Page 86 of Falling for Love

That he’d show up announced and try to whisk Hayden away.

And now, this…

I gripped the counter to balance myself, the papers crumpling slightly in my hands. My chest ached. A dull ache spread down my arms as my breaths came in shallow and fast spurts.

This had to be a mistake.

It had to be.

But the black ink stared back at me with cold finality. He’d signed the papers. He was serious.

“Mom!” Hayden’s voice jolted me out of my spiraling thoughts. “The tower fell over again!”

It felt like I was in a room with no air where everything echoed into itself…my thoughts, fears, and son.

I sucked in a shaky breath and steadied my voice. “Coming!”

He couldn’t see me like this. He was too perceptive. I had to pull myself together.

Folding the papers back into the envelope, my hands shook as I tucked them into the drawer beneath the counter. Out of sight, but not out of mind.

Never out of mind.

When I entered the living room, Hayden looked up at me with his bright, trusting eyes, holding a LEGO piece in his small hand.

“Mom, can you help me fix this?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” I said, forcing a smile that felt more like a grimace. My knees wobbled as I crouched next to him, the weight of the envelope pressing down on me like a boulder.

He started explaining his plan for the tower. “The piece here. And then the yellow ones on this…” His voice bubbled excitedly.

I nodded along, murmuring encouragement as my mind raced.

Why now? After all this time, why was Kyle coming back into the picture? What game was he playing?

There was never a doubt in my mind that what bothered him most was that I ended things with him. That he didn’t do it first. Our relationship had been based on him calling all the shots.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry.

The thought of him in Hayden’s life, disrupting the little world I’d built for us, made my stomach churn. He didn’t know Hayden. He didn’t know the first thing about raising a child, let alone one as special as my son.

Hayden didn’t even know Kyle existed.

Not really, anyway.

“Mom?” Hayden’s voice brought me back again, and I realized I’d been holding the same LEGO piece for too long.

“Sorry, honey,” I said, handing it back to him. “You’re the expert. Where does it go?”

He grinned and pointed to the base of the tower. I helped him press it into place.

For his sake, I had to hold it together.

For our sake, I had to stay strong.

But the moment he moved to watching a cartoon, I stood up and walked into the kitchen.

I pulled the envelope from the drawer, staring at it as if it might burst into flames. My head spun with questions.

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