Page 66 of Angel's Smoke

“Fight. I don’t want to fight. I just want to talk.”

“You want totalk,” she said flatly.Thathad all her Spidey senses on high alert. The only time Travis ever wanted to talk was when there was a microphone involved.

“Yes, talk.” An awkward heaviness thumped between them. “I miss you, okay?”

The confession nearly knocked her out of her chair, not because she couldn’t imagine his stupid mouth ever forming the words but because that was the exact phrase she’d hoped to hear from him right after they’d initially split. Back then, she’d wanted something,anything, to show that she’d made the wrong decision, that she and Travis still had a future that didn’t involve a three-thousand-mile divide. That she and her baby would truly be missed in some way by the man she gave six years of her life to, along with a not-insignificant amount of money.

But now, what all those words did for her was trigger an army of tightly honed defenses.

“You had six years and five months to miss me. Why start now? What’s the catch?” And there most certainly would be a catch. She knew it as surely as the dark chocolate bar in her desk drawer was exactly seventy-two percent cacao.

Travis made a repugnant groan, reminding her more and more of the snake she knew him to be. “Fine. Just so you know, I didn’t want to do it this way.”

“Dowhat?”

“I’d like joint custody of the baby.”

The floor nearly fell away beneath her. “Absolutely not. No way.”

“It’s kind of not your decision. Hence the phrasejointcustody.”

Oh, Anna was seeing red. Bloody crimson bolts of the stuff. “You walked out on us. You don’t get to walk back in. We’re not a set of car keys you left on the counter, asshole. We had an agreement. It was in the deedyousigned over to me. I get the house, you get to live your bro-tastic life in California without a child to pay for.”

“If you remember, all I did was sign over full ownership of the property to you. I never actually signed anything pertaining to my paternity or parental rights.”

There it was. The other shoe hovering above her head, big, bold, and smelly as all hell. “Explain.”

And explain he did, in all the gloating glee he could shove through a cellular connection. “I just landed a very lucrative contract, one that any family court judge couldn’t ignore even if they wanted to. The money would ensure not only my financial stability as a parent but the financial welfare of my child.”

My child.He said the words as though he’d been the one carrying the thing and heaving into a porcelain peehole for months on end.

“My personal empowerment business has recently taken a new interest in the family care sector. My podcast, while successful, didn’t really take off until I began having more guests related to family management and welfare. When I informed my colleagues of your condition, they advised that it would position me in a more profitable light if I could portray myself as a family man. It would make me more approachable with listeners and experts and would give me angles to talk about that would increase the markets I could target.”

“Are you fucking serious right now? You want to be a dad for a goddamn publicity stunt?”

“Not publicity,profit. Longevity. Generational wealth. Legacy. Progeny. Jesus Christ, Anna, I thought you of all people would understand what it would mean for a child to not have to struggle their way through life.”

“You understandnothingabout me.”

“Oh no?” She could hardly work up a response before he asked, “How’s your business going these days?”

Shock stole the breath from her lungs. “It’s fine.”

“Then why does your online booking calendar show so many openings? It would be an easy thing to point out to a family court judge, especially when the child’s father expresses concerns for how the mother’s business can perform with so few clients.”

Humiliation scraped daggers down her throat. “You haveno rightto stalk me like that and snoop through my practice’s website.”

“It’s the Internet, Anna. I’m not looking at anything anyone else wouldn’t.”

New wells of hurt coated her eyes in liquid shame. He knew as well as she did how hard she worked to grow her virtual nutrition practice and all the hurdles she was still jumping through to make it happen. But these kinds of things took time. Trust, positive reviews, and referrals grew over years. She hadn’t become a nutritionist so she could hack the latest search engine optimization practices for her site. It was a long game as much as it was a rewarding one. Anna had always shared that with him, and now he was using it against her? “Why would you do that?”

“Because money talks and bullshit walks. It’s nothing personal.”

“It’s entirely personal.”

“Look, I’ll make sure you’re provided for, too. I wouldn’t abandon you, Anna.”

Except you did. And so did Iron.

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