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Or that her mother had been so damn hurt by her father that I might have unknowingly kept her existence from him for over nine long years.
CHAPTER 4
SKYE
Later that morning, I forced myself to ring the doorbell at Aiden’s magnificent beachfront home before I lost my nerve.
All of the inevitable questions had been racing through my brain since I’d left Maya with Jade and then made my way down the beach to talk to Aiden.
What if he doesn’t believe me?
What if he doesn’t want to see Maya once he knows?
What if he wants to take my daughter away from me?
What if . . .
What if . . .
What if . . .
Maya deserved the chance to have a father, if Aiden was willing, but that didn’t mean I was happy about having to confront him with the truth.
My daughter had been through so damn much, and all I wanted to do was protect her, so it went against my instincts to take a chance on the fact that she might be disappointed.
I distinctly remembered Aiden once telling me that he didn’t really want any children of his own, since he’d already brought up his siblings.
I had to wonder if he still thought that way, now that he had the resources to have as many kids as he wanted.
I jumped when the door suddenly flew open and Aiden stood in front of me with a scowl on his face.
“We need to talk,” I said in a breathless voice before he could get out a single word. “Please.”
My heart skipped a beat as he continued to scrutinize me carefully before opening the door wider so I could come in.
The foyer was gorgeous, vaulted ceilings giving the space elegance and grandeur. It was a beautiful home on the beach, but I didn’t give the mansion’s appearance much more thought.
I was too nervous, and too rattled by seeing Aiden.
He looked approachable in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, his hair apparently still damp from a shower.
“Come in,” he rumbled as he headed for a large chef’s kitchen. “You want coffee?”
I followed him. “No, thanks. I had plenty at the restaurant this morning.”
I watched as he made himself a cup. I wasn’t surprised that Aiden was pretty much at home in the kitchen. After all, he’d had to cook for his siblings many times.
“Sit,” he demanded as he nodded at the small kitchen table.
I sat, never thinking about the fact that I was obeying his orders. Honestly, I needed to plant my ass in a chair before I fell down.
Aiden pulled out another chair and sat across from me.
“I was going to go looking for you shortly, so I’m glad you’re here,” he told me, and then took a slug of his coffee.
I fidgeted with the purse I’d laid on the table, unable to look at him as I spoke. “Is it really true that you don’t know why I left nine years ago?”
“I have no damn clue,” he answered gruffly. “But after you ran out last night, Seth told me you left a letter at the house. Want to tell me what it said?”
I finally looked at him in surprise. “You didn’t read it?”
“Never got a chance to,” he confessed. “Seth burned it.”
I listened while Aiden explained what had happened with his brother, and how he ended up never knowing all the things I told him in that missive.
“All I knew was that you’d taken off with a rich guy, a man who had a lot more to offer you than I did,” he concluded.
“Marco had nothing to offer me except money,” I explained. “But that’s not why I had to go.”
He folded his muscular arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. “Then explain to me why you had to go, if you didn’t care about money.”
“I told you. I would have had no place to live. I either had to go with Marco or end up on the streets.”
“I would have helped you, Skye. I think you knew I would.”
A big part of me had known that Aiden would move heaven and earth just to make sure I was safe. But I’d had no idea how he would have felt if he’d known that I was pregnant. I’d been hoping he’d want to protect his child, too, which was why I’d written that letter.
“It’s over,” I said, hating the fact that those two words were filled with pain. “We have to move on.”
In hindsight, I wished I had found a way to wait until Aiden had gotten home, but I couldn’t change the past. I’d been stupid, young, and terrified. I regretted the fact that Maya had been deprived of family. All she’d ever had was me.
“Then by all means, let’s move on,” Aiden agreed. “Why are you here now? Are you looking to reconnect now that I have money?”
My anger flared, but I pushed it back down. Maybe I deserved that slam, since he was under the impression that I’d left him for more money-green pastures. “I don’t really want anything from you, but I have to tell you some things I think you need to know.”
“Such as?”
“I wanted to stay here,” I explained. “When my mother insisted that I go to San Diego and marry Marco, I didn’t want to do it. We fought pretty hard the day before you came back. We barely spoke after I married.”
“What about her grandchild?” Aiden questioned.
I shook my head sadly. “She didn’t care about Maya. My mother wasn’t exactly the grandmotherly type. She was sick in the head, Aiden. You know she was always crazy, but she was also brainwashed by the crazy church she attended in San Diego.”
“I’m sure she thought you were better off with him than me,” Aiden drawled.
“Marco’s parents were founding members of that church. That’s all she cared about. She thought I’d be lucky to have him. She never realized that she was part of a cult. Granted, they didn’t live in a commune, but that religious group had a hold on her, regardless.”
“How did you even meet your ex-husband?” he asked roughly. “I remember that you never went to that church once you got old enough to tell your mother that you didn’t want to go.”
“When I was seventeen, I did go with my mom a couple of times. I wanted to make her happy. But it only lasted for a short time. I didn’t like being there. The whole thing gave me the creeps. And so did Marco. He saw me there and decided he wanted me to be his wife. I think he wanted that all the more after I’d flatly refused to marry him. I wasn’t even out of high school yet when he asked my mother if he could marry me.”
“So you said no?”
I nodded. “And I refused to go to any events there ever again.”
“Then why in the hell did you give in later?” he asked in an angry tone.
I shrugged. “My circumstances had changed. I was desperate, Aiden.”
“And was your mother right?” he pressed. “Were you lucky to have him? Were you happy?”
“No,” I said in a voice that was little more than a whisper. “The only happy part of my marriage was my daughter. Maya was everything to me. She still is.”
“What in the hell did the letter say? What did you want to tell me? Did you want me to come and find you?”
“I did,” I admitted. “I asked you to come find me if you really loved me. To get me out of marrying a man I didn’t love.”
