Come Back for Me (Arrowood Brothers #1)(58)

We’ve already sorted that part out.

“I know that you and his brother had issues, but we’re not young or going into this with eyes half open. Connor knows my demons, and he’s told me about his. I appreciate that you want to help me, and I hear your words, truly I do, but there’s something between us. We have a child together and . . . I don’t know, Sydney, it’s just so . . .”

“Easy to love him?”

I want to shake my head in denial. I don’t love him, at least not like that yet. I know I could. I know my heart wants to leap, but I keep my head in check. Love is powerful and can be used against someone if its bearer doesn’t have good intentions, and I refuse to leap again without first knowing what I’m leaping into.

“Easy to want to love him at least.”

Syd extends her hand and covers mine. “I’m not telling you to stay away from him or anything like that, I want you to be careful. Seeing you or Hadley experience even half the pain that I have . . . well, I’d do just about anything to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I appreciate that.”

She smiles. “Now, let’s celebrate your upcoming divorce and get food!”

I grab my purse with the widest grin and nod. “Yes. Let’s.”

Today is filled with possibilities and joy, and I plan to enjoy both, but there’s something niggling at the back of my head, telling me I’m not there yet.





I’m not sure why I’m here.

Every instinct and red light is flashing, warning me to turn back.

But here I am in Luzerne County Prison with a wall of glass separating me from an empty room.

My hands are tingling because my nerves are through the roof. I know he can’t hurt me, touch me, or do anything at this point. Yet, just knowing I’ll see Kevin makes me feel sick.

Still, I need to say these things. I need to face him and let him know that I’m not afraid.

Well, I am, but I won’t show it.

On the other side of the glass divider, a row of inmates all dressed in their orange jumpsuits start to file in. I grasp my hands in my lap below the counter and wait.

He walks slowly, eyes not meeting mine until he sits down.

This man has been the cause of my fear for so damn long, he’s tormented me, haunted me, and now when I look at him, he seems so small.

Kevin sits and takes the phone off the wall, and I do the same.

“Are you here to kick me when I’m down?” His deep voice rasps through the line.

“It would be no different from what you did to me.” His eyes close, head falling forward, but he keeps the phone to his ear. “I’m not here for that. I’m here because . . . well, I don’t really even know, but I felt that I wanted to have some closure, regardless of how the trial goes.”

He laughs once. “Closure. You’re my fucking wife, Ellie. You cheated on me, and you want closure. How the fuck,” he says through gritted teeth, “could you lie to me for seven years about her being my daughter. Were you that desperate to be loved that you manipulated me all this time? I gave you everything, and this is what I learn?”

“Gave me everything? You hit me, Kevin. You hit me when you couldn’t control me. You called me fat, ugly, worthless. You withheld love, affection, and used sex as a weapon. You beat me both physically and emotionally. I didn’t know if Hadley was yours, and I didn’t manipulate you. It was honestly more plausible than my getting pregnant the one time I was with someone else—before we were married.”

He slams his hand on the counter, and I jump. “One time. You’re a fucking liar and a cheat. You want a divorce? Fine! I’m all too happy to be done with you and her.”

My chest tightens and tears threaten to form. I don’t care that he says he’s happy to be done with me, I really don’t, but I thought maybe he’d have some slight affection toward Hadley. I don’t know why since he’s a bastard in every sense, but she adored him. “She meant so little to you?”

Kevin shakes his head, reminding me of how callous he really is. “Why are you here? Did you want me to have to look at you in the eyes and tell you, what? I signed your fucking papers. I don’t want to be married to a gold digger who fucks other men. You want a divorce, go. Take your bastard child and leave.”

“I came because a part of me felt bad for you, silly me. I thought that maybe it really hurt you and you wanted answers.”

When Kevin leans forward, anger fills his eyes. “You put me in jail, divorced me, and then told me the brat I’ve been raising for seven years isn’t even mine. Feel bad? I’m fucking relieved to be done with you, and when the judge hears what a whore you are, I’m pretty sure I won’t be in here after the trial. If I were you, Ellie, I’d do what I could to avoid running into me—ever.”

And with that, he hangs the phone up and stands.

I look at the man I once loved and wanted to make happy who is now a stranger to me. I came here for closure, and I guess that’s exactly what I got. There was no love between us. It was possession and control. That was all we were to him, nothing but expendable property all along.





Chapter Twenty-Six


Connor





“What do you mean you have a kid?” Declan asks after I get done informing him of what’s happened the last week.