Chapter 2
The knocks came again. Louder. Angrier.
Emily's whole body trembled. She pressed Noah's face into her shoulder, shielding him from a threat only she could see.
"Who is it?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous.
She didn't answer. She couldn't. Her eyes were locked on the door like it might burst open at any second.
I stepped between her and the threat. Whatever was coming, it would have to go through me first.
The knocks turned to pounding.
"Emily! Open up! I know you're in there!"
A man's voice. Familiar. Angry.
Emily flinched as if she'd been struck. She whispered a name that meant nothing to me in that moment, but would soon mean everything.
"Richard."
Her brother.
I'd met Richard Carter exactly twice. Once at our wedding, once at a family barbecue I'd cut short for an emergency meeting. I remembered him as greedy, entitled, and always looking for an angle.
"Open this door, or I'll call the police and tell them everything!"
Everything.
The word hung in the air like poison.
Emily's hand covered her mouth. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She looked at me with such raw desperation that my heart physically ached.
"Don't let him take him," she whispered. "Please, Gavin. Don't let him take my baby."
Take him?
Ice flooded my veins.
I walked to the door and wrenched it open.
Richard stood on the porch, snow dusting his cheap suit, a sneer on his face. He was younger than Emily by three years, but his eyes had the hardness of someone who'd spent a lifetime taking what he wanted.
His sneer vanished when he saw me.
"Gavin Rowan," he said, recovering quickly. "This is a family matter. Get out."
"This is my family," I said, and the words surprised even me with how true they felt. "Whatever you want with Emily, you go through me."
Richard laughed. It was an ugly sound.
"Your family? You don't even know what's going on here, do you?" He leaned in, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial snarl. "Your ex-wife had a baby. A baby she's been hiding from everyone. Including you."
"I know," I said calmly. "He's my son."
Richard's eyes widened. For a split second, I saw genuine shock. Then it turned to calculation.
"Is he now?" He smiled, and it didn't reach his eyes. "That complicates things. But not as much as you think."
He pushed past me and strode into the living room. His gaze landed on Emily and Noah, and his expression hardened.
"We need to talk, Emily. About the money you owe me. And about what happens if you don't pay."
Emily's grip on Noah tightened until her knuckles were white.
"I don't owe you anything, Richard. I gave you everything I had."
"Everything?" Richard scoffed. "Fifteen thousand dollars? That barely covers what I spent keeping your little secret. And now that Daddy Rich is here..." He turned to me, eyes gleaming. "I'm sure Gavin would be happy to pay what you owe. Plus interest. Plus a little extra for my silence."
Silence.
I stepped closer to him. "Silence about what?"
"About how she hid your son from you for nine months," Richard said smoothly. "About how she planned to raise him in poverty, lying to him about who his father was. About how she let me threaten her because she was too ashamed to ask for help."
He turned back to Emily.
"Two hundred thousand dollars, Emily. By New Year's Day. Or I go to the press. I tell them how the great Gavin Rowan abandoned his own child. How you kept him hidden. Your reputation, his reputation... all of it gone. And then I file for custody. The courts love a concerned uncle who can provide stability."
Custody.
The word hit me like a physical blow.
"You think you can take my son?" My voice was barely above a whisper, but Richard flinched anyway.
"I think a jury will see what I see," he said, trying to regain his confidence. "A mother living in a tiny house, exhausted, alone. A father who didn't even know the child existed until tonight. And an uncle who's been there, who cares, who can give that baby everything he deserves."
"You haven't been there for anything," Emily said, her voice trembling but fierce. "You've only been there to take. To threaten. To scare me."
"Two hundred thousand," Richard repeated. "New Year's Day. Or I destroy all three of you."
He walked to the door, then paused and looked back.
"Merry Christmas, family."
The door slammed shut behind him.
Emily collapsed onto the couch, sobbing into Noah's blanket. The baby stirred but didn't wake, somehow sensing his mother's distress even in sleep.
I stood in the middle of her living room, my mind racing.
Five minutes ago, I'd been a jealous ex-husband looking for a fight.
Now I was a father. A protector. A man with an enemy who wanted to destroy everything I'd just discovered I couldn't live without.
I sat beside Emily on the couch. I didn't touch her. I didn't know if I had the right.
May you like
"Tell me everything," I said softly. "Start from the beginning."
She looked up at me, her eyes red and swollen, her face streaked with tears. And for the first time in nine months, Emily began to tell me the truth.
