“Still…I don’t blame you, Jensen.”
And I meant every word. How could I possibly blame him for what happened? Vanessa and Marc were to blame. They had taken everything from him. Even his son. A son he had raised for two years, thinking Colt was his. No wonder he never told anyone. How could he ear the shame? The sense of loss?
I reached out and took his hand. He glanced up at me with surprise in his dark eyes. He must have thought that I would turn on him, like everyone else had in his life.
He deflated before my eyes. As if he had been so pent-up over the whole thing that finally telling someone else the truth had drained him. He tightened his fingers around my hand, and we stayed like that for a few minutes in silence.
“So, that’s the whole story,” he finally said, drawing back. “I know that you’re upset with me, and you have every right to be, but I do trust you. Or I want to. I want you in my life, but I know that we have a ways to go. But, now, you know the whole story. I feel like our train got off the rails somewhere or took a wrong turn, but I want this to work. I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t have given you my mother’s necklace if I didn’t want that.”
He pulled the diamond necklace out of his pocket and let it dangle between us.
“This belongs to you.”
“Jensen,” I whispered.
He took my hand and gently laid the necklace into my palm. “It’s a promise. I’m going to make this right. One way or another.”
This was a lot to absorb.
He wanted to prove to me that he trusted me. That he could trust.
It didn’t make up for what we had gone through, but it was a start.
I closed my hand around the necklace. He smiled brilliantly, the hours of anxiety from the past day falling off of his shoulder. He leaned forward and brushed his lips to my forehead. Slowly, I let a smile stretch across my face as I put the necklace back around my neck and tucked it under my shirt.
I’d given him hope…and now, I had some, too.
He stood up to leave and give me space when his phone started ringing. He gave me a sheepish look and then glanced at the screen. His face paled.
“Who is it?” I asked. I did not like that look on his face.
“Marc.”
“Why would he be calling?”
Jensen shook his head as if he didn’t know, but I could see on his face that he did. And it was bad.
He sank back into his chair and answered. “Hello?”
Marc’s response was so loud that I could hear it through the other line. “You son of a bitch!”
“What do you want, Marc?”
Marc responded, but I couldn’t hear what he said, then Jensen said, “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“I have a right to know!” Marc shouted back.
“It’s been almost seven years, Marc. This is fucked.”
“What’s fucked up is you lying to me for that long! I’m getting on a plane right the fuck now. I’ll be in Lubbock tonight, you motherfucker.”
“Marc, you cannot get near my son.”
“He’s not even yours!” Marc screamed.
“I am his father!” Jensen said, raising his voice in fury.
“We’ll fucking see about that.”
“Colton is my son, and I’ll be damned if I let you fuck with his head by walking into his life. What you’re going to do is irresponsible and reckless. And there’s no way I will let you near him.”
“Well, you don’t get to decide that!”
“Like hell I don’t.”
Jensen slammed his phone down on the table and fumed. “Fuck,” he muttered. He put both of his hands into his hair and pulled. His teeth were gritted. His body tense. He looked as if he were ready to erupt.
“What’s just happened?” I asked softly, though I feared I already knew the answer from that conversation.
“Vanessa told Marc.”
My heart stopped beating for a split second. I couldn’t believe that Vanessa would go to such extremes.
“Fuck, I should have known. I went to see Colton this morning, and we argued. She threatened me by saying she would tell Marc, but she has said that a million times before. I told her it was an empty threat. Apparently, she took that to heart. I guess, she was so upset that I was going to introduce Colton to you that she decided that the best route was to inform his real father and get me out of the picture.”
“You cannot stand for that! You have to do something!”
“I’ll get my lawyers on the situation. They knew this was a possibility and we’re prepared for it,” he told me. But he sounded like he’d been hit by a truck when he said it. “I just…I have to meet with Marc tomorrow when he comes into town. Before he can see Colton, he’ll have to get permission. My lawyers will file paperwork so that neither of us can go near Colton until this is resolved.”