Rebecca wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand, she was grateful to have Jordan back with her, but on the other, she was curious why Alex wasn’t more interested in spending time with Jordan. Maybe Alex wasn’t as keen to reunite with his son as she had initially thought. And though she really didn’t want to have to forge a relationship of any kind with Alex, Rebecca didn’t want her son to have his heart broken by his father.
With a sigh, Rebecca laid down next to Jordan on the bed, curling up on her side. She remembered doing this when he was much smaller and needed her to talk with him when he was scared. It had been a while since she’d had to reassure him in this way, but she reached out and cupped his cheek in her hand, not surprised to feel the skin wasn’t as baby-soft as it had once been.
“I know this has been difficult for you, Jordan,” Rebecca said as she looked into his blue eyes, so very like his father’s. “I know you have lots of questions. You will get the answers, but I can’t promise that they will be what you want. This has been confusing for all of us.”
“Can’t you just tell me what I need to know?” Jordan asked. “Does he even need to be part of this conversation?”
Rebecca hesitated, tempted to take the opportunity to tell Jordan by herself. But she knew that if they had a hope of working this out, Alex needed to be there when they discussed the past. If, after hearing everything from both of them, Jordan no longer wanted a relationship with Alex, Rebecca wouldn’t force it on him. As far as she was concerned, Alex had given up the right to be Jordan’s father fifteen years ago. She would only consider allowing that to change now if it was what Jordan wanted.
“I’m sorry, Jordan. This involves all of us, so we need to be together to discuss it.”
Jordan let out a long sigh and turned his gaze back toward the ceiling. “I thought he liked me.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But tonight it seemed like he couldn’t get rid of me soon enough.”
Rebecca couldn’t believe that she was now in the position of having to defend Alex. “I don’t think he wanted to get rid of you, Jordan. He has a lot going on with his business, and he took a big chunk of today off to be with you. I’m guessing that he had work he needed to do tonight. You’ll see him again tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Jordan said as he pushed to a sitting position. “I’m going to go make the bed in the other room.”
Rebecca followed him out of the bedroom and together they made up the hide-a-bed. Once Jordan was settled on the bed with his phone texting Robby, she returned to her laptop but found it difficult to concentrate as her thoughts kept returning to their conversation. It had been a long time since she had experienced such a tumult of emotions. Fear. Anger. Worry. All of them were twisted up inside of her, warring for the top spot. And there was also a very small part of her—the part that remembered what it had been like to be loved by Alex—that was filled with joy and anticipation. For sure she could not allow those emotions to ever rise to the surface. They needed to stay tucked away where they had been ever since she made the decision to leave Alex and keep their child.
~*~*~
Alex tried to stifle a yawn as he stared at the monitor on his desk. There were more emails to go through even though he had gone through a chunk of them the night before. But he was having a hard time concentrating given how things had ended with Jordan the previous night.
Sleep had been elusive as he had replayed the events of the day, including seeing Rebecca again for the first time after so many years. He had tried to figure out if there was a way for them to put their family back together again, but there was no getting around the fact that he and Rebecca were essentially strangers. Married strangers, but strangers nonetheless. It would take a commitment for both of them to work through what had happened in the past and to get to know each other in the present. Was there still a flicker of love that could be fanned into a flame? Or was that all gone now?
A knock at his door drew his attention from the monitor and his thoughts. Before he could say anything, the door swung open to reveal Marcus standing there. Not bothering to say anything, Alex watched as his best friend and partner made his way to a seat across the desk from him.
Marcus’s gaze was intense as he stared at Alex. “A son, man? Do you really have a son? And you didn’t know about him?”
Alex flipped the pen he’d been holding onto his desk and leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers across his stomach. “No, I had no idea.”
“I thought we knew pretty much everything about each other,” Marcus said, his brow furrowed. “Somewhere along the line, you forgot to mention the events that would’ve led to the birth of a child. Care to fill me in now?”
Unlike when he’d shared the story with Melanie and Adrianne, Alex spared Marcus none of the details. If anyone could understand Alex’s mindset at the time, it would be Marcus.
“So you don’t just have a son, you have a wife as well?” Not much took Marcus by surprise, but it was clear that Alex’s news did. “How did I not know this about you?”
“Well, the marriage happened before I met you,” Alex said. “By the time we became friends, everything had already happened with Rebecca, and I realized that our marriage was over, and there was nothing to tell.”
“But still, Alex, a wife and a son? That’s pretty epic news.” Marcus leaned back in his chair, elbows braced on the armrests and fingers steepled in front of him. “What are you going to do about the situation?”
Alex ran both hands through his hair and pressed his palms into his eyes for a moment. “I have absolutely no idea. I need to talk to Rebecca to find out what she wants.”
Marcus huffed. “I think we both know what she wants. My guess is she’s going to want as little contact between you and Jordan as possible. After all, she’s kept him from you all these years for a reason. And likely in her mind, that reason hasn’t changed.”
“You’re right.” Alex sighed. “But I would really like to be a part of Jordan’s life. He seems like a neat kid.”
“What about Rebecca and the marriage? Was the only reason you didn’t file for divorce because you didn’t know where she was?”
Alex didn’t respond right away as he mulled over Marcus’s words. The reality was, given the resources at BlackThorpe, he could likely have found her at any point and used that information to file for divorce. “For now, I’m just going to leave the marriage side of things alone. What Rebecca chooses to do, however, is an entirely different matter.”
“So what was it like seeing her again after all this time?” asked Marcus.
“To be honest, I have tried not to look at her as the woman I married. Because clearly, she isn’t. It just makes it easier all around to view her as Jordan’s mother. Not my wife.”
“This is some really messed up stuff,” commented Marcus.
“Tell me about it,” Alex agreed. “And we haven’t even told Jordan all about the circumstances surrounding what happened back then.”
“Well, if there’s anything I can do, be sure to let me know.” Marcus leaned forward, his expression intensifying. “Changing the subject slightly… Did you see the email from Eric this morning?”
Alex nodded. He had seen the urgent message when he checked his email earlier. “It’s a bit frustrating that the note and envelope didn’t yield more information.”
“Yes. Very frustrating.” Marcus scowled. “But I suppose it was too much to ask that whoever is behind all of this would slip up and leave his fingerprints on a piece of paper.”
“So you think that this is all tied together as well? I’ve been waffling on that myself.” Alex grabbed the pen he’d flipped away earlier and rested his elbows on his desk.
“At this point, I am suspect of anything out of the norm that happens to anyone associated with BlackThorpe. Even though, on one hand, this situation with Jordan seems to be a positive one for you, it is serving as a distraction. You can’t deny that your full attention is no longer on BlackThorpe business.”
Alex knew Marcus was right. From the moment he’d realized just who the young man was standing outside the BlackThorpe compound, his whole attention had shifted from what was going on with Alana and other BlackThorpe things to Jordan. But what else could he do? He wanted a relationship with his son, and if Jordan wanted that as well, he wasn’t going to push him away.
“I’m not criticizing you, man,” Marcus said. “Just stating a fact that would be true had it happened to any of us here at BlackThorpe. I know your son needs you. But you still need to be alert and aware of what’s going on. There’s nothing saying that whoever is behind this wouldn’t hesitate to use Jordan against you. After what happened with Alana, no one is safe. Make sure the Rebecca and Jordan are aware of that.”
“I had been thinking of sending them back to Chicago until everything here has been resolved. But with what you’re saying it makes more sense to keep them here where I can protect them better.” Alex rubbed a hand across his eyes. “Not sure how well that will go over with Rebecca.”
“Well, hopefully, her desire to keep her son safe will outweigh any negative feelings she has for you.”
Yes, hopefully. However, given that they were in danger because of him, Alex wasn’t sure anything would outweigh the negative feelings Rebecca had towards him.
~*~*~
Rebecca was surprised at how much it felt like home being in the small apartment. It had nothing to do with the decorations or the furnishings, but more because of the schedule they were able to keep. When she’d woken up, she’d been uncertain of what the day might hold, but after discovering a fully stocked kitchen, Rebecca started the day as they would have had they been at home.
By the time Jordan woke up to the knock at the door, Rebecca already had a breakfast of bacon and eggs cooking on the stove. She opened the door to find Melanie on the other side, the thick coat pulled tight around her a clear indication of the drop in temperature overnight.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” Melanie said. “Alex went into the office early so he asked me to come by and check on you.” She smiled as she sniffed the air. “It smells like you’ve got breakfast well underway here.”
Rebecca nodded as she stepped back and motioned for Melanie to come inside. “I assumed that it would be okay to use the food I found in the refrigerator.”
“Oh definitely,” Melanie said. “Jordan went with me to the store so we could buy the things that you like to cook.”
Rebecca laughed. “From what I see of the contents of the fridge and cupboards, I would say that Jordan helped you pick out the things he likes to eat.”
“I did wonder when he told me that you’d like Cap’n Crunch,” Melanie said, a wide grin on her face. “We mainly bought just breakfast and lunch food since we all try to eat together at night. Hopefully, you’ll be okay with that too.”
Family dinners. Something Rebecca had always wanted, but she wasn’t sure that this was the best way to get them. “That sounds like it would be okay.”
“Alex is hoping to get off early, but that could change if something comes up at the office. He said that he would text Jordan to let him know what his plans were.” Melanie pulled a small card from the pocket of her jacket and held it out to Rebecca. “Here’s my business card with my numbers on it. If you need anything at all, just give me a call. Do you think you might want to take the car out?”
Rebecca shook her head. “I think we’ll be okay for today. Once we determine how long we’re staying, though, we may need to make a trip to Walmart or another store to pick up more clothes and toiletries.”
“Okay. That sounds great.” Melanie opened the door and stepped out into the cold then turned back. “I hope you have a good day. We’ll see you a little bit later.”
Once they’d said goodbye, Rebecca quickly closed the door, but because of the small size of the apartment, the cold air had already filled it. Jordan lay on his side with the blankets pulled up to his ears, but he was clearly awake.
“You ready for some breakfast?” Rebecca asked as she went back to where the scrambled eggs were cooking on the stove. She pulled a couple of plates from the cupboard and quickly dished up food for each of them.
Once they’d finished eating, they cleaned up the kitchen together and then moved on with their day just as they would have at home. Jordan sat on the hide-a-bed with his tablet logged into his home school site. Rebecca brought her laptop out to the small dining room table and sat there with it going over the results of her latest book release. They worked in relative silence for the next hour until a noise from Jordan’s phone interrupted them.
Jordan picked it up and glanced down at it. “It’s from…uh, Alex. He says he’ll be home around two o’clock.”
Rebecca just nodded, uncertain what her response was supposed to be. She wouldn’t be surprised if Alex would take advantage of the fact that his sisters were at work in order for them to have the conversation that Jordan wanted. And if he did, she wouldn’t object. The sooner Jordan knew the details of what had happened, the sooner they could move forward. She wondered if part of the reason Alex had had Jordan stay the night with her was to keep distance between the two of them, since it was entirely possible that Jordan would reject Alex when he heard what Alex had to say about the past.
She glanced at the clock on her laptop and saw that it was just past noon. Since they both had slept in and had a late breakfast, the morning had slipped past quickly. When she looked over at Jordan, he sat there with the phone in his hand looking at her expectantly. “Okay. Just let him know we’ll see him then.”
Jordan nodded then bent his head over the phone, typing out a quick message in reply.
“I know we didn’t have breakfast that long ago, but are you hungry for something for lunch?” Rebecca asked.
Picking up his tablet, Jordan shook his head. “I want to finish this unit before he comes. Then I shouldn’t have to do much more today.”
“Sounds good.” She wasn’t too surprised by Jordan’s eagerness to do his homeschool work. He was a smart kid and, for the most part, he enjoyed the subjects he had for school. With the advent of the Internet and the online high school she had signed him up for, homeschooling wasn’t the chore it might have been otherwise. Honestly, if she had been left alone to help him through some of his high school subjects, he most certainly would’ve failed. They were far and above what she remembered taking when she’d been in high school.
As two o’clock drew closer, Rebecca felt her stomach begin to knot. The emotions of the previous night began to take up residence inside her once again. The familiarity of their schedule and having Jordan with her had helped to calm them earlier, but now those emotions were back with a vengeance. She just had to keep her mind focused on the fact that finally laying all the cards out on the table would be for the best. The only thing she really didn’t want was for Jordan to be hurt by the revelations that lay ahead.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS CLOSER to two thirty by the time Alex made it home. He took a few minutes to head into the house to put his briefcase away and change out of the suit he’d worn to work. He tugged on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt then debated on a jacket since it was just a short distance away. But the weather had definitely turned colder in the past day, so in the end, he pulled on his leather jacket and headed to the apartment to see Jordan and Rebecca.
Jordan opened the door in response to his knock, a wary expression on his young face. Alex knew that this was no doubt a result of their interaction the night before. But Jordan stepped back from the door and waved for him to come in.
“Did you have a good morning?” Alex asked as Jordan closed the door behind him.
Jordan rubbed his hands together then crossed his arms over his chest. “I had to do some school work, but other than that it was good.”
Rebecca came out of the bedroom dressed in a pair of black pants and a light purple sweater. Her hair was pulled back from her face and it looked like she wore just a little bit of make
up. She looked even more like the woman he married, and Alex had to fight to keep from letting those memories cloud what he needed to accomplish there.
“Hi, Alex. Why don’t you take off your jacket and stay awhile. If that fits in with your schedule, that is.”
Though her comment could’ve come off as snarky, Alex didn’t detect anything like that in her tone. He shrugged out of the jacket and hung it on one of the hooks beside the door. He toed off the boots he’d worn over from the house then stood in his sock feet, not sure what to do.
“Would you like a cup of coffee or something else to drink?” Rebecca asked as she moved towards the kitchen.
“A cup of coffee would be great,” Alex said and took a seat at the small table.
Jordan joined him, phone in hand, taking the seat across from him. Alex could sense the boy’s reticence and hoped that it wouldn’t have turned to outright hatred by the time all was said and done.
Rebecca set a glass of chocolate milk in front of Jordan then came to the table with two mugs. After setting one in front of Alex, she sat down in one of the two remaining chairs, cupping her mug in her hands.
Looking at Alex, her expression unreadable, Rebecca said, “I suppose now would probably be a good time to have that talk.”
Alex hesitated then nodded. Even though he agreed it was necessary, it was really the last thing he wanted to do. Without looking away from Rebecca, he said, “I’ll let you decide how you want to handle this. I’ll answer whatever questions Jordan might have, but it’s your call what we talk about here.”
When Alex looked at Jordan, the boy’s gaze was darting between him and Rebecca, clearly as uncertain as Alex about how this would proceed. Rebecca seemed to be the only one who was calm and focused.
“How about I just start at the beginning?” Rebecca suggested.
When Alex nodded, she continued. In an emotionless tone, Rebecca laid out the events leading up to that horrible day. Jordan was quiet as he listened to her explain why they dated in secret. Nodding his head in understanding when Rebecca mentioned how her parents had forbidden her from dating while she was still in high school. His eyes grew round, however, when Rebecca revealed that they had not only dated in secret but also gone on to marry in secret.
Proof of Life: A Christian Romance (BlackThorpe Security Book 4) Page 8