Cade blinked, like he hadn’t expected that response, but I was just tapping into the anger I’d harbored inside me for all these years.
“You assumed that I was using you to cheat on someone? You assumed that of me! That I was hiding a boyfriend from you! That’s what you think of me? And here, I thought that you really meant it when you’d told me that I was beautiful and amazing. You can’t really think those things of me if you also think that I have no goddamn morals.
“Instead of asking me whether or not I had a boyfriend or trusting that, I don’t know, that my private business is my private business, you invaded my life! You hired someone to tail me! I can’t believe this, Cade. I’ve never been so disappointed with someone in my entire life. You are nothing like the man I thought you were. You’re as spoiled and selfish as your parents.”
Cade gaped at me, unsure of what to say, but then he rallied and countered, “You had no right to hide my child from me.”
I snorted. “Oh, please. That’s rich. You left me. You dumped me and told me that every dream we’d had together, all of our plans, were lies. You told me that I was just a fling to you and that it was over. You acted like I was nothing! A toy that you were done playing with! I knew that if I meant nothing to you, your son would mean nothing to you.”
Despite my best efforts, my throat tightened, and my voice began to falter, my eyes tearing up as I remembered the deep fear that had gripped me when I’d realized that I was pregnant.
“You think I didn’t consider going to you? I was a nobody! Meanwhile, your parents had money and aspirations for you. Are you telling me that your father wouldn’t have tried to bury me somehow to get me out of the way so that your career would be safe? What if they’d hired lawyers to take my baby away from me, so that I never saw him again? And even if you had known, what if you just flew in and out of my child’s life whenever you felt like it, and ignored him when you were tired of him? What would that do to him? I could never put my child through that. Never! I wouldn’t let you treat him as if he was nothing, and I wouldn’t let your parents take him from me or hurt both of us.”
“You’re wrong!” Cade blurted out. “That’s not how it would’ve gone down, and you never should’ve made that choice for me. I had a right to know that I had a son, and I have a right to get to know him now.”
I laughed, bitter and slightly hysterical. “You’re wrong, hotshot. You can’t come bulldozing your way into our lives like this. I used to find that alpha male thing you had going on hot, but wow, it just makes you an entitled asshole, doesn’t it? Drew isn’t a toy, to pick up when you want to play with him and then put away when you’re bored.”
“You have no right to assume those things of me,” Cade growled.
I took a step forward so that I was right up in his face. “Oh, trust me, I know exactly what’s within my rights. I am Drew’s mother, and I decide if you can meet him. Right now, the answer is no. You didn’t ask me, you went behind my back and invaded my privacy and had me investigated. You assumed that I was a cheater, and now you’ve shown up at my house unannounced like some psycho stalker, and you’re demanding to see a boy that you gave up the rights to seeing when you treated his mother like she was trash.”
My voice rose in pitch. “What was I supposed to do back then? Crawl back to you and say, Hey, I know you just told me that I was nothing to you and that it was time for both of us to move on, but guess what! I’m pregnant! I’m sure that won’t ruin your college and career plans. Yeah, right! How dare you expect me to come groveling back to you, heart in my hands, when you’d just hurt me like that? I was scared and angry, Cade!”
I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t let myself. But God, I was so close. “I was terrified! And alone! And it was because of you! So, don’t you dare act like I did something wrong!”
I drew myself up. “Now get out of my front yard or I will set Caitlyn on you and I’ll call the cops!”
Before Cade could answer, I stormed back into the house and slammed the door as hard as I could, making the entire house shake.
I pressed my ear to the door, hardly daring to breathe, waiting. Despite all the things I had just said, I knew, in my heart of hearts, that if he’d just apologized to me and said that he’d been wrong, I would have given him a chance. He had to just apologize.
There was no sound from the other side of the door. After what seemed like a lengthy minute, I heard Cade walk away, and I slumped against the door. I heard a car start up—his car—and drive away.
Caitlyn had been standing in the doorway, as she’d promised, but the hard look on her face softened as I slid down to sit on the floor. “Oh, honey….”
She sat down next to me. “You okay?”
I shook my head and burst into tears.
25
Cade
It was a Friday evening, and I was still moping around the lake house.
Though I never would’ve
