The living room had quieted by the time he made his way out of the room, so he padded barefoot to see if he could find Rosalinda or Dominick.
“What are you doing here?” Dominick sounded curious as he walked out of his bedroom.
Nick had to think quick. “Uh, I was tired so your mom let me stay the night, don’t worry.”
“It wasn’t safe for you to drive?”
“You shouldn’t drive when you’re too tired, no,” Nick agreed.
“Mom did the right thing,” Dominick said. “I need to go back to my room now.”
“Why are you in your room?”
“I need to get dressed and stuff. Plus, Mom is mad, so I don’t want to see her cry.”
“Why is she upset?”
“Dunno.” Dominick shrugged, and turned back around to his room. “She said she needs some time, and asked me to behave. So I am.”
Nick nodded. “I’ll go talk to her, then.”
“Thanks.” The kid turned back to give Nick a big hug, then darted back into his own bedroom.
He cautiously headed down the hall and to the living room to see Rosalinda there. The woman was sitting on the couch, staring at a phone. He tilted his head and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Her head snapped up towards him. “What does this mean?”
“What does what mean?” He was confused.
She held up the phone in her hand. “This.”
It was his phone. He recognized it immediately. “My phone?”
“What’s on it?” She looked beyond angry at him, and he didn’t know why. He glanced at the screen and gulped. A message was splashed across the screen, but he couldn’t read it from that distance.
He moved closer to her, squinting at the screen and a single name caught his attention. “Janice.”
“Yeah. Your wife.”
“My ex-wife.”
“She says she loves you.” Rosalinda was in tears.
“It’s not like that.” Nick was taken aback. He didn’t know how to fix this or if there was even a way to fix it. He knew that Janice had been trying to get back with him, but he had never considered it. “I’m not getting back with her. She’s been trying, but I told her I didn’t want that.”
“I don’t believe you,” she sniffed. “She said she loved you and can’t wait for you to get home.”
“It’s not like that,” Nick promised. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I don’t want her back.”
“Why is she sending you these messages, then?” Rosalinda didn’t look like she believed it.
“I don’t know, maybe because she’s crazy. I can’t tell you that. I don’t want her, Rosa. I want you.”
She paused, growing quiet as she passed him his phone. He thought that it was over, finally ending as she believed him, but it wasn’t that easy. He drew in a shaky breath as she eventually continued with what she was saying. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I can trust that.”
“Why?”
“Last time. Last time we did this. You married her almost immediately.” There were tears in her eyes that wouldn’t go away. It hurt him to watch her cry, but she stopped him from coming closer. “How do I know that isn’t happening again? How can I know that?”
“Because it’s not happening.”
“I don’t know that,” she sighed, hiccupping between soft sobs.
“It’s the truth.”
“It doesn’t feel like the truth. I don’t know what to believe,” she sighed heavily. “You should probably go.”
Nick felt pain well up inside of him. He didn’t want to live. “You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t know what to believe. I just need some space,” Rosalinda shook her head. “Just go. We can talk later after I’ve calmed down.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Just go,” she repeated. “I just need some time to think about stuff.”
He sighed heavily. “Please. Let’s just talk about it.”
“Not right now. Give me some time, then we’ll talk about it. I promise.”
Nick didn’t want to go, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He had to leave. She wanted him to leave. And he knew that it had to be respected. “Ok.” He walked to the door, pain in his chest and his heart stuck in his throat.
The door closed with an echoing thud behind him. It was the sound of finality; the sound of the end. The phone was in his hand, his fist clenched around it, and he knew that it was time to go. That he had ruined something truly great.
His phone became a source of rage, and he had to stop himself from throwing it across the parking lot and shattering it into a thousand little pieces. He still needed it to do something about the woman who had inadvertently destroyed something amazing because of her selfishness. He tried to remind himself that he had made as many mistakes in that relationship as Janice had, but he knew the truth. He would never have begged to get her back. He would never have comprised her life with so many messages and letters.
Nick was letting Janice move on, not bothering her unless there was something that needed to be communicated. He didn’t get in her way. He didn’t try to stop her from moving on. But she had made the choice not to, and he had no idea why. It was well past time to get to the bottom of the situation. He had so many problems to contend with, and so much that needed to be done. It felt impossible to contend with both women. One whom he wanted more than anything, but seemed to be afraid of him for some reason. Or maybe she was afraid of trusting someone in her life. And another woman who was begging for him to come back, but whom he wanted nothing to do with.
It was torture to leave Rosalinda like that, but he didn’t have much choice in the matter. The woman wanted some peace.
He ran his hands through his blond hair, hair the same color as the son that he just learned about. The son that he had just been getting to know. He already loved that little boy more than he could even rationalize. But he wasn’t going to push it. Not now. He had something else to deal with. He just had to find a way to do it.
While he drove, he found himself planning the conversation that was going to happen. When he got into his apartment he picked up his phone and called Janice.
She picked up the phone. “Nick!” She was smiling; he could hear it in her voice.
“Janice.” He kept his voice cold and steady.
“Nick! I’m so happy you called. I was afraid you were ignoring me.”
“I was ignoring you, but we need to talk, Janice.” He sounded just as unhappy as she sounded happy. He wasn’t going to give in to her. There was no way he could let this continue.
“About what?”
He sighed. “We’re not getting back together, Janice.”
He could hear her start to cry through the phone. “You can’t be serious. You begged me to come home.”
“That was when we first broke up, Janice. This isn’t happening. Not now.” He shook his head. “We aren’t getting back together.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that,” he stayed firm. “I’m not giving in.”
“Why not? We loved each other.” Soft sobs echoed in his ears. He tried not to let it guilt him into offering to comfort his ex-wife.
“We stopped loving each other. You had moved on. What happened?” he asked.
“He left me.”
“But you were finally free to be with him.”
“Jeff went back to his wife,” the woman on the other end of the line sniffed.
“Look, we’re all over. I don’t want you back, Janice.”
“You can’t honestly think that. We were perfect together.”
“We weren’t. But we were good at acting it. I’m not saying that it’s all your fault, but we weren’t a good fit from the start, and it caused us to make some mistakes. It’s very clear that we weren’t meant for each other,” he sighed. “I get that you’re hurt and lonely, Janice, but please stop this. I’m trying to move on with my life.”
&nb
sp; “You found someone else, didn’t you?” Her sobs grew stronger as they spoke.
He nodded, even if Janice couldn’t see him. “I did, yeah.”
“This can’t be happening. This can’t be real,” she sobbed. “I screwed everything up.”
Nick couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman. “It’s better this way. I promise it will get better for you, but you’re better off without me.”
“That’s not true at all. You just found yourself someone new, and now you just want me to leave you alone.”
“Janice. We already worked everything out. It’s over. It’s been over for a while. It was over long before it officially ended. You can’t expect me to just come running back to you.”
“I’m not happy without you.”
Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want to hurt the woman again, but this wasn’t going to go well if he wasn’t clear. “Janice. I don’t want to come back to you. It hurt when it ended, I won’t lie about that. And I did beg you to come back to me, but it didn’t work, and I had to accept that. I did accept it. And now you have to do the same.”
Janice hiccupped. “Why would you do this to me?”
“I’m not doing anything to you. That’s the point. It’s over, Janice. It’s been over for a while.”
“It doesn’t have to be over.”
“It’s over. You have to accept that, Janice.”
“I don’t have to accept anything,” she snapped. She was getting angry now. He didn’t blame her. There was nothing that he could do to make that anger fade. Janice had always been a little scared of the world, terrified of being alone. And it hurt her to be told that she was alone now. She was reaching out for him, trying to get back to where she wasn’t alone. He knew that.
He didn’t respond to her angry words. Just let her rant on and on about what angered her. A part of him wondered if he was doing that because he deserved to be hurt by it. Or at least if it was because he felt like he deserved that pain.
“You promised me. We made vows. And you can’t just leave,” her rant started to peter out.
“You left me, Janice,” he sighed. “You found someone new and moved on. Or did you forget that?”
“That doesn’t matter. We made promises. We can make it work. I can make it work.”
“I don’t want to make it work, Janice.” But his voice wavered. He wanted to cry. “You need to stop this. You’re just causing a lot of extra pain that no one deserves to feel.”
“You need to come back. Please, Nick.”
“I’m not coming back to you, Janice.” And he hung up the phone. It hurt to do it, but he knew that it had to be done. He couldn’t let her continue. He had told her that he wasn’t coming home and there was no way to stop it. He felt nothing but pain for what was happening to him.
19
Sister’s Keeper
Rosalinda paced in her living room after Nick left. She didn’t know what to do about him, and everything was falling apart around her. She couldn’t believe the messages that she had read from Nick’s ex-wife, or whoever it was who sent them. “What am I going to do?” she wondered aloud.
She looked down at her own phone, staring at the screen and wracking her brain about who to talk to about this. She settled on her brother. Oscar would know Nick better than anyone else. She picked up the phone and texted him. You got a minute to talk?
Something wrong? The response was almost immediate.
Just some stuff that I really need to talk to someone about.
You know I’m always here for you.
Can I call? I kinda wanna hear your voice.
Sure. Give me a call. I got my Bluetooth in.
Thanks.
She keyed in the command for her phone to call her brother, and he picked up on the second ring. “Hey, baby sis.” He sounded chipper. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Oscar.” She tried to smile and make it sound like she wasn’t miserable.
“Whoa. Something must really be wrong.”
“What makes you say that?”
He didn’t even need a moment to respond. “It’s all over your voice.”
“Really?”
“Really. What’s up?”
“I don’t know how to talk about it.” She sighed. “I saw Nick.”
“What about Nick?”
“Well, we’ve been getting kinda close.”
“What kinda close? The good kinda close or the scary kinda close?” Her brother was putting hints out there.
“A little of both.” She sighed. “We’re pretty close. Or we were, before I woke up and found those messages on his phone.”
“Wait. You woke up and found messages on his phone?” her brother balked. “Did he spend the night?”
She winced. “Yeah, he kinda did.”
“There’s no kinda there. That’s big.”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on between the two of you?”
“There’s a lot going on. I can’t really explain it.”
“You need to start explaining, Rosa. This is crazy, all of it.”
“Nick and I have a history.” She drew in a shaky breath. “From a long time ago.”
“And now you’re reliving that history?” She could imagine the frown on her brother’s face. It wasn’t a happy mental picture.
“After that night he went and got married.”
“Wait. Just wait a second.” Her brother cut her off. “This was from before he got married? Are you serious?”
“I’m serious.”
“Huh.” A pause echoed between them. “Wait? Dominick?”
“Uh.” She paused.
“Is he Dominick’s father?”
“Yes.” Her mouth was suddenly painfully dry.
“Wow. I should have seen it.”
“I never told anyone. Not even him.”
“Does he know now?”
Her chest heaved with panic. “He found out, yeah. Figured it out on his own.”
“This is insane.”
“I’m sorry,” she winced. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“Does he want anything to do with him?” Oscar was frowning. She could hear it in his voice. She hated the sound of him being upset. She had to admit the lie that she had told, but she didn’t have to like it.
“He does. He wants to be a part of our lives,” she sighed heavily.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Janice is still messaging him. She wants him back.”
“Do you think he wants to go back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you ask?”
“He says he doesn’t.”
“And you don’t believe him?”
“I don’t know what to do,” Rosalinda whined, feeling like a small child.
Her brother sighed on the phone. “It’s going to be fine; I promise. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“You didn’t see the messages from her. I’m telling you,” she shivered. “She said she loved him and she wanted him. And he belonged at home.”
“Did you see him say anything back to her?”
“No, but I didn’t read through a bunch of messages.” She sighed.
“It may just be one-sided,” the older man intoned carefully. “You may just be overreacting.”
“I’m not overreacting,” Rosalinda groaned. “Oscar. It wasn’t like that. She still loves him.”
“Does he still love her?”
“She was his wife.”
“They’re divorced,” her brother sighed heavily. “It would be easy for it to just be coming from her, even with nothing coming from his side.”
“How long have they been apart?”
“I don’t know, I really don’t. But I think they’re actually divorced. You have nothing to worry about. I promise.”
She drew in a ragged breath. Fighting tears was hard for her, but she was well practiced in it. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You�
��re perfectly fine. He won’t hurt you.” Her brother had the voice of someone forcing a smile.
“How do you know that?”
“Nick is a good man. He’s a great man. He won’t hurt you.” Her brother sounded incredulous. “He was my best friend.”
“Was?”
“Still is, I can still talk to him.”
“How can I be sure?”
“You have to trust someone, sometime.” Her brother was speaking with a calm voice, but she could tell that he was forcing it. He definitely had the urge to yell at her and say she was being ridiculous.
“I don’t know if I can trust him. Last time he ran off and got married.”
“You’re both older now. People change.”
“You still trust him, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” her brother sighed. “How can I help you feel better?”
“Can you call him? Talk to him? Do something, anything?”
“Sure, baby sister. I can talk to him. I’ll see what’s really going on.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I just can’t think straight around him.”
“That does sound like a baby sister in love,” he teased. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be fine.”
“What if I made a mistake by admitting it was his son?” She felt like crying again, but fought back the tears. “What if he tries to take my son away?”
“No one is gonna take your son away. Trust me. Nobody is gonna let that happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you have a family that loves you and would help you solve the problem.”
“I don’t know how that problem can be solved.”
“I’m sure we could find a place to hide the body.”
She scoffed. “We both know you’re not going to kill anyone.”
Her eyes were still rolling when her brother spoke again. “Watch what happens when someone hurts my baby sister.”
“You have to say that.”
“It’s in the big brother’s handbook.”
“That doesn’t exist.”
“Sure, it does,” he insisted. “Just like you got the little sister handbook.”
“That’s a secret thing. You aren’t supposed to know about it.”
“That’s one of those open secrets, isn’t it?” She could tell he was grinning.
The Alpha's Second Chance Page 21