Page 59 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

Desperately. But he refused.

“No. Stay where you are. I’ll come get you as soon as we’ve dealt with him.”

“‘We’ being you and Nico?”

“And the rest of the family, yes.”

On the screen, the concern left her face as her expression stiffened. He heard his own words and realized he was making it sound as though she wasn’t considered family.

“Bree—”

“Yes, you can show Papà your donkey. Here you go.” She put Sofia on and he listened politely as she told him about the stuffed toy that had come with the book Gigi had given her.

Every time he had called since then, Bree had given the phone to their daughter as quickly as possible. The way his marriage was imploding was eating him up, but he needed Tucker out of the way before he tried to patch things up with Bree.

So much for that. She was going to be furious.

He moved into an adjacent office and placed the video call.

“Sofia, Papà is on the phone,” Bree said as soon as she answered. “Do you want to sit down to talk to him?” It was a rule that Sofia could only hold a phone or tablet while seated.

“Wait,” he said. “I need to tell you something first.”

He explained and watched her expression tighten.

“So I’m fired? What about my job with WBE? Should I go into the office?”

“Nothing’s been figured out yet. This is a courtesy call. Eve will send out a memo with more details.”

“Thanks, I guess,” she said flatly, seeming to search his expression through the screen. “That’s the only reason you called?”

She was giving him room to make an overture, even though it was probably hard for her.

I won’t ask you to love me back.

All he had to do was say he needed her and she would hurry to his side. He knew that. But it would be the most selfish act of his life.

At his silence she said, “Here’s Sofia.”

His daughter’s face came on and her first question expanded the fissures in his heart.

“When are you coming? I miss you.”

“Soon.” That felt like a lie. He spoke to her a moment, then said, “Can you put Mama back on?”

She called for Bree, then said, “She’s in the bathroom.”

He ended the call, temper frayed while a deeper sense of guilt ate at him.

He went to tell Eve that he’d talked to Bree and found her alone in Nico’s office, curled into the corner of the sofa, eating a breakfast burrito.

“Where’s Nico?” he asked.

“Gym.”

Jax could use an hour of throwing weights around himself. God, he was frustrated. He was eating his heart out, missing his wife and daughter, hating himself for being apart from them. Suffering this rift over an action that was so far in the past, it shouldn’t still be having this kind of impact on any of them.

“There’s more if you want one.” Eve used her burrito to wave at the kitchenette.

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