Page 77 of Inevitable
“You’ll probably run into my partners and their wives,” I added. “You know they’re all involved as volunteers. I think you’d like all of them.”
I’d already shared a lot about exactly how my billionaire partners’ wives had gotten involved in Last Hope.
“They’re younger than me, but I’m sure I’d like all of them.”
“They’re not that much younger,” I countered. “And I think they’d want to pick your brain about raising kids. Wyatt is a mess right now because Shelby is pregnant.”
Emma would be forty-six shortly, so she was a lot closer to their age than I was.
“He’ll be fine once the baby is born,” Emma said thoughtfully. “Pregnancy can be a crazy time. All I could think about was how to make sure I didn’t screw up as a mother. It sounds like Wyatt is just worried about Shelby.”
“He’s obsessed,” I told her drily. “I can’t say that I blame him now. I wish I could have been there for you when you were pregnant, Emma.”
“We can’t change what happened in the past,” she said gently.
Maybe not, but the thought of Emma pregnant, vulnerable, and alone made me completely insane.
“I had my mom,” Emma explained. “She was so supportive. Once I got over the shock of being pregnant, I was happy. I was also glad that I’d never gotten pregnant with my ex. I turned myself inside out to make him happy, and I never could. I would have loved any child I had, but it would have been miserable with him. I blamed myself for my marriage failing and him turning to another woman because I wasn’t able to get pregnant. I don’t think I realized how ridiculous that was until we met. I had no concept of what a real man should be until we met in Virginia Beach. You might think that you’re awkward with people, but you listened to me. You made me feel…important. That brief encounter made me feel like I was worthy of something better than I had in my marriage.”
Anger flooded through me at the thought of anyone not treating Emma like she was the most incredible woman in the world.
I rolled her under me and searched her face. “Did he hit you, Em?” I asked hoarsely.
Fuck!I’d find the bastard if he had.
I didn’t care how long ago that relationship had happened.
She shook her head slowly. “No. But the emotional abuse was probably worse than getting punched. He gaslighted me for years. By the time we divorced, I felt like everything that went wrong in our marriage was my fault. He was my first really serious relationship, so I was probably easily manipulated. I had very little relationship experience to compare it to. Our time together was short, but you showed me things I’d never experienced before.”
“You are important, Emma,” I growled. “Hell, I felt like the luckiest bastard in the world when you agreed to be with me for a while. He was a fucking idiot not to feel the same way.”
She stroked my cheek lovingly. “He wasn’t…you. He was a huge mistake that I didn’t realize I’d made until we met. That short period of time together changed my whole perspective. Maybe we weren’t together, but I was glad that you were Wren’s father.”
Hell, I was damn glad that she was my daughter, too.
“What can I do to make you understand that you’re important to me?” I asked.
She smiled at me. “You’re here with me right now even though everything else that’s important in your life is in California. You want to know our daughter. Every single thing you do tells me that we matter to you, Colin. You don’t have to prove anything to me. That relationship was a long time ago. I’m not that silly woman anymore. I moved on and I was grateful that I came to my senses. In the last fourteen years, I’ve never settled for anything less than the way you made me feel in Virginia Beach. I guess I just want you to know how significant that time together was for me, and how much it changed my life. We may have called it a fling, but it was pretty important in a lot of ways to me.”
“Even though I got you pregnant and walked away?” I asked.
“That wasn’t your fault. We both agreed to something very temporary. Getting pregnant wasn’t something that was even in the realm of possibility for me. Wren was my miracle child, and I wouldn’t change what happened for any reason.”
“I’d change the fact that I just walked away,” I said grumpily.
Fuck!That was and probably always would be the biggest regret in my life.
“It wasn’t just you,” she informed me. “I could have said something before you left, and I didn’t. Let it go, Colin. We’re here together now. I think I just got a second miracle in my life, and I’m not about to wallow in regret when I have you with me now. I want to take advantage of every second.”
The last of the ice around my heart started to thaw.
She was right.
Emma and Iweregiven a second chance, and I’d be damned if I was going to take that for granted.
Maybe I didn’t believe in fate, but the chances of Emma and I actually crossing each other’s paths again were beyond astronomical.
“Exactly how do you plan on taking advantage of every second?” I asked as I stared down at her beautiful face.
