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Handing her the monkey I know he’ll follow, I swallow down the urge to push her out of the way and leave.
“My! My monkey,” Easton garbles at her as he throws himself at his toy.
“Here.” The minute she hands him the stuffed animal, I can see the urgency in his eyes to jump ship. But instead of giving in, I take a step back while holding his hand.
I may be giving Heather what she asked for, but I won’t abandon him.
After a minute, Easton seems to be a little less distressed. There’s no smile, but the tears are gone too.
“I can’t believe it’s been two years. Seems just like yesterday that we—” Heather pauses before she takes a deep breath and continues., “Seems like it was only yesterday he was born. He was such a small baby, and now…look at him.”
“That’s the thing about kids. They grow pretty fast. One blink and—”
“I want access to him, Parker. I want to see him more…for him to get to know me. We’re his parents and…” Although she doesn’t finish her statement, her hand hovering over mine and East’s says more than her words could.
“Don’t go there. Don’t start thinking about things that aren’t going to happen. It’ll only make life harder.” She’s got that same look in her eyes that she had when she told me she was pregnant. Hopeful. As though there could be more between us other than the only thing we have in common—Easton. “If you want to be in his life, you need to prove yourself. I’m not just going to stand by and let you in again, not after what you did. Earn the right to be someone to him, and maybe we can look into the guardianship agreement.”
“I’m his mom,” she almost shrieks, making Easton reach out to me. I take him without hesitation while she continues. “He’s mine too!”
“You neglected him.” The words cut past my lips with razor-sharpness.
Something changes right there and then. As though her mask has crumbled and the mean girl she’s always been comes to the surface.
“And you don’t?” Heather cocks her brow. “My mom’s told me all about your little bimbo. Playing family in daddy’s hotel. Well, I won’t let her replace me.”
“No one can replace something that’s never existed. Do you know what that means?” She opens her mouth to respond, but I beat her to it. “You’ve never been a mother, and I’ll be damned if I let you waltz into my son’s life as though you didn’t almost ruin it.”
There’s a silent instant where she stares down at the ground, her fingers knotting in front of her like she’s processing my words.
“I gave you everything you could possibly need to be a decent mother. To care for him. I gave you chance after chance to appreciate what you had. To love him, but you were too damn selfish. If you had been the person he needed you to be, you wouldn’t be so worried about Summer taking your place.”
“Summer,” she echoes lightly, making East look around us as he asks, “Where Sum?”
“That’s her name, and it’s what you will call her. You may not respect yourself, but you will respect her.”
“Jenson always said that the reason you were so good at being the perfect son was because you are just as cold and ruthless as your father.”
Jenson. Always fucking Jenson.
Whenever they want to hit deep, it’s always him that she and Ellen use. My brother. Whenever I called it off with Heather, it was always Jenson she would run to, and for some reason, I hated it so much that I would forget all the reasons I wanted her out of my life. Maybe I knew that the two of them together would end in tragedy. Perhaps that was my way of trying to save them at the time.
Regardless, I failed them, and I almost failed Easton too. My arms wrap tighter around him, as though they might shelter him from her poison. Because she’s right about me. I am ruthless about my boy’s safety.
Taking a step closer, Heather scoffs. The sound seems loud in the unwitting silence surrounding us while she looks at me from head to toe with a disapproving shake of her head.
“It wasn’t the drugs that killed him…we both know that. Don’t you, Parker?”
The vapid chuckle hits me square in the chest. A sucker punch that my gut wasn’t ready for. I know that if I don’t get out of here, I’ll implode.
“You’re going to get the hell out of my way now, and I’m going to leave with my son.” I don’t wait for her to do it. Pushing her to the side with my arm, I open the door and leave.
“He’s still my son, Parker,” she calls, stalking after us at a distance. “And the law says I have a right to see him.”
Over my dead body.
* * *
There are at least two or three moments where I turn back with the intention of showing Heather just how much of an asshole I can be. If it wasn’t for Easton, maybe I would’ve been knocking down Ellen’s door by now. Instead, I drive back to the hotel, putting in a call to my attorney.
