Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 172

Chapter 167: Restraining Order

Sedona’s POV

“Of course you did,” Cameron said, his tone sounding both complicated and exasperated about it, but not saying anything further at the moment.

My father had been quiet through this exchange, listening. Now he said: “What do you need from us, Sedona? Specifically.”

I looked at him.

“The attorney meeting next week,” I said. “I’d like someone to come with me. Not to speak for me-I’m doing this myself. But to-” I stopped. “It would help to not go alone.”

“I’ll come,” my mother said immediately, volunteering herself for the job, already mentally rescheduling her engagements.

“I’ll come too,” my father said.

“I’ll be there,” Cameron said, which was three people for a legal consultation which seemed far too crowded but I wasn’t going to argue about it.

“The Chicago hearing,” I said. “When it’s scheduled-I don’t know when that will be yet. Could be months. But when it happens, I’ll need-I’ll need to go to Chicago,”

“Then we go to Chicago,” Cameron said. The same thing my mother had said, simple like that, like it wasn’t them rearranging their lives to move to a strange city, on a whim..

I looked around the table. My mother with her coffee, my father’s steady attention, Cameron with his phone face down and his full focus on me.

Three months ago I’d been in a hotel room in Chicago alone.

“Nick,” Cameron said, after a moment. He said it differently from how he’d said the other things-quieter, the quality of something he’d been holding separately.

“What about Nick?” I asked.

“I saw him once,” he said. “When you were in the hospital, when we ran into your ex husband, and he was mouthing off, with Catherine, practically on his arms. He was with Logan.” He paused. “I was angry. At Logan, at Catherine, at the whole situation. I didn’t talk to him.”

“You were angry at everyone,” I said.

“I was angry at everyone,” he confirmed. “But he was six and he hadn’t done anything and I walked past him because I was furious at his father.” He looked at his phone, face down on the table. “I’ve been thinking about that.”

“He didn’t know who you were,” I said.

“know” Cameron said. “That’s part of it. He looked up at me and I just walked past.”

“He knows about you now,” I said. “I’ve told him. He knows he has an uncle in Seattle.” I paused. “He wants to meet everyone.”

My mother made a small sound.

“He asked if he could,” I said. “On our second call. I told him yes.”

My mother pressed her fingers over her mouth for a moment. Then she put her hand down and grabbed her coffee with the composure of someone trying to compose herself without drawing too much attention to herself.

“My grandson,” she said quietly.

“Yes,” I said.

“He’s six.”

“He’ll be seven in February.”

He nodded. Stood up. Looked at me one more time with the expression he’d been having more of lately, the one where he was being just my brother rather than the guy who manages everything in the house. “You should have told us sooner,” he said, without heat.

“I know,” I said.

“You were going to figure it out by yourself first,” he said.

“I did figure it out by myself first,” I said. “Now I’m telling you.””

He almost smiled. “Fair,” he said, and took his phone into the hallway to start making calls.

My mother got up to clear the plates, which was what she did when she needed something to do with her hands. My father stayed in his seat, looking at the table, and then he looked at me.

“You’re doing the right thing,” he said.

“I think so,” I said.

“There’s no think so,” he said quietly. “That’s your son. Whatever the legal process looks like, whatever Logan does or doesn’t do-he’s your son. You’re his mother. That’s the only argument you need.”

I looked at my father, this man who had made mistakes with me across my life and who had been, since I’d come home, making something different from those mistakes-not erasing them but building alongside them, something better.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Don’t thank me,” he said. “Just let us help.”

“I am,” I said. “That’s what this is. He nodded once.I was going to Chicago. Not yet. But I was going. And this time, I wasn’t going alone.