Page 10 of The Summer I Loved

CHAPTER FIVE

Cameron’s brain was clogged with so many thoughts and emotions, he found himself reeling. The door to the limo had barely closed, but it was like he’d been caged for years. He was practically jumping out of his skin.

Something he couldn’t name came over him when he thought of Bronwyn. So small, so smart, so beautiful. If he had ever thought of having a kid, she’s the kind of kid he would have wanted. But he’d never wanted a kid and now he had one.

With Adrianna.

He laughed out loud. Life sure played an ugly joke on him. All these years, he and Adri had had the strongest of ties and he hadn’t known it. He hadn’t known it because one person had kept it from him.Walter. His father had always been Cam’s biggest nemesis. Cam didn’t prepare to face the Red Sox with the intensity he had to talk himself into, just to go to his parents’ house.

He’d taken the baseball contract to please them. How encouraging and proud Walter had been the day he’d left Acacia for New York. It was the only time in Cam’s life when he had behaved like an actual father, instead of a tyrant who ruled over his children with an iron fist.

Cam had been fooled for a long time and even told himself how whatever he was suffering over his breakup with Adri was worth it because he’d made his dad proud.

It’d taken him six months to figure out the truth. That was when the money Walter had gotten illegally from Cam’s agent ran out. Walter had been up to his neck in debt, with bookies calling around. Cam’s ears still rang with the desperate calls from Walter and Marilyn, saying if he didn’t pay the people he owed, they’d harm them or his siblings.

Cam couldn’t let that happen. Chase and Lux were younger and he’d do anything to protect them. He’d completely thrown himself into preparing. He had no life except training and breezing through the Emperors’ single, double, and triple A farm systems. Thanks to his talent he was one of the youngest players to make it to the majors. That’s when the endorsements started to trickle in.

Walter had used Cam as his cash cow. He’d done it for years, getting into impossible situations with his gambling and forcing Cam to bail him out. It’d lasted until Cam had enough and set him up with a monthly stipend. He didn’t want to deal with the phone calls, or the visits, or the worry it put on Luciana. He needed to center his efforts on keeping Chase from getting killed.

He’d parented everyone except for his child.Bronwyn.

All because he hadn’t known. Because Walter kept her from him, so he’d still have access to Cam’s money.

Do not call him. But his thumb scrolled through his contacts until Walter’s name appeared on the screen.

“Cameron, this is a surprise.” Walter always sounded like a debt collector. He was pleasant to start every call until you told him what he didn’t want to hear, then came the threats.

“The surprise was all mine. She’s a bouncing nine-year-old and laughs like your daughter.” The acid churning in his stomach mixed with the wonder that still swirled in Cam’s heart when he thought of Bron.

“Excuse me?” Walter asked, confusion stumbling on his words.

“I found the secret you kept from me, Walter.” Cam wouldn’t ever call him father again.

Walter’s hmmph echoed through the line. “Now, Cameron, don’t jump into conclusions. Let me explain first.”

“Explain what? You kept a child, my child, from me.” Heat clouded Cam’s vision. He had to take a breather. “It’s an asshole move.”

“Watch your mouth, boy. You weren’t ready to be a parent. Neither was that girl. You threw tantrums at the smallest provocation. What you were was a legend in the making and nothing was going to ruin that.” Walter said.

The worst part was that his father wasn’t wrong. Cameron had been an over-sized child at the time and, had he not been so impulsive in his fight with Adri, things could have gone differently.

But that didn’t erase the wrong Walter had done him and Cam wasn’t going to let him weasel or insult his way out of it. “That wasn’t your call to make. It was mine. I deserved to know.”

“I’m your father and I made the best decision for you. That’s what a father does. He chooses the well-being of his children above everyone, including young girls whose mothers don’t teach them the basics like making sure the boy wears a condom. You had a brilliant future and I wasn’t going to let Fausto Hayes’ brat get in the way of it. Plus, for all I knew that kid was Tommy’s.”

“You’re lying, Walter. Adrianna went to you. She told you it was my baby. Tommy hadn’t been around all summer.”

“Women lie, Cameron. Even pretty ones with doe eyes and long legs. Who the hell knows who else she was opening them for? You couldn’t have thought you were the only one.”

The condescending tone made him want to punch a hole through the car window. “Adrianna didn’t go around spreading her legs. I know she’s not lying about this. You do too. You haven’t even bothered to deny you knew.”

That’s what was pissing him off the most. Walter was cynical enough he didn’t care that Cam knew.

“You think Adrianna doesn’t lie? Then why didn’t you believe her when she told you she had broken up with Tommy all those years ago? Because I remember you being really upset about it. You were so worked up, you signed a contract without reading it and left town right after.”

It was a sock to the gut. Walter wasn’t wrong about that. He hadn’t believed her then. He’d thrown a tantrum and walked away. “I didn’t believe her. You’re right. I was stupid then but that doesn’t change the fact that you exploited it. You encouraged me to leave and later, without me asking, you told me she married Tommy and she never did. She had a baby,my baby,and you hid it. Just so you could have access to my money. So you could milk me at your will whenever your fucking addiction got the best of you.”

“I’m your father, Cameron. You need to respect me.”

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