Chapter 8
The five minutes turned into five hours.
Julian didn't leave.
He couldn't.
Not when Leo was showing him every drawing in his "museum" (the refrigerator door).
Not when Ethan was reading him Goodnight Moon in that serious, careful voice of his.
Not when both boys insisted on sitting on his lap for dinner, one on each leg, fighting over who got to feed him a bite of spaghetti.
I watched from the kitchen doorway, my heart full to bursting.
It was the most natural thing in the world.
And the most terrifying.
Because now that he'd held them...
Now that he'd heard them call him Daddy...
He would never let go.
And neither would they.
After dinner, he helped me give them a bath.
He sat on the closed toilet, fully clothed, while the boys splashed and poured water and made "soup" out of rubber ducks and bubbles.
He laughed at their jokes.
He listened to Ethan explain the complex social hierarchy of the bath toys.
He let Leo dump a cup of water directly over his head, his expensive shirt soaked through, and didn't even flinch.
When the boys were in their pajamas, Julian sat between their two twin beds and read them three stories.
His voice was low and warm and perfect.
Leo fell asleep halfway through the second one, his thumb in his mouth, his hand curled in Julian's shirt.
Ethan made it through all three, his eyes getting heavier and heavier, until finally he reached up and touched Julian's cheek.
"Will you be here when we wake up?" he whispered.
Julian froze.
He looked at me over Ethan's head.
The question was for both of us.
I nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Yeah, buddy," Julian said, his voice thick.
"I'll be here. I promise."
Ethan smiled.
A sleepy, perfect smile.
And he closed his eyes.
Julian sat there for another twenty minutes after they were both asleep, just watching them.
Memorizing their faces.
Committing every detail to memory— the way Leo's mouth fell open when he slept, the way Ethan's hand still curled around Thumper's ear, the soft rise and fall of their chests.
Finally, he stood up.
He followed me out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
We stood in the hallway.
Alone at last.
The air between us was electric.
Tense.
Fragile.
"You can sleep on the couch," I said, breaking the silence.
I couldn't look at him.
"I'll get you some blankets and a pillow."
I turned to walk away.
His hand on my wrist stopped me.
His touch burned.
"Audrey."
I turned.
He was so close.
Too close.
"I need to know what happens now. I can't... I can't go back to New York and pretend this didn't happen. I can't go back to being a stranger to my own sons."
He paused, searching my face.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me. Not yet. I'm not asking you to take me back. I'm not asking for anything except... a chance. Let me be their father. Let me be here. For the bedtime stories and the scraped knees and the school plays. Let me know them. Please."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"I'll do whatever you want. I'll move up here. I'll sell the company. I'll live in a cardboard box down the street if that's what it takes. Just don't lock me out again. I can't survive it."
I pulled my wrist from his grasp.
I walked to the living room, needing space to think.
He followed.
"It's not that simple, Julian," I said, turning to face him.
"You have a company. You have a fiancée. The whole world thinks you're marrying Madison Carter in two months. You can't just walk away from all of that and move to Maplewood to build Lego castles. Life doesn't work that way."
His face hardened at the mention of Madison.
"Madison doesn't matter."
"She does matter! She's your COO. She's been with you for four years. Your mother adores her. The society pages have already planned the wedding. If you call it off—"
"*I don't care*."
He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.
"Audrey, the engagement was a lie. A business deal my mother forced on me because she thought I needed an heir. I never loved her. I never even wanted her. The only woman I've ever loved is standing right in front of me. And the only family I've ever wanted is asleep down that hall."
He stepped closer.
"I will call off the engagement tomorrow. I will step down as CEO if I have to. I will do anything. But I am not leaving here without my sons. And I am not leaving here without at least trying to fix what I broke between us."
The front door burst open.
We both spun.
Madison stood in the doorway.
Her hair was wild.
Her eyes were red.
She held a phone in her hand, the screen glowing.
"So this is where you've been," she said, her voice shaking with rage.
"Four years of waiting. Four years of being the good, patient woman. And you've been here. With her."
Her eyes swept the room.
Taking in the toys.
The children's books.
The evidence of the life I'd built without them.
And then her gaze landed on the framed photo on the mantel.
The boys at the beach, grinning, covered in sand.
Julian's face.
Julian's smile.
Her breath caught.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
"They're his."
Everything happened very fast after that.
Madison stepped into the house, slamming the door behind her.
"You hid them," she said, rounding on me.
Her finger was pointed like a weapon.
"All this time. You knew. You knew you were pregnant and you hid them. You manipulated him. You let him suffer for four years because you were jealous of one stupid kiss. You're a monster."
"Get out," Julian said.
His voice was ice.
He stepped between me and Madison, shielding me with his body.
"This is none of your business, Madison. Get out of my house."
"*Your* house?" Madison laughed, a sharp, hysterical sound.
"*This* is your house now? What about the penthouse in Manhattan? What about the wedding we're supposed to have in eight weeks? What about me?!"
"There is no wedding. There never was. It was over before it started. You knew that."
"I knew nothing! I gave you four years of my life! I built your company! I covered for you when you were too drunk to make meetings! I lied to your mother! I paid an investigator to keep you from finding her because I thought— I thought if you just gave up on her, you'd finally see me!"
The words hung in the air.
Julian went still.
"What did you just say?"
Madison's hand flew to her mouth.
Too late.
"You paid him," Julian said.
His voice was deadly quiet.
"The first investigator. You paid him to lie. To tell me Audrey was in Seattle. In Miami. Nowhere. You let me spend three more years looking for her when you knew where she was. You kept me from my sons for three years."
He took a step toward her.
"Get out."
"Julian, I—"
"*GET OUT!*"
The shout was so loud the pictures rattled on the walls.
Down the hall, a door creaked open.
"Mommy?"
Ethan.
Half-asleep, his hair sticking up, Thumper dragging on the floor.
He stood in the hallway, blinking at the shouting strangers.
Madison looked at him.
At the little boy who was Julian's mirror image.
And something in her face... shifted.
The rage drained away.
Replaced by a cold, terrifying calm.
"Fine," she said, smoothing her hair.
"I'll go. But you haven't heard the last of this, Julian. You want to throw away four years of my work? You want to throw away the company we built together for a woman who lied to you and kept your children from you? Fine. But I will take everything. Every hotel. Every dollar. Every single thing we built. And I will make sure the whole world knows what kind of man you are. And what kind of mother she is."
She looked at me.
Her eyes were dead.
"Enjoy your little family, Audrey. It won't last. Nothing that's built on lies ever does."
She turned and walked out.
The door slammed behind her.
Silence.
Thick and heavy.
Ethan stood in the hallway, his little face crumpling.
"Is she gone?" he whispered.
I ran to him.
Scooped him up.
He buried his face in my neck, trembling.
"She was scary, Mommy."
"I know, baby. I know. She's gone now. It's okay. Everything's okay."
Julian stood in the middle of the living room.
His hands were clenched into fists at his sides.
His whole body was shaking.
"She kept me from them," he said, more to himself than to us.
"Three years. She paid to keep me from them."
He looked at me.
At Ethan in my arms.
And I saw the decision form in his eyes.
Hard.
Final.
"I'm going to destroy her," he said quietly.
"She wants a war? Fine. I'll give her one. But I promise you this, Audrey. No matter what happens. No matter what she throws at us. I will never let anyone hurt you or the boys again. Never."
He walked over to us.
He wrapped his arms around both of us.
Ethan, sandwiched between us, immediately relaxed.
Within seconds, he was asleep again.
"I meant what I said," Julian whispered into my hair.
"Whatever it takes. We're a family now. And I'm not going anywhere."
Outside, Madison sat in her car, typing furiously on her phone.
She was calling lawyers.
She was calling the press.
She was calling every contact she'd made in four years at Foster Meridian.
May you like
She was going to burn Julian Foster to the ground.
And she was going to take me and the boys down with him.
