Page 50 of Seeking Happily Ever After

“I’m clean. Nine weeks now. Not that I need to explain this to you. Nick should have told you already. I mean, since you’re his fiancée and all. I assume he would have told you that I’d be coming.”

He knew.Nick knew this woman would be coming into their house and taking their baby. He knew and he hadn’t told her.

Their house. Their baby.

But that was the thing: it wasn’t real. None of it. And despite how Charlotte’s feelings had changed, it was clear that Nick’s hadn’t. Not only that, he didn’t even think enough of her to warn her that this was going to happen.

She wanted to throw up. She wanted to run away and hide.

Instead, Charlotte dropped her head and stared at her hands in her lap. Her fingers were twisted together. The ruby ring stuck out and sparkled in the light, but instead of admiring it the way she usually did, now it felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Nick would still be at least another ten minutes. If they’d gotten on the helicopter right away. Another detail she hadn’t shared with Jessica.

But it looked as though she wasn’t the only one holding back details.

“I know you’re probably—”

“Knock knock.”

Charlotte spun around and dashed to the door, but it was too late. Katie was already walking in, the way she always did. Only she had the baby on her hip. Charlotte’s heart fell and clenched all at once.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Katie said, with no idea what she’d just walked into. “Amelia desperately needs a diaper change and there weren’t any left in the diaper bag. I think it’s those peaches you’ve been feeding her and—”

Char tried to distract her and get Katie turned around. “I can just—”

“Is that…”

Too late.

“Amelia?” Jessica’s voice cracked on the baby’s name.

Char dropped her head and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. When she opened them, Katie’s eyes were wide with shock and concern. She held onto Amelia a little tighter, a fact that Charlotte was more than grateful for.

“Oh my God. Amelia,” Jessica cried. “My baby.”

Char instinctively stepped between Jessica and Amelia. There was no way she was letting this woman take Amelia. Not like this.

It felt like it took hours, but thanks to Stephanie’s helicopter, it had only been a fraction of that time. Still, Nick had spent every second of that time trying not to picture what would happen when he got there.

Jessica wanted the baby. She wantedhisdaughter. There was no way…he couldn’t let it happen. But Chris’s words replayed in his mind.Play nice. It’s her right.

Nick had reached out to Chris on the flight over, and he’d expressed his concern, but at the same time, had told Nick exactly what he didn’t want to hear. She had a clean drug test. If Jessica wanted to take the baby, he wouldn’t be able to stop her. And, in fact, might only do more harm than good to securing custody long-term.

He’d tried calling Susan Johnson at least four times, but there’d been no answer.

It didn’t make sense. The system was broken. Hell, it was completely shattered. Any system that thought it was perfectly okay for a woman who’d abandoned her child to have any right to walk back into the child’s life at her own convenience and disrupt everything was not okay.

Not that he had any choice but to play along.

Or did he?

He shook his head and took a deep breath as the car pulled into the ElkView Ridge drive. He needed to pull it together, and think with his brain, not his heart. He needed to do what was best for Amelia in the long run. He’d promised Chris he wouldn’t do anything rash or illegal.

He was out of the car before it had come to a complete stop and at the front door. He sucked in a breath as he opened the door, not sure what he was going to see. “I got here as soon as I…”

His words trailed off as he took in the scene inside.

Katie had the baby in her arms. Charlotte stood with her back to them both, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood guard between the baby and Jessica, who had tears in her eyes as she clearly was trying to get to Amelia.

Nick’s chest constricted at what he was witnessing. He had no feelings toward Jessica, none that were caring or loving, at any rate. Their relationship hadn’t been more than partying and hooking up. There’d been no emotional connection at all. In fact, he hadn’t even known her last name until recently. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of…something…as he set eyes on her again after so long. She was, after all, Amelia’s mother, and he loved that little girl more than anything in the world. The only thing he’d ever felt toward Jessica was anger that she could leave her baby, but now…No.He needed to remember the anger.This woman left her child. She was an addict. She was unfit.

---