Xavier Cold (Hard Knocks #2)(59)

I push up into a sitting position in time for her make it down the short hall of the room. My heart thunders in my chest as she stands there, staring at me. She looks just the same as the last day I saw her. Same dark hair, pulled back perfectly in a low-set ponytail, and her makeup perfectly applied. All of that coordinating with the black dress slacks and red blouse she has on.

I’m going to kill Jorge for calling her.

Her head tilts and her eyes soften as she rounds the bed and sits down next to me, wrapping her arms around me in the process. “My baby,” she whispers and I instantly begin crying again.

After she holds me for a long time, she pulls back and inspects my face, tucking a loose strand of my hair away from my face. “He’s done a number on you, hasn’t he? Jorge says you’re pregnant.”

My eyes cut to Jorge, and he knows he’s betrayed my trust by telling her that.

He raises his hands in surrender. “I panicked. They were the only people I knew to call who could help you.”

“They?” I question. “What do you mean they?”

“Don’t be angry at Jorge, dear. He did the right thing by calling us. We’re here to help you. Your father is downstairs, and he forgives you—”

“Forgives me? I did nothing to him. He’s the one who was smothering me,” I tell her.

Mother licks her lips but continues to stare at me with her beautiful green eyes. “Perhaps, we are guilty of sheltering you too much, but you have to believe we did it because we had your best interests at heart. It hit us when you left the way you did that you weren’t a little kid anymore. You’re a grown woman, capable of making your own decisions, and if you come back home with us, we promise we will do our best to lighten up and give you freedom.”

I wipe under my eyes. “I love you, Mother, but I can never live at home again. Father will never stop seeing me as a little girl he can control unless I stand on my own two feet.”

She pokes her bottom lip. “But with a baby, Anna, life will be difficult without help.”

“I know,” I tell her. “But I’ll manage. I’m ready to accept the responsibility.”

Mother pinches my chin between her forefinger and thumb and sighs. “My little girl is all grown up and going to be a mother. I can’t believe it.”

She smiles which in turn makes me smile, and somehow I know Mother and I will find a way to work out our differences.

My father, on the other hand, will be a different story.





Chapter 28


Xavier


I sit on the edge of my bed and bawl like a f*cking baby. It killed me to walk away from Anna, but how can I be a father? I’m not cut out for it. I don’t want to be the reason the kid eventually turns into a monster like me.

But what I do want is for Anna to be happy. I swore I would never make her frown, and that I would be a good man to her, yet here I am, breaking those promises.

I wish I were different.

I wish I were better.

I wish I could give her the happily ever after that she craves—like the ones in those romance books she reads.

It’s then, in the confusion in my head, I do something I haven’t done in a long time. I fall to my knees in the middle of my hotel room and fold my hands to pray.

I raise my head up toward the ceiling. “God? I know I stopped talking to you after you took my mother away from me, and you probably don’t give a shit about me either way, but I need your guidance. I need a sign in what I need to do. I love Anna. God, I love her so much that it scares me to lose her. She’s my everything, but I’m willing to let her go if it’s the right thing to do.” Tears drip down onto my shirt. “What should I do?”

A gentle knock at the door causes my head to snap in its direction. No one knows where we are staying so having a visitor startles the hell out of me.

I hop up on my feet and then dry my face with the sleeve of my T-shirt.

I open the door and, at first, don’t see anyone until I drop my gaze about four feet. Standing there is a little dark-haired girl, wearing a pink dress and clutching a teddy bear to her chest.

“Da? Da?” is all she says. Clearly she’s still in the babbling phase of her communication skills.

I furrow my brow just as a woman from down the hallway scoops up the child into her arms.

The woman grimaces as she stares up at me, obviously intimidated by my towering frame. “I’m so sorry. No. No. Anna. Stay with Mommy.”

My mouth falls open, and for the first time in my life, I swear I’ve witnessed a miracle. I asked for a sign, and the man upstairs sure as hell provided me with one.

It’s clear to me at that moment what I’m supposed to do. I need to find a way to make things work with Anna, and say to hell with all the things that could happen because I’ll fight to keep her and my baby safe until my last dying breath.

Anxious to see Anna and begin groveling for her forgiveness, I sprint all the way back to the hotel where I know all the wrestlers are staying.

I burst through the doors and cut in front of the line at the concierge desk. “What room is Anna Cortez in?”

The woman, who is obviously put off by my behavior, looks at me with a resting bitch face. “We cannot give out that information. Now if you don’t mind step away from the counter.”

“Fine,” I say. “You don’t want to tell me, I’ll just go up and down every hallway searching for her. I think I’ll start here in the lobby. Anna! Anna?”