Page 76

She shrugs. “I dunno. Boys are gross.”

Grayson barks out a laugh in protest. “Hey, I resemble that comment.”

“I know. You’re kinda gross, Daddy.”

“I take serious offense to that.”

London just grins at him, completely unrepentant. Tanya nods at her sagely. “Boys are definitely gross. I have three of them at my house.”

“I’m sorry,” London says with pure sincerity, which sets off the whole room.

The next hour is spent laughing both together and at Grayson as he experiences his first foot scrub. Who knew a grown man could squirm as much as he does?

London and I manage to convince him to get matching pink toes, and by the time we’re done, my face hurts from smiling this long.

I send Grayson home with London and head to the store to get more snacks since Gray is joining us.

While I’m scanning the candy options, my phone rings. I answer without registering the unsaved number on the caller ID, too distracted by grabbing the box of Milk Duds that took me forever to find for Gray. “Hello?”

“Kylie. Baby. Don’t hang up. Please.”

The voice sends a cold dread through my body. I stand there like a deer in headlights, unable to get my body to do the logical thing and hang up.

Chris continues, “I just want to talk to you. How is the baby? I miss you. So much. I wish you weren’t doing this to us. We can fix this. We’ll be fine. Don’t you want us to be together for the baby’s sake? It deserves to have its mother and father together. Not broken and separate.”

Holy shit. There are too many things to unpack from that word vomit. I don’t even know where to start, but the blame and manipulation are enough to send anger through me, breaking the freeze state I was in.

I hiss, “None of this is my fault. It was never my fault. I gave you everything I had, and you repaid me by fucking your secretary—and God knows who else. You’re the reason our relationship is shattered, and nothing you say or do will ever be enough to fix it. Goodbye, Chris.”

I hang up the phone, my breath coming out in angry pants. I can’t believe I did it. I stood up to that man without shrinking away with nerves. He’s been a pain in my ass for months. Haggling over every stupid thing in our divorce because I’m technically supposed to get half of the assets. I don’t even want them. I just want to be done with it. But Chris has made it his mission to be as big of a headache as possible.

I hate him. I hate him so much.

“Ky? Are you okay?” Jacob’s voice pierces through the haze of emotion swallowing me whole. He wraps me in his arms, and I squeeze him tight, soaking in the comfort of one of my biggest protectors. “What happened?” he asks softly.

Slowly pulling away from the hug, I run my fingers through my hair. “I accidentally answered a call from Chris.” He starts to admonish me, but I interrupt him with my hand in the air. “I know, I know. I wasn’t paying attention when I saw the unknown number.”

“What did he say to you?”

“More of the same. He blames me for breaking our marriage and says that I’m horrible for putting us through this.”

“What I wouldn’t give to deck that guy,” Jacob grumbles. He ducks his head down to make eye contact with me. “You know not a single part of this is your fault, right? You spent years trying to make your marriage work, and he never once reciprocated that effort. He doesn’t get to make you feel guilty because he’s too ashamed to take responsibility for ruining the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”

I twist my mouth to the side. “Logically, I know that, but it’s hard to get the emotional side to see it too. I’m the one who left. I’m the one who asked for a divorce. Hell, I fell in love with someone else in a matter of months, if even that long. Who does that?”

“A woman who’s been alone in her marriage for years. Ky, Chris stopped loving you a long time ago. I saw it way before you did, and I will never stop regretting holding my tongue.”

“What…what are you talking about?”

“It was after your third miscarriage, and you’d come home for Christmas. You and Chris were sitting in the living room at Mom’s, and tears were continuously rolling down your face. You were just sitting on the couch, silently sobbing, and you know what Chris did? He looked at you, realized you were crying, and got up and left, mumbling something about going for a walk. What kind of husband sees his wife in agony and leaves?”

The memory of that trip comes back to me in a rush. I’d never felt more alone in my life. I don’t remember the moment Jacob is talking about specifically, but the holidays that year were the hardest because the baby would’ve been born in November.

“He was grieving too, Jake,” I argue, trying to give Chris the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t deserve it now, but back then, we were two broken people with no idea how to stitch ourselves back up.

He shrugs. “Maybe, but I know that if the woman I supposedly loved were that upset, I wouldn’t have walked away from her. Would Grayson have done the same thing?”

“That’s not fair. You can’t compare the two of them.”