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She hadn’t stayed angry at me long, though. Quickly, it had cycled to fear then determination as she’d swiped up her phone and gone to another room to call him in private.
The last hour, I’d sat in my office, holding my breath and cursing every fucking second that passed. I had no control here. No power. I could only wait to find out the outcome, which would happen without my input.
My advice would have been to communicate through lawyers, but she hadn’t asked.
This wasn’t how I’d thought it would go. I knew she’d be pissed at me for speaking to Liam without running it by her. I also knew she’d get over it. The rest had come as a complete shock.
If I’d predicted what Catherine would do, it would have been to tell William van der Wyck to get bent, not initiate a phone call behind closed doors.
I never saw this coming.
Catherine appeared in my doorway, clutching her phone in her hand. She circled my desk and tossed her phone down beside my mouse. I swiveled to face her, surprised but extremely pleased when she sat down sideways in my lap and nestled into the crook of my neck.
“Good talk?” I forced out the question through the melting wax dripping down my throat. “Must’ve been. You were in there for a while.”
“Our phone call lasted ten minutes. I’ve been sorting my thoughts the rest of the time.”
I wanted to demand answers, but it wasn’t my place. This was about her daughter and her daughter’s father. Not me.
So, I waited.
She sucked in a breath. “I told him all about Joey. Her milestones, how she’s sleeping, who she looks like, that kind of thing. He said he was glad we were doing well and apologized.”
“Do you believe him?”
A shrug. “I don’t know. He might be sorry, but he doesn’t love her, so he doesn’t really get how sorry he should be.”
But I do.
She went on. “He says he’s going to come here next week to meet her. He actually emailed me his flight information once we were off the phone, so I think he really meant it. Oh, and he sent me the money he stole from me. Fudging asshole.”
My heart slammed then stuttered to a stop. During my conversation with Liam, I never truly believed he’d had an interest in Joey, nor had I imagined in my wildest dreams he’d book a flight to meet her, that he’d want a relationship with her.
Out of my control.
“How do you feel about that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She’s technically his too, so if he wants a relationship with her, I should encourage it, but I…I guess she doesn’t feel like she’s his. She’s mine and—” She cut herself off, shifting in my lap. “She’s mine.”
I slid my palm down her arm to take her hand in mine, going through the motions though my head was miles away. “She is yours. You’re not going to ever lose her.”
That was a fact. No matter what happened, I would never allow anything to separate Cathrine from her daughter, not even the father of her child.
“Thanks to you.” Sitting up, she brought my hand to her mouth and kissed my knuckles, but I didn’t feel much of anything. “I would be freaking out times a thousand if you hadn’t gone to him like you had. And I know my knee-jerk reaction was to say you overstepped—which you definitely did—but in this case, I can only say thank you for being you and taking control. I would be floundering without you.”
“You would have figured it out, Catherine. You didn’t need me to do it.”
Out of my control.
“Sure. I would have ignored the problem until it had fallen down around me. Like my house.” She tugged on my shirt. “Which reminds me, will you come to the house with me tomorrow? I want to show you how good it looks. I’m pretty proud of all I’ve accomplished.”
I wanted to burn that house to the ground with Liam inside it.
But I nodded, blood roaring in my ears. My fingertips were numb, and my chest was in a vise. I recognized panic for what it was, remembering these feelings from when my mother was alive.
“Tomorrow.” I patted the outside of her leg, needing her up and out of here so I could catch my breath and think critically. Panicking would get me nowhere. “I have some work to do, so…”
“Oh.” She straightened. “Oh, okay. I’ll let you get to that.”
