The Man Who Has No Sight - Victoria Quinn Page 0,7
something I couldn’t keep from her. Valerie might keep Derek away from me for a long time, and that needed an explanation. “I invited her…but she declined my invitation.”
“Plans with Jake?” she asked hopefully.
“No.”
“Well…will Derek be joining us?” Now, she didn’t sound hopeful at all, like she already knew what my answer would be.
I shook my head.
She sighed loudly, painfully. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”
I wanted to lie—so fucking bad.
She could read it all over my face. “Deacon, I want you to be with Derek. Seriously, I don’t mind—”
“You’re spending Thanksgiving with us.”
She dropped her gaze. “Please don’t feel bad for me. I’ve been alone on the holidays before. It’s really not—”
“That’s not why. I don’t feel bad for you.”
“Well, you should be with your son. If I’m standing in the way of that—”
“Valerie is standing in the way of that. Not you.”
She looked at me again, devastated like I was. “Why does it have to be like this?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I don’t know why Valerie has to act this way. I invited her and she seemed touched, but when I said you would be joining us, she flipped out…like she always does. Said you didn’t belong. But I told her you’re family…because you are.” We weren’t married, but Cleo was such an integral part of my life that she was more than just some woman I was seeing. She was my best friend, my everything. I couldn’t explain the way I felt to Valerie without pissing her off even more.
She stared at me for a long time, her eyes slowly softening.
“Then she told me she would keep Derek from me until I got rid of you.”
“Oh…Jesus Christ.” She slouched over the table, her palms against her cheeks, anger in her gaze. “How can someone be so spiteful? So hateful?”
I would never understand it.
“What are you going to do?” She straightened again.
“What do you mean?” I’d been staring at my hands for a while, so I lifted my chin and looked at her. “I’m not going to do it…if that’s what you’re asking.”
Her voice was a whisper. “Deacon, this is your son.”
“And she’s a tyrant,” I snapped. “She’s going to use him as a pawn in this sick game until he’s an adult. She’s got the strings, and I’m the puppet. Whether I’m with you or another woman, she’ll continue to do this forever. I’m not participating anymore. It’s not about choosing you over him or vice versa. The point is, I shouldn’t have to choose.”
She nodded slightly, her hand moving to mine on the table.
“If I lose Derek…then I’ll know I tried everything I possibly could to make it work. When he’s an adult, I’ll explain everything to him. I know he’ll understand. He’s a smart kid with a sharp memory. I just…I don’t want to miss out on all these years, these holidays, because she’s a fucking bitch.”
“Yeah…”
I was quiet for a long time, trying to find a solution I hadn’t seen before, but there was none. My future was in the hands of my ex-wife, the heartless bitch who liked to twist a blade in my side until I got on my knees. I couldn’t do it anymore.
“If she knows you won’t respond to the threat, maybe she’ll change her mind.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Maybe I can talk to her—”
“Don’t,” I said quickly. “Just leave her alone. Seeing you will just make it worse.”
“Alright.” She squeezed my wrist before she released me. “I’m sorry you’re going through this.”
She didn’t know the half of it. “Yeah.”
“Getting custody is still not an option?”
I shook my head. “I would never win, Cleo.”
“You might…if we find proof of her incompetence as a parent. We could hire a PI. It honestly wouldn’t be that hard to catch her doing something she shouldn’t.”
She was right. It would be easy. She fed him garbage, was late to pick him up from school, preferred to spend her time with male suitors over being a parent. Plus, whatever she did when it was just Derek and her at home. But going back and forth in court, spending time and money trying to prove that the other was a piece-of-shit parent was a terrible thing to put Derek through. “No. I don’t want my son to go through that.”
After a week had passed, I knocked on her front door.
She opened it minutes later, looking at me with hostility. “I knew you’d come around.”
I wasn’t going to give in to her demands or try to change her