Page 58 of The Last One You Loved
My heart slammed, pulse picking up. No wonder Maddox had screamed at me to get the fuck out. No wonder he’d been panicked and cruel at the bar. I was threatening everything he loved. I closed my eyes, fingers squeezing the mug until I thought it might burst.
Maybe Mama was right. I was a bad omen. Nothing good would happen around me. I’d run away, trying to change my fate, but maybe I could only keep it at bay for so long. Maybe my luck had completely run out.
“If he knows who the father is, what happens?” I asked.
“If he knows, and it’s someone the court deems unworthy of being a parent, they can strip the rights away. If it’s someone the court thinks deserves a chance, he’ll likely have to share custody in some way.”
Holy hell…
That feeling I’d had when I’d seen Layton Gregory nearly faint in the hospital hallway filled me again. Like the world was shifting around me. Like my choices could wreck my world. But this time, they could also wreck Mila’s and Maddox’s and the family they’d built together.
I looked down into my coffee cup with one thought ringing through my ears—I should leave. My lungs forgot to breathe for a moment. If I went back to the apartment in Davis, there was a much better chance of Gregory coming after me. But where else could I go? Sally’s face flashed, but I still didn’t want to bring this to her door either. I could just go anywhere. Anywhere but here. Max out the credit card. Declare bankruptcy. Get a temporary job until things were resolved.
Mila’s happy face after I told her she’d see me after school took over. God, I realized how badly I wanted to be here when she walked through the door. Then, Maddox’s expression after our kiss returned, filled with heat and longing, and I was overcome with the desire to continue what we’d started. God, I wanted it all. The hope—the little tiny flare that had burst inside me when I’d thought of coming back to Tennessee—flickered, growing stronger. It was a demon that would destroy me, but I would let it…as long as it didn’t destroy them.
There was something between Maddox and me. Had always been. Years and hurt and denial hadn’t extinguished it. Maybe instead of expecting someone to come running after me, to fight for me, I had to be the one to fight. Maybe I had to be the one to stay and declare to the world I belonged here…belonged to someone…a whole family.
That thought held me captive for way too long.
When I looked back up from my coffee, Rianne was still watching me with an eyebrow raised.
“It would be better to know, right?” I asked. “Mama wouldn’t be able to hold it over him anymore. He wouldn’t have to be at her beck and call.”
“I think so, but it’s never been my call to make. I think Maddox might have finally come to the same conclusion because…well, he let you stay here when he knew what the cost might be.”
The cost being Mila…Jesus.
I slid off the stool and looked into her face full of a kindness I wasn’t sure I’d ever earned. “Thank you for telling me. If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a call.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I headed for the guest bedroom, searching for my keys, my shoes, and my phone I’d purposefully left behind because I hadn’t felt up to another terrifying text from Dr. Gregory.
My hands shook as I opened my contacts and scrolled down to the T’s. I wasn’t sure the number would work. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to see him, but I thought he might be the one person who could get me answers…get Maddox answers.
It meant facing my past yet again, and maybe that was what the universe was demanding of me. Maybe I’d been meant to stay and fight all along, and now it was giving me the chance to make amends. To do it right.
CHAPTERTWENTY
MADDOX
NEVER SAY NEVER
“Girl, you’re a match, you’re gasoline.
We just burn too fast, so here we are,
Lightin’ up that spark.”
Performed by Cole Swindell and Lainey Wilson
Written by Alexander / Swindell / McGill
The rain was pouringdown over us as we huddled beneath a line of trees at the turnoff leading to the West Gears’ headquarters. Sheriff Scully and I had scrambled together six officers, including ourselves, which left a handful in each of our stations if things went haywire.
“If they’ve let her in, they aren’t going to let us take her without some encouragement,” Scully said.
I nodded.
“You sure you don’t want to just wait until she comes back down?”
