FOREVER BELOVED (Billionaire Love Series) (16 page)

“All right,” Charlie reluctantly agreed,
walking unsteadily toward the stairs leading to his room.

I glanced back at Beau. “We’re not done
talking about this. I’ll be back down in a little while.”

He nodded as I left him in the foyer and
headed to the kitchen to grab some water. Climbing the stairs to
Charlie’s room, I wondered what kind of shape he would be in. When
I got there, he was spread out on the bed, humming softly to
himself as his swiveled his foot in time to the song.

“Hey, Mom,” he called merrily, lifting his
head off the bed.

I took off his shoes. “Get under the covers,
Charlie Brown.”

Happily drunk, he crawled under the pastel
green sheets. “That was fun! So much fun with Beau,” he giggled as
I tucked him in.

I grabbed a seat on the bed next to him. “I’m
glad you had a fun time.” I kissed him on the forehead. “Here,
drink some water, so it won’t hit you so hard tomorrow.”

He gulped down the whole bottle of water and
fell back into bed. “I think I’m going to enjoy my new dad. He’s so
cool...” he admitted and then fell asleep mid-sentence.

I stayed on the bed for a few minutes,
watching over him as I swiped my hand across his bangs. He was such
a lovely boy and deserved the best we could offer him.

This co-parenting business wasn’t going to be
easy. Beau was right. It wasn’t fair for me to judge him. I was
gonna have to back off and let him find his way with Charlie, even
if it killed me.

After I was sure Charlie was asleep, I
wandered back down the stairs, wondering if Beau was still
around.

“Did you get him safely to bed?” he asked as
I entered the living room.

“Yeah, he went out like a light.”

“I don’t know what happened tonight, Marla.
It just got away from me,” he said, lounging back on the sectional
couch in the dark.

I turned on the light and took a seat next to
him.

I was ready to be real. “It’s hard being a
parent to a kid at any age, Beau. I can only imagine jumping in
when your kid is an adult.”

His blue gaze reflected the pain of that
wound. “Yeah. I hate that he grew up without me.”

This just about broke my heart. “I know,
Beau. I wish you had been there. I wish you could have taught him
to ride a bike or play hockey. I tried to do things I thought you
would want for your son.” I took a deep breath and laid it on the
line. “We missed you...there’s been a big hole in our lives without
you.”

His blue glance went wide. “Really?”

My eyes filled with unshed tears. “Yeah. I
never wanted you to leave.”

He sat up, immediately defensive. “Are you
joking with me right now? You’ve got to be pulling my leg. You
could have called, written, or shown up on my doorstep. But you
didn’t. You destroyed me, Marla...destroyed me.”

“I know. I’m so sorry...so sorry,” I
whispered through my tears.

“You make me want to believe you.” His voice
was tortured.

“Things are not as they seem, Beau. You have
to believe me.”

He narrowed his glance at me suspiciously.
“Why should I believe you?”

Boldness overtook me as I stared into his
tormented gaze. “Because I know you felt my love...the love I still
have for you,” I finished quietly.

He shook his head violently back and forth.
“No, don’t fuck with me! Don’t fuck with me, Marla!”

“I’m not fucking with you. You’re it for me.
After you, no one ever came close. I’ve held my love for a long
time. Hopin' and prayin' for a miracle.”

A fierce growl erupted out of him. “Why are
telling me this?”

“Because it’s true and I needed to tell
you.”

“No, you didn’t!” he said, bolting up and
leaving the room.

“Beau!” I yelled as he disappeared down the
hall, perhaps lost to me forever.

*****

We flew back the next day, the ride somber
and quiet. I was the odd man out; Beau and Charlie sat together
comfortably at ease with one another.

Charlie listened to his iPad with his
headphones while Beau buried himself in paperwork and phone calls.
Occasionally, they talked and joked, but I was too far away to
hear.

I had taken a big chance with Beau the night
before and it had backfired. He wanted nothing to do with me. While
I was crushed, I was proud of myself for taking a risk. He, at
least, knew how I felt.

But I might as well be on another planet. I
tried not to let my isolation bother me as we flew home. I told
myself men process things differently than women, and these two
didn’t want to talk about what happened the night before. I needed
to respect their boundaries.

But I had no idea a storm was brewing in my
own house.

Over the next few days, Charlie grew ice cold
toward me. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what he was
brooding about. I suspected there was some residual fallout from
the Bahamas trip, but I had no idea he was a ball of rage waiting
to go off.

Things were tense and he was barely speaking
to me. He would mumble a reply if I asked him a question or he
would bristle when I asked him to do something.

It came to an explosive head the Thursday
morning after we got back.

“Please put your cereal bowl in the
dishwasher,” I said to Charlie as I brought in a few chives from
the garden into the kitchen.

His back stiffened as he slammed the bowl in
the sink with a loud clatter.

“Whoa. What’s going on?” I asked, putting my
cuttings down on the table.

“I don’t want to put my fucking bowl in the
fucking dishwasher,” he snapped, turning toward me.

“I can tell your upset. But I’m still your
mother and I don’t like being spoken to like that!” I said in a
tightly controlled voice, approaching the kitchen island near
him.

His brown eyes blazed with anger. “I don’t
really care what you want right now. I’m so goddamn mad at you!” He
shook his hands as if he wanted to wrap them around my throat.

“Why are you so mad at me?” I asked, my heart
in my throat.

“Because you made me grow up without a
dad.”

I gasped, the pain tight in my chest. “I’m
sorry. I couldn’t risk you being taken away from me.”

“Who would take me away from you?”

“James Shepard, Beau’s father. He threatened
to take Emma from me and I knew he would do the same to you. I
couldn’t risk it.”

His dark glance was stormy with accusation.
“Since when did you live in such fear, Mom? Why didn’t you stand up
to Beau’s dad and tell him to fuck off?”

“You don’t understand. He had money and
powerful connections. He could have easily, and legally, taken you
from me.”

“That sounds like bullshit.”

“It’s not! He was a real threat to us.”

“You’re a fucking coward, Mom! You took my
chance to have a dad away from me.” He grabbed the bowl out of the
sink and hurled it against the wall. Milk and Cheerios slid down
the light teal paint.

The tears rolled down my face as I tried to
stay calm. “Do you know what I would give up to change the past?” I
waited for him to answer, but he only glared at me. “I would give
up a lot. But I wouldn’t give up you. I will never apologize for
protecting you. All I can say is I did the best I could with the
information I had at the time.”

“Not good enough, Mom. You could have done
something. Beau is a great guy.” Charlie’s brown eyes overflowed
with tears. “He should have been there to teach me how to play
catch, tie a tie, talk to me about the birds and bees stuff, you
know? All that boy shit you had to show me.”

“I know,” I said quietly as I reached out,
trying to comfort him in his raw pain.

“Don’t touch me!” he yelled, moving out of my
reach. “You can’t fix this, Mom! You just can’t.” He strode out of
the kitchen and slammed the front door.

I stood paralyzed, shaking with emotion as I
heard his Honda roar to life and peel out.

I slumped to the floor against the kitchen
island, sobs coming from somewhere deep inside. I was so tired of
being punished by the lies and secrets of my past.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Beau:

Things went way south with Marla in the
Bahamas. She had laid it on thick and threatened the delicate
balance I had achieved in this whole mess. She couldn’t possibly
mean what she said about holding her love for me.

What would make her say that?

It was just another ploy, right?

I was having a much harder time believing she
was heartless these days.

I sat out on the deck of my room long into
that last night in the Bahamas, contemplating everything that had
happened. I didn’t have any answers, just more blurry lines between
the past and present.

We flew back the next day. I kept my distance
from Marla, but Charlie was another matter. I was really enjoying
our new bond. He reminded me of myself at that age, without all the
bitterness.

I was determined to spend more time with
him.

Shortly after we got back, I was at home,
getting ready for work when Reeves knocked on my bedroom door.

“What is it?” I asked as I answered.

“You have a visitor,” Reeves announced from
the doorway.

“Who?” I asked, wondering who would visit
this early.

“Charlie Matthews.”

I wondered what he wanted. “Put him in the
great room. I’ll be out in a minute.”

I finished getting dressed in a white button
down shirt and a pair Hugo Boss grey slacks, then walked into the
great room. Charlie sat on the couch, his face a storm of
emotion.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” I asked in
concern.

“I’m fine. Got time for a beer?”

I glanced at my silver Cartier watch. “At
eight-thirty in the morning?”

“Yeah, it’s a little early, isn’t it?”

“How about some coffee?”

“That’ll do.”

“Are you hungry? Want an omelet?”

“Sure. I could eat.”

I signaled Reeves. “Can you bring us two
coffees and omelets?”

“My pleasure, Mr. Shepard.”

“We’ll take it outside.”

“Very good, sir.”

I slid open the flexible panel of glass
doors, which faced the giant deck, and wrapped around the
penthouse.

“Wow,” Charlie said as he stepped out and
took in the Baltimore skyline.

“Yep. It’s pretty spectacular. So why are you
here, Charlie?” I asked as we sat down at the patio table.

“I got in a fight with my mom. I don’t know
exactly what happened, but I was so angry, I threw a bowl against
the wall. I’ve never done anything like that before.”

“Well, it’s understandable. It’s hard to
comprehend everything you’ve lost.”

“I just can’t believe my mom! She told me she
wanted to protect me from your family.”

“My family?”

“Yeah, she said your dad wanted to take me
away from her.”

Marla was delusional. “No, that can’t be
right. No one in my family even knew you existed.”

Reeves brought out our plates and coffees
just then. But I was no longer hungry. My instinct kept nagging at
me. I needed to investigate these discrepancies, which were
continuing to stack up.

I was gonna stop by and see Charly. I had a
feeling he would know what was going on. We never talked about
Marla after she left me, but that was because I didn’t want to.
He’d tried a couple of times, but I shut him down quickly when he’d
come up to visit six months after Marla broke up with me.

“
Have you heard from Marla?” he’d asked
moments after he arrived.

“
I don’t want to talk about it, Pops,” I
snapped, the heartbreak too raw.

“
There are things you don’t understand,”
he tried to explain.

“
No, Pops! I can’t hear this right
now.”

He’d backed off and I hadn’t thought about it
since. Now, I questioned why he would ask me about her.

“I’m gonna visit my granddad, Charly. He
might have some insight.”

Charlie’s hand froze mid-air as he was
lifting his coffee cup. “Charly’s your granddad? So he’s my
great-grandfather?”

I put down my fork. “Wait, you know
Charly?”

He smiled. “Blue eyes, great sense of humor,
lives in like the greatest pimped out senior suite ever?”

“Yeah, that sounds like him.”

“We visit him all the time,” he informed
me.

All kinds of warning bells went off in my
head. “Why?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve known him my whole
life. He’s the one who taught me how to tell jokes.”

“No kidding?”

“Yeah, he filled my head with all kinds of
jokes growing up.”

What the hell was going on?

Why wouldn’t Pops tell me he knew my kid?

“Well, I’m going to go see him. Something
isn’t right about this situation with your mom and I need to figure
out what it is. Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

“Can I stay at your place for the night?”

“Only if you call your mom and tell her where
you are. I do not need her up my ass, hunting you down.”

“I’ll text her.”

“Good enough. Make yourself at home. If you
need something, ask Reeves. I’ll be back later.”

“All right. I can handle that,” he said,
scarfing down his omelet.

*****

Marla:

I sat against the kitchen island cabinets a
good long time as all of the energy in my body seemed to fall out
of me.

I was so tired of being seen as the bad
guy.

I tried to tell myself Charlie had a right to
be mad at me and work this out in his own way, but it was such a
slap in the face to all the sacrifices I had made.

Violent sobs poured out of me as I gave into
my self-pity and cried for all I was worth. My body shook as I
grieved once again over a past I couldn’t change.

It was so fucking unfair.

Would this suffering ever end?