Page 25 of Timeless

So, I couldn’t be a dick and call them back to the charter, because they had also led me to her. The phone number didn’t give me anything but a fake name. which was ran and I got more dead leads.

But when Cole called to say they would be back for my release but were going to stay with Amber in the meantime, well, I knew to run his plates. That got me the address they were staying at, which led me to Amber’s main fake name, and I tracked the Will Daveson name down as well.

Which all led me to Amber.

That got me her tax forms, pay slips, speeding tickets and her bank statement. What I didn’t find though was a birth certificate for her son, telling me who the father was.

She was marked as having a dependent. But when you searched for her son, nothing came up. Not even a date of birth for the kid. It was like she hadn’t lodged his birth at all.

Anyway, her bank statement told me she had booked this venue. I knew it was for a birthday party because Adam let it slip that he didn’t know what to buy a kid for their birthday.

I don’t know why Adam still made a point to call me, not just to check in like the rest did, but to actually have a conversation with me.

Those conversations usually always featured Amber. We would relive memories about her. Adam really missed her. All her brothers had.

We were all beginning to think she was dead.

I wanted to know every detail of her new life. I wanted to even know small things, like what she did during the day at her job. Amber never wanted a job. I don’t know what changed her mind on that.

Maybe having a child? That feeling suffocated me again. That always came when I remembered someone else had had a kid with her. She was the mother of someone else’s child.

I walked through the kids’ play center doors. The noise was deafening, and I wasn’t used to loud noises after being locked up from general population for taking out a guard who got in my way. I spent three months locked in a cell by myself for that.

Quietness was my enemy.

I had my visiting rights pulled. And all my shit taken from me. Even the guards on my payroll couldn’t get me a phone.

The kind-hearted bastards let me out two weeks before my sentence ended altogether. That was the same night I found out my plan to get Tae arrested so his phone would be taken off him had worked months ago.

I had Amber’s number. I didn’t know that though before I assaulted that guard, causing me to be put in segregation.

But I called her that night and she answered. Troy confirmed her story. She had a son. She was in a serious relationship and had moved the fuck on from me.

I spotted the party. The only reason I was here was to see it with my own eyes. I had ridden since I got let out to be here.

Amber said Tae was always making sure she was safe. Well, I was taking over that job as of now. She would always be safe because of me.

No one would dare go near her or her son. And it wouldn’t be because of Tae. It would be because the woman I loved got to live her life the way she wanted, even if that didn’t include me.

I moved closer to the party, making sure no one saw me. All the kids sat at a long table surrounded by adults. Looks like they were waiting for something.

I spotted the boys, Troy was standing behind a girl. Cole, Adam, and Tyler were all there as well.

All their attention was on the boy at the end of the table but I couldn’t see him. Not from here. I’d have to get closer.

I walked around a stroller, feeling more like a stalker with every step I took closer to them.

Then they started singing happy birthday and I stopped trying to see Amber’s son altogether. My eyes were on her as she walked out with a birthday cake.

She never wore white. But she was in a white summer dress today. Her back tattoo poked out from it. She was singing happy birthday along with everyone else as she placed the cake in front of her son.

I wanted to see what he looked like. I hoped he was just like her. Those blue eyes and stubbornness. I hoped he was nothing like his father.

A guy I didn’t know wrapped his arms around Amber and kissed her cheek as she kept in tune with the happy birthday.

I saw the look he was giving their son. Love.

Well, that told me who the father was.

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