a support and comfort to Josie during the transition.

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