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Why wouldn’t he mention that to me?
Lacey straightened her shoulders, pushing her boobs out which were concealed just barely by her tank top. “I’ll leave as soon as you let me see my babies.”
Suddenly I wanted to step forward and tell her exactly where she could shove that thought. My girls weren’t going anywhere near her.
Jeffery took the opportunity to laugh. “You’re choosing this train wreck with a fucking addict for a wife over me? He’s broke––fucking losing his gym–– and everyone knows it. What, his dick that good that you’re willing to settle for that? You’re not that type of girl, Haley.”
Record. Scratch.
What in the actual fuck?
My hands shook as his words wound through me like one of those big twisty straws the girls liked to use in their smoothies. I had never really been an angry person. If I grew upset, I’d cry or tuck it away for later, but this—this rage—it felt like I could breathe fire and burn down everything around me.
“Fuck you, Jeffery,” I spat, taking a step closer to him. He flinched at my words, probably reading my face too.
I wanted to slap him.
I wanted him to feel what his words just felt like on the inside of me where each and every letter landed with a painful pop.
“Liam is ten times the man you are, and their private affairs aren’t any of your business.”
Despite seeing my reaction, he laughed again, tipping his head toward Lacey. “Funny you say affairs, considering she had one on him with nearly every guy in Macon.”
Tears burned my eyes, especially as Liam pushed away from the crowd. Thankfully he pulled me by the hand, taking me with him, until he stopped in his tracks, nearly making me run into his back. Right there at the edge of the crowd were all three girls. Colson held Mila in his arms, Nora had Seraphina in hers, and Maddy was clinging to Colson’s side with tears in her eyes.
I kept my head down and bit my lip to hold in the sob.
“You can’t keep my kids from me forever!” Lacey yelled from a distance away.
Maddy’s eyes rounded when she looked behind me and saw Lacey. Then all at once, she rushed me, shoving her face into my shirt as she burst into tears.
“Please don’t let her take me again. Don’t let her take me. Haley, help me! Get me out of here!”
I couldn’t breathe around the lump in my throat. What the fuck was Liam keeping from me?
I scooped her up and walked off with her in my arms. Colson, Nora, and Liam followed as I led the way to my car. I didn’t know about anyone else, but I needed to figure out what the hell this girl had gone through and why she asked me, of all people, not to let her mother take her again.
Opening my door, I set her inside and shut it.
Liam was at the door, his arms crossed. His fist was red but that was the extent of the damage. Over his shoulder I watched as Colson set Mila and Seraph in Liam’s truck.
“I want to talk to her,” I said angrily.
I loved Liam, but I didn’t like that he hadn’t told me there was a restraining order against Lacey, or that his daughter would have a full-blown panic attack at the sight of her mother. Why the fuck was there a parenting plan in place if this was the situation?
Liam’s chin hit his chest as he agreed. Then he leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to my lips.
“I’m sorry for not telling you.”
“You need to stop keeping things from me.”
He nodded, looking somber. I wish I could remove the words Jeffery had said that likely dug under his armor and nicked his pride. With him it was the type of wound that would fester, and it would take weeks to help fix that damage—if it was repairable at all.
I walked around the front of the car and got in, leaving everyone else behind.
* * *
“Isit okay that we’re here?” Maddy asked, pushing her drink around in front of her.
