My boy.
I nearly broke down at the very thought that, after all this time, all this worrying, all the arguments and debates and complications…Colton had been mine all along. I’d been so sure that Vanessa was telling the truth. She had been so sure of the truth. I had let her hang it over my head for years. Years!
But she was wrong. Or she had lied. She had lied to my face all those times. Told me countless times that I hadn’t even been in New York the month that she got pregnant. My schedule hadn’t always overlapped with hers, but I’d believed her. She’d had no reason to say otherwise. Colton had been two years old before I even knew about it. By then, the exact travel dates had been lost on me. I could see them on my work schedule and the flight schedules, but we hadn’t always had sex every time I was there. It had been impossible to determine if I was Colt’s father.
Now, I knew that I was.
Colton was mine.
Emery’s arms were around me, and I stood, lifting her into the air.
“I’m so happy for you,” she whispered through the vacuum.
“God, I love you,” I murmured back, forgetting everyone else in the room.
I set her back down on her feet, cupped her face in my hands, and kissed the breath out of her. This was the moment I had been born for. The knowledge that I had the woman I loved here with me now and that I would never have to worry about my son again. It was euphoric.
“What the fuck, Vanessa?” Marc cried, jarring me out of my moment. “Why would you drag me into this?”
Marc’s and Vanessa’s lawyers were looking at the document, but it was clear from their faces that they agreed with Jake.
“I swear, it was you, Marc. I swear,” Vanessa said. “Jensen wasn’t even in town that month. We weren’t together. You know that.”
“You just wanted the drama. Fuck!”
“I really believed it was you,” she whispered. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I did.”
“You lied to all of us, Vanessa,” I said, drawing her attention to me. “You lied to me, to Marc, to everyone. But even worse was that you deluded yourself into believing it. You’re never holding this over my head again. I’m free. Free of you.”
At those words, Vanessa completely lost it. She broke down into tears and covered her face in her hands. Vanessa had been holding onto this fact for so long, thinking it was a way to keep me. As if she had thought for a second that I would still hold a flame for her after all she had done.
But it was over. There was nothing left. And she had no more control.
“If this satisfies everyone, we’ll leave the custody agreement as it stands and deny Mr. Tarman’s request for access to Colton,” Jake said. “If we want to take this further, then we’ll see you in court, Ms. Hendricks.”
Vanessa shook her head, blubbering about how she’d sworn she knew. She’d thought this would fix it all.
“Sounds good to me,” I said to Jake.
Sure, I would love to get custody of Colton and have him live here in Lubbock with me. But I didn’t want to go to court with Vanessa over it, and I wasn’t willing to disrupt Colt’s life. He was happy in New York, and he had a great school there. I wasn’t the type of person to do something like that just to make someone else miserable. That was all Vanessa.
We filed out of the office and stood in the foyer. Vanessa was shaking, talking to her lawyer.
Marc approached us. “I see you’ve taken everything from me now. Vanessa, Colton, the company.”
“Interesting how you put that,” I said. “All I see is that you were trying to take things from me that never belonged to you. And the company was just for fun.”
Marc glared and looked ready to throw a punch. Instead, he turned to Emery and grinned. “When he gets tired of you, give me a call.”
Emery arched an eyebrow in disgust. “Not even in your dreams.”
He laughed. “Oh, be sure, he’ll tire of you. He bores easily.”
“Unless you want a repeat of that time I found out you had an affair with my wife, I would step away,” I growled. “Now.”
“Don’t even waste your breath on him, Jensen,” Emery said. “He’s trying to provoke you because he’s jealous. You have the world at your feet.”
I turned to face my girl and smiled. She was right. Of course she was right. “I want you to meet my son.”
“I’d love to meet him.”
I took Emery’s hand then and left the lawyer’s office. I knew there was more to take care of, and I definitely had to get back to the office. But first things first. I needed to set all of this straight. Vanessa might be upset about it. Frankly, I didn’t care for Vanessa’s opinions any longer. Emery was in my life, and she was here to stay.
We showed up at the hotel right after our meeting, and I took Emery up to the top floor. I knocked on the door and Nanny Jennifer answer.
“Jensen! I’m surprised to see you here,” she said. “I thought Vanessa said that you couldn’t see Colton for right now.”
“Change of plans. Just got it approved by the judge that I have full access back.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful.” Jennifer smiled at Emery. “And you must be Emery.”
“Hi, nice to meet you,” Emery said, holding out her hand.
“Let me go check on Colt for you two.”
I turned to Emery. “Can you stay here for a minute. I want to talk to him first.”
“Of course,” she agreed.
“Colton, your dad is here!” Nanny Jennifer called.
I walked into the suite just as Colton came running. “Daddy!”
He launched himself into my arms, and I hugged him tighter than I’d ever squeezed him before. My son. Mine! No one could ever take him away again.
“Hey, champ,” I said. I set him back down. “Remember how I told you that I wanted you to meet a friend of mine?”
“Yes. A girrrl,” Colton singsonged.
I laughed. “Yes. A girl. She’s my girlfriend, and her name is Emery.”
“You have a girlfriend?”
“Yep, and I want you to meet her. I think you’ll like her. Are you ready?”
Colton looked down at himself and gave me a thumbs up.