AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Blaise was the fastest way to find her.
“Madeline, please. I messed up. She needs to hear what I have to say,” I begged, running my hand through my hair.
The determined gleam in my daughter’s eyes wasn’t softening.
I walked over and picked up the ultrasound photo that I’d been staring at when her car arrived and held it out to her. “See this? She needs me. They both do.”
Madeline took the photo, and a soft smile touched her lips. “I have a brother,” she said. “Congratulations, Liam.”
Then, she lifted her gaze to me. “When I came here, the way she looked at you when you first walked up, that was love. Then, you treated her in a way that no woman deserves. You acted as if she were some hired hand instead of the woman carrying your child. Why, Liam? Why did you do it? My heart was breaking for her, and I was so angry with you, and you were being so stubborn, telling me that she was fine.” Madeline held out the photo to me. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t allow you to get her address and go to her. She was right to leave. I would have left too. Maybe now, you can acknowledge how you feel about her. Is she the live-in housekeeper, or is she the woman you want to spend forever with and raise a family with?”
Thinking about how I’d treated her was haunting me.
“You think I don’t know that? I haven’t slept. I can’t close my eyes because when I do, I am reminded of what I’ve done. How I hurt her. It is ripping me to shreds inside, Madeline,” I said, slamming a hand on my chest. “If I can’t find her, how do I fix it?! How do I tell her that I love her? That I was scared. That I didn’t think I would be enough for her. Not forever. That I thought I was saving her from a future where she was married to an old man. I couldn’t see us growing old together because I was the one who was gonna be old, not her. I told myself it was selfish of me to make this more. To love her.” I let out a hard laugh. “I was a fucking fool. I’ll be whoever she wants me to be. I’ll take her however I can have her, as long as I can have her. I’ll worship her, love her, and if the day comes when she no longer wants me, I will do everything I can to change her mind. Because I can’t see a future if she’s not in it, here, in my bed, in my house.”
Madeline lifted her chin as she stared at me, her eyes now glistening. “You should have told her all that before she left. What was selfish was not letting her know how you feel. Making her think it was all one-sided.”
“Then, Madeline, please, honey, help me. Blaise can find her faster than anyone else. If you walk out that door, still refusing to help me, I will hire someone. But every second that goes by, she’s somewhere, thinking I don’t love her. That I don’t want us. And it is killing me.”
She pressed her lips together, and a spark of hope came with the sympathetic look she gave me. She stepped forward and placed her hand on my arm. “I love you, but I won’t do that. You were in control, and you screwed up. Now, Liberty has the control. Let’s see what she can do with it. Give her time,” she said, then scrunched her nose. “And take a shower. You stink. Try to eat something too. Sleep wouldn’t hurt either.”
Then, she squeezed my arm and headed for the door.
If I thought falling to my knees and begging would work, then I would do it. But I’d just been exposed to Etta’s daughter. That look on her face was one I’d seen on her mother all those years ago. I wasn’t going to get through to her when she had made up her mind on something.
She reached the door, then glanced over her shoulder at me. “You can try to hire someone to find her, but it’ll be a waste of time. No one is going to do anything that would piss off Blaise, and every private detective in the state of Florida has received the message not to find Liberty Dillard,” she said, then opened the door and walked out.
I stared at the door as she closed it.
I had to find Liberty. I’d figure out a way. No fucking Mafia boss was going to stop me. There had to be someone out there who wasn’t scared of him.
41
Liberty
I stood at the window in my new office, looking out over the busy street below. Palm trees blew gently in the breeze as the world seemed to be in a rush to get home or go to dinner. I’d had a whirlwind of a first week here. Starting with this room. I turned around to look at the private office I’d been given the first day. I had been speechless while Martha continued to rattle on about the desk, computer, printer, my bathroom.
When we had arrived at GG Center, she had walked me past several desks with people working at them, sitting out in the open area of the main office. I was looking over them, wondering which one would be mine, when we passed them all, and she opened this door to show me my desk.
How had I managed to get this?
I smiled, shaking my head, still amazed.
This week, I had made calls to the different vendors that the company had chosen to use. Gotten to know the point of contact I’d be working with at each one. I met with the head of design, who would be making sure all the stores had the same layout, determining what the brand would look like so that I was clear on what all we were going to carry in our stores and which ones would have specialty items. There were stacks of catalogs to go through and either toss or keep, depending on what that vendor offered. I spent hours with the lady they had hired for media marketing because she’d been assigned to teach me how the software program worked for inside the office.
It had been a good week. I’d been kept so busy that it wasn’t until I walked into my apartment at night that the heaviness in my chest truly affected me. I missed Liam, and although I was enjoying my job, he was never far from my mind. I wondered what he was eating at lunch when I sat down with mine. I would learn something new and think I couldn’t wait to tell him, then remember we didn’t have a relationship like that. I’d only lived in a fantasy in my head where I thought we did.
Heartbreak, my closest friend, was always right there by my side to nudge me when I had a moment that made me smile. It wasn’t going to let me forget it was there, and I expected it never would. Learning to live each day with it clinging closely to me was the only way.
I walked over to pick up my purse, then grabbed the two files I wanted to take home and work on this weekend. I had nothing else to do. Right now, the idea of being alone for two days with no work seemed like torture. I’d have so much time to think, to feel. But I knew once the baby came, I’d love having that time with him.
The rest of the office staff had cleared out as soon as it hit five o’clock. I hadn’t been ready to walk away yet. I didn’t look forward to evenings the way everyone else did. But they had someone to run home to.
The elevator opened immediately, and I took it down to the first floor. The lobby, with its marble floor and walls, was almost as empty as our office had been. I waved at Zelbert, the security guard, on my way to the exit.
It might be fall, but in Florida, that just meant we weren’t boiling; we were just toasting instead. I prepared myself for the uncomfortable warmth when I shoved open the door. My mind was elsewhere, and I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, or I would have seen him. I’d not have come outside. As it was, I now stood there, frozen, unsure of what to do next.
Why was he here? Was this just incredibly bad luck?
