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Ward nodded, disappointed to hear that.
“I’m sorry. I thought me not being there would have helped,” Ward said. “Give him time. This is a shock for everyone, but more so for Jacob.”
Right now, he thought it best not to tell any of them that Jacob was meeting with him today. He had no idea how it would go, and the boy did deserve space and time.
The poor child had never known who his father was. Now he did, and it was someone he could never avoid because of the woman his brother chose to marry.
Though he was going through his own emotions about the whole thing, Ward was a father. Jacob’s wellbeing mattered to him. It didn’t matter how old his kids were; they were always little boys and girls on the inside, and he saw Jacob just the same.
Even if he had never known him as a child.
That had been taken from both of them because of Samantha. A point he had made very fucking loudly.
They had their history, and he knew why she’d done this. He took responsibility for that, but she still should’ve told him.
Telling him she’d planned to was not the same thing as doing it. She’d twenty-something years to tell him and Jacob and never had.
“I hate to say it, Samantha, but this feels like karma. Jacob is not going to easily forgive you for this. Nor will I.”
“Always trying to hurt me, Ward,” she’d retorted.
He’d crossed his arms. “I never hurt you. You hurt yourself. Your jealousy and accusations were not based on any fact, and they forced us apart time after time.”
“Yes, and each time we came back together,” Samantha had cried. “Until you met her.”
Yes, until he’d discovered what real love was with Tina Kennedy, Bella’s mom. Not only had Ward met his soulmate that day, but he’d become a stepfather.
That was when he realized he’d been wrong about not ever wanting children.
He fell in love with Bella, who was just a tiny baby, and when Tina announced she was pregnant with their first child months later, Ward had been so fucking happy.
The day Knox was born, he had cried tears of joy.
Samantha’s excuse that he had never wanted children, so she kept Jacob’s existence to herself, was weak. Yet, as she always had, she did what she wanted.
They couldn’t turn back time, and he was too old to spend his life being angry, so he had let out a sigh and stopped arguing with her.
He doubted she would regret her decision. It had taken him years to figure it out, but Samantha was a narcissist—hence her irrational and constant need for his attention. If it wasn’t on her, she lost her mind.
Well, he had zero interest in playing games with her. Through Bella, Samantha Dufort would always be in his life, so he wanted to be clear about how this was going to go now.
“Our kids are married, and we have a son. Both are adults. We will keep things civil and ensure this”—he pointed between them—“never interferes with any of their happiness. Do you hear me, Samantha?”
“I really don’t think—”
“I never loved you. I will never love you,” Ward said firmly. “But I love the children. Try to create any drama and you will regret it.”
She had pouted.
“Now, Bella is going to give birth in the very near future. I recommend you sort things out with Jacob and work through whatever it is you think I owed you back then. We dated, we fucked, and then it ended.”
The fury pouring from her eyes was palpable.
Too fucking bad.
She might be a Dufort, but he was a Montgomery. His empire and family were just as powerful as hers. He’d learned a lot about narcissism and how you couldn’t give them an inch.
She had taken a son from him; he wouldn’t let her create havoc in their now expanded family. To finalize his point, he strode across the room that day, kissed her cheek, then left.
