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Her round, beaming bright face betrayed every agonized emotion hidden underneath. Her dark brown eyes kept darting in my direction. She didn’t look like her son at all.
He looked… like me.
He couldn’t have been much more than five years old which meant… It couldn’t be, but it had to be.
My son. I was looking at my son.
Even if by some impossible chance she would have slept with someone else—which she wouldn’t—the boy looked way too much like me to be anybody else’s.
Looking at him was like staring into a mirror from my childhood.
Those eyes didn’t lie.
He stole another peek at me under her arm. “Who’s that, Mommy?”
She turned bright red, but he didn’t see that. She shot me a look, but I couldn’t read it. Her cheek quivered and her lips trembled. “That’s……His name is Kingston Heller. He’s……someone I used to know.”
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one with secrets.
The boy studied me for what seemed like an eternity. Did he notice the resemblance? Did he even suspect or was he too young to ask questions like that?
Five years. I’d been searching for her for four of those years. All this time, she was raising…..my son.
He pulled away from her, strode over to me, and stuck out his hand. “I’m Connor Strickland.”
I shuddered. He had Riley’s surname, which was a good thing. At least she wasn’t using Heller anymore. I wouldn’t have to explain why Connor and I had the same last name.
I forced myself to shake his hand and a charge of electricity raced up my arm at his touch. Did he feel it? His eyes bored into my very soul. Those eyes…
“Hi, Connor,” I choked. “It’s great to meet you.”
“We’re going to the top of the mountain,” he told me. “Are you coming?”
I had to grin at him. My son. A torrent of the most painful happiness gripped my heart. I was a father. “I might. I’ll see how tired I get on the way up there.”
He burst out laughing and tore away. “I bet I can beat both of you. Come on, Mommy!”
He took off running up the trail. I glanced over at Riley, but she wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t even turn around.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I croaked. “All these years…..”
“How was I supposed to tell you?” She spun around yelling at me. “You were gone! Do you have any idea how much I needed you? I had to go through all that alone….because of you!”
“How could you keep this from me?” I demanded. “How could you keephimfrom me?”
“Did you even hear a word I just said? You left! You left meandhim! Don’t put this on me! I would have given anything to have you there and to share him with you. I searched for you everywhere. What the hell happened to you, Kingston? Why did you have to leave in the first place?”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t form the words. My son. I had a son. “So this is why you changed your name so many times? Did you really think you could keep him from me? Is this your way of paying me back for leaving?”
She glared at me. Anyone who didn’t know her as well as I did might have missed the tears welling up in her eyes. “You bastard!”
I walked back over to her, but all the other feelings brewing in my chest wouldn’t let me get close to her again. I pointed down into her face. “You won’t be able to stop me from being the father he deserves. I’m going to be a part of his life—a big part. You can take that to the bank.”
“Your word means nothing, Kingston,” she fired back. “You’ve been gone all this time. How do I know you won’t walk out on us again? I won’t let you ruin our lives again….and you can takethatto the bank.”
“I found you once. You can run and change your identity all you want. Don’t think I won’t find you again.”
She snorted. “I doubt that. You’ll lose interest in him the same way you lost interest in me.”
