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My mind is racing, my heart is breaking, and there’s only myself and the stupid decisions I made as a teenager to thank for it.
For the millionth time in my life, I ask myselfwhyI trusted Noah Spellman, and I’m reminded, once more, that trusting people leads to regret. I should have known Caden’s offer of a week, no questions asked, was too good to be true.
Eventually, my tears dry up. My mind goes quiet. My heart stutters beneath my breastbone, and I reach for my phone again, determined to do the right thing this time.
Determined to give both Caden and Jesse what I stole from them.
Time.
* * *
Bags packed, I glance around the studio one last time, scanning for anything I’ve left behind. Finding none, I heft the bag into my arms and navigate the stairs, spotting my waiting Uber when I exit the side entrance to the studio.
The driver hops out—a friendly looking guy in his early twenties—and takes my luggage from me with a smile.
“I just need to say goodbye to someone inside. Okay?”
“No worries. I’ve got time.” He nods, ducking back into the driver's seat, and I quietly enter the main house, eerily quiet in the morning light.
No signs of Maggie in the kitchen. Ford is nowhere to be found either.
As I crest the top of the staircase, I can hear Bella pottering around her room, singing her favourite Trolls song softly. I can’t help but smile when I stop to listen to her sweet voice.
But the smile slowly recedes from my face with the realisation that I’m leaving her behind too. The little girl with the big heart who’s made me fall crazy in love with her in a matter of minutes.
Like father, like daughter, clearly.
Forcing my feet to move further along the hall, I arrive at the room Maggie allocated to Jesse. I know it’s his because his small green rucksack is outside the door, which he must have abandoned downstairs last night in his distress.
I open the door, surprised to find him asleep on his stomach. He must have fallen back asleep after texting me. Once I’ve approached the bed, I lower myself to sit alongside him and brush his mused hair back from his forehead.
His eyelids flicker open. “Mom? What are you doing?”
I smile softly, cupping his cheek with my palm. “Oh, baby, I’m doing what I should have done years ago.”
His brows draw together in confusion before I continue, my smile twitching and threatening to fall from my face as tears sting the back of my eyes.
“I’m giving you time together. It won’t make up for the time you’ve lost, and for that, I’m more sorry than you’ll ever know.”
My breath catches on a sob, and my beautiful boy sits up in the bed, wrapping his arms around me as my shoulders shake with silent tears.
“I’m really hurt, Mom. But I didn’t mean it when I said I hate you, okay?”
I manage a watery smile as I pull back to palm his cheeks. “I’m going back home. Take all the time you need, baby. Text me. Call me. Just get to know your father. You both deserve so much more than I’ve given you.”
* * *
CADEN
I wake cold, alone, and broken as fuck.
My whole world splintered apart last night. Everything I thought I knew was blown to smithereens in the space of a moment.
I can hear Bug moving about her room through the monitor, and my mouth twitches with a semblance of a smile, knowing that today she’ll meet her big brother.
And even though I tell myself not to, I can’t stop my mind from wandering to Summer, who’s surely waking cold and alone out in the studio.
I reach for the remote control, point it haphazardly in the direction of the television, and watch as the screen flickers to life. But instead of the usual image of Disney Plus filling my vision, I’m met with the live feed from the security cameras in the recording studio.
