Page 35 of Romancing the Omega

“Thanks, Amy,” Caden said, worry punching into his gut. “Watch Linc, please?”

“Of course,” she said, holding her arms out for the little boy. “Your daddy will make the mean man go away.”

He could hear the man’s loud voice from the register. He ran to the office and threw open the door. He watched in horror as the man pulled his fist back to hit Yeo. He was too far away. He rushed forward, but the man never touched Caden’s omega. Yeo dodged the punch and grabbed the man’s arm, twisting.

“Derek, what the hell?” Yeo sounded furious. “You don’t get to lay a fucking hand on me. I kicked your ass when we were kids, and I’ll do it again if you don’t back the fuck off.”

“Fuck you,” Derek said. The man was red-faced. His light brown hair and hazel eyes matched Summer’s, but he had a big, soft frame and a mulish expression. “You ruin everything. You always have.”

“You tried to help Tracy take my son from me,” Yeo said. “Do you honestly expect me to feel guilty?”

“She left me because you turned everyone against her,” Derek yelled. “That’s what you do. You turned Dad and Grandpa against me. You even turned Mom against me. She yelled at me for helping Tracy. Yelled! I was helping a lady get custody of her child, but she yelled at me.”

Yeo looked tired. “Derek, you have to know Tracy never wanted Linc. You aren’t that stupid. Fawn told you the truth, right?”

“She still loved him,” Derek said. “You had no right!”

“Loved him? She didn’t want anything to do with him, you idiot.”

“That’s not true. She said he was her link to you and she loved you more than anything,” Derek said. Caden winced. That had to piss Derek off to no end.

“Derek, she never loved me. She loved being married to one of Richard Cook’s grandsons. She fucked around constantly. I have pictures of her with several different men, including Dad and Grandpa. She is a user and a manipulator.”

Derek shook his head. “That’s not true. You’re lying. She isn’t like that.”

“Why did you never tell me you loved her?” Yeo reached out to the man, but Derek pushed away. “Ours was just a marriage of convenience. I had more with my Caden after a few days then I did with her after five years of marriage.”

“I hate you so fucking much. Everything goes perfectly for you,” Derek said. Caden’s heart froze. This could have been Carter and him. Damn.

“Nothing went the way I wanted it to until I left Tennessee with Summer and Linc,” Yeo said. “I tried for years to be what Dad and Grandpa wanted. I wanted Dad to not regret taking me in when I was born.” Yeo shook his head. “It was useless, Derek. Nothing will make them happy. Nothing. To them I was always the omega they had to hide away. I did my best to become useful to them. I ran their company, but that wasn’t enough either. They aren’t worthy of us. They don’t deserve our love or our loyalty. Neither does Tracy.”

Caden pulled up the pictures of Tracy and Richard on his phone and handed it to Derek. The man looked at it, eyes watering. He sobbed and shoved his fist in his mouth, biting down hard. Caden and Yeo both moved, wrapping the man in their arms. Derek broke, burying his face against Yeo. They stood with him for a long time, letting him cry. Caden knew how the man felt. He knew what it was like to be a hot mess.

Slowly, they drifted apart. Yeo kept Derek’s hand in his. “I hate them,” Derek finally said. “All I wanted was for them to like me. They didn’t even have to love me.”

“I felt the same for a long time,” Yeo said.

“I hate the company. I hate the idea of being trapped inside all day,” Derek said. He shook. “Fuck. What am I going to do? Tracy had plans for us. I… I’m not good at making plans.”

“What makes you happy, Derek,” Caden asked. “What’s something that makes you smile?”

The man thought for a while. Yeo just patiently held his hand. “I like to do projects around the house, especially in the yard. Dad gets mad when I do, though. He says wealthy men don’t mow the grass and alphas don’t sniff flowers.”

“Fuck him,” Caden said. “Think about what makes you happy and spend some time doing it. See where it takes you.”

Derek gave a half-hearted smile. “You sound like you’re talking from experience.”

Yeo laughed. “You would be right.”

“I don’t want to go home,” Derek said, closing his eyes. “I made up my mind that everything that was wrong was your fault, Yeo.”

“Stay here for a while,” Yeo said. “It’s a nice town.”

“No,” Derek said, shaking his head. “I can’t do that.” He looked at Yeo, guilt filling his eyes. “I did something really bad.”

“You thought Linc was her beloved son,” Yeo said. “I get it.”

“Not that,” Derek said, shaking his head. “I was at Mom and Dad’s one night. The phone rang and I answered it before Mom could. It was your papa. He asked for you and I told him you had decided you didn’t want to talk to him anymore. I told him to never call there again. When Mom asked who it was, I said Grandpa. She doesn’t know.”

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