Chapter 8

Vivian POV

I walk back to the dressing room to pick my son, but I don’t find him where I had left him. So awkward. I turn and head back to Elsa.

“Just a minute, Elsa. Did you see…” I pause when she points outside, and I see two figures. One was huge, a man’s figure, and the other was a small kid, possibly Marvel.

I go outside, and before I could reach them, I pause for a second, listening to their conversation. Valentine. He was on his phone with someone.

“Hello, Courtney, how are you…” I listened carefully. He had a wife all along, and he’s here pretending to be so caring. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I walked out to them.

“What are you doing with my son?” I stood there frozen, just staring, not sure what to do.

“You had my child, Vivian, but didn’t think to tell me?” Valentine stood back up straight, looking down at me, no longer with awe and reverence, but with judgment and anger.

I shook my head, tears filling my eyes. How could I have been so stupid? Hope had flickered inside when I first met his gaze and felt that deep longing once again. Now, he is judging me, and for something that is not even true.

“I told you already, he can’t be your child. The timing didn’t add up. I didn’t think I needed to tell the married man who is my high school ex that I got pregnant when it had nothing to do with him.”

Surprise and pain flashed in his eyes before his eyebrows his thick, manly eyebrows turned down in confusion. Gawd, why do even his eyebrows look beautiful to me? What is wrong with me?

“Married? I’m not even married. Why did you think I was married?” he asked, taking a step toward me, gripping my shoulders as if he was scared I was about to run. His chest was right up against mine, and for a few seconds, I forgot how to speak.

I picked up Marvel and walked to my car, fastening his seatbelt.

“Hey! Don’t be mean to my mommy!” Marvel yells, fighting the harness of his car seat to get free.

Valentine ignores him, continuing to stare down at me.

“Why did you think I was married, Vivian? Why? Did someone say something to you? Did someone else?”

“Stephanie?” I looked at him like he was crazy.

Marvel is trying to kick Valentine, but is just a few inches shy as he yells at Valentine to leave me alone. He was fine with Valentine a minute ago, but that was before he thought the towering man was a threat to his mom.

“Marvel, baby, it’s okay.” I glared at Valentine, then pushed him away before going to unbuckle my son from his seat. He got the straps loose while fighting to get out, and his arms were completely out from where they were supposed to be.

“He was just leaving.” I turned my head to throw another glare Valentine’s way while unfastening the final clip.

Marvel latches onto my neck, clinging to me. Valentine crosses his arms, stubbornness etched in every perfect inch of his body as he scowls right back.

“Listen, Vivian, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you thought I was married. I’m not and never have been.”

“Then who is Courtney?” I snapped at him.

Marvel, my ultimate little defender, echoes my question.

“Yeah! Who’s Courtney?”

“My Courtney?” Ben said as he started walking up from behind Valentine. Jeez, what do.

“Courtney talked to you and told you I was married?” Valentine asked, his voice slightly raised, making me flinch. I regret flinching after worry and regret crossed his face.

Even Ben places a restraining hand on Valentine’s chest, worried about my reaction. A normal person wouldn’t have flinched at someone slightly raising their voice, but after living with Levi for years, it’s a habit ingrained in my muscles. If he slightly raised his voice, that meant he was about to blow his fuse, and I was going to take a tongue-lashing that felt like I was being physically abused rather than just verbally.

“I didn’t talk to anyone. I saw her calling you and heard you speaking to her and your daughter.”

“My daughter? I don’t have a daughter,” he tells me in a leveled voice, trying not to scare me again, I’m sure.

“Who’s Casey, then?”

Ben looks guiltily at me, then slowly starts to raise his hand.

“Um, that would be my daughter, ma’am. The girl you’re talking about.”

“Your daughter?” I looked him up and down in confusion.

He pulls out his wallet and picture, showing it to me. Even Marvel lifts his head to see the little girl’s picture, like he is trying to get to the bottom of all of this and find out what is making his mom so upset. Sure enough, it seemed true.

“Courtney is my wife.” Ben smiles at me. “And this is my cousin.” He points his thumb in Valentine’s direction.

I scrunched my face in confusion. “But the picture. You…?” I couldn’t even speak.

"Valentine. I’m… I’m over it. It wouldn’t have worked out anyway, since I guess I was.."

I looked at my son for a second, seeing that he was hanging on to every word that was being said between us, and I sighed.

“It just wouldn’t have worked.”

“It would have.” Valentine took a step towards me, causing Marvel to lift his head, clinging to my neck tighter.

“You had my child, Vivian. You not only ran away from me, you ran away pregnant with my child, and you didn’t think of trying to find me again to tell me? Even if there was some kind of misunderstanding about everything and you thought I was married, how could you just not tell me that you had my son?!”

“Because he is not your son!” I yelled.

A little growl startles me, coming from my son’s little body. He is baring his teeth, looking a bit feral and ready to leap out of my arms to tear him into pieces.

“I don’t need a dad like you who yells at Mommy!” Marvel yells angrily.

“What?” Valentine takes a step back, shock and disbelief replacing the anger on his face.

“We are going to find a new home where Grandpa Lucy can come live with us.”

“Someone hurt you?” Valentine turned his worried expression on me.

My tears started to spill from my heated eyes after hearing my small son trying to defend me so ferociously. Marvel is too small and too young to carry the burdens I placed on him. Grief overtakes me knowing I didn’t shield him as well as I thought I had from all the bad that was happening to me because of the heartbreak years ago.

I couldn’t even bear to look at Valentine or his friend, knowing there would be nothing but pity for me in their faces. I stare at the ground, then close my eyes to try and stop my tears instead as I take slow, labored breaths.

Marvel’s small hand is patting my back, trying to comfort me the way I usually try to comfort him when he is upset.

“Please, just leave,” I whispered.

I need to get Marvel’s shoes back on and get out of here. If I can’t find that secret hotel or figure out how to get a room in it, I should at least stop and get a room at the other hotel for a day or two, hiding from him. I let Marvel stretch out and relax while we recuperate.

I need to talk with Marvel and apologize for all the crap he has witnessed, even though I thought I was keeping it hidden from him for the most part all these years.

I don’t have time or energy to deal with an old fling, no matter how much my entire soul is crying out for me to just jump into his arms right now, like just touching him will make all the pain buried deep in me just go away. It won’t.

I don’t need a man to fix my problems. I need to figure this out on my own. I need to bury my own desires and just live for my son.

I feel electricity start buzzing beneath my skin, and Marvel starts to growl softly again. I looked back up just in time to see Valentine, having closed the distance between us, wrap his arms around me and my child.

My soul either shatters or sings at his touch, I’m not sure which, and my entire body is buzzing with that same weird electrical current from years prior. The only time I have ever felt it is when I was in Valentine’s arms.

And the feeling returned breaks down the rest of my resolve as I start weeping uncontrollably in Valentine’s arms.

Marvel is growling, trying to push Valentine away, but Valentine just clings on tighter, breathing us in like we carry on us the most heady aroma, kissing and nuzzling his head between mine and my son’s.

“I’m never going to leave you, Vivian. And I’m not ever going to let you leave me again. You’re home. You finally came home where you belong.”