“What card?” I ask, tucking my hair behind my ears.
“He found a couple of those girls who attacked you in that alley, and they confirmed Saffron had set it up. They also confirmed she’d paid them with drugs. One of them had a real smart mouth, Reeve said, but she was shrewd. She had video footage of Saffron asking them to attack you and a recording of her handing over the goods.”
“She would’ve been sent to prison for selling to minors,” Dillon says, pouring me a fresh coffee and placing the mug in my hand. “Drink that, sweetheart. You’re shaking like a leaf.”
I glance up at him. “Can you believe this?”
“No. I fucking can’t,” he grits out, and a muscle pops in his jaw.
“That’s how Reeve ensured Saffron toed the line. He took out restraining orders in both your names and organized for her to go to a private rehab clinic in Switzerland. But Saff was always resourceful. She charmed one of the orderlies, and he was supplying her with drugs the last three months she was there.”
“While she was heavily pregnant?” Horror and disgust wash over me. I knew Saffron was scum of the earth, but this proves it conclusively. What a reckless, selfish bitch.
Lori nods. “Reeve was furious when he found out. It’s why she ended up going into premature labor. She wasn’t due until the middle of January, but she ended up giving birth on Christmas Day.”
“Oh my God.” I look at Dillon. “That’s why he was sad at Christmas. It wasn’t anything to do with me.”
“I’d say it was a combination.” Dillon kisses my cheek. “Drink your coffee, love.” He refocuses on Lori. “How did you end up adopting Bodhi?”
“I reached out to Reeve after Saffron left that night. I explained how my husband and I weren’t able to have kids and we had been exploring adoption. Bodhi was my flesh and blood too. It made sense that we would take him in. We had a lot of love to give, and I wanted to take care of my nephew.” She sits back, sighing, looking exhausted. “Reeve wasn’t sure at first, but he did background checks on us, and we sat down and talked for hours, and gradually he agreed. He bought us a new house, sent a monthly allowance, and he set up a trust fund Bodhi gets when he is eighteen.”
I cannot wrap my head around this. “How could Reeve abandon his child? That must have killed him! He suffered with self-esteem issues his whole life because his father was so neglectful. All Reeve wanted was a family of his own.”
“With you,” Dillon supplies, fighting to control his anger. “Reeve didn’t want a family with her, and he knew if you found out you’d leave him for good.” He fists his hands at his side. “He sacrificed his kid for the woman he loved. Exactly like someone else we knew.” Dillon drills me with a look, and I’m sick to my stomach because he’s right. Reeve turned his back on his child for me while Simon turned his back on Dillon because he blamed him for his wife’s death.
This is so fucked up.
Lori nods. “That’s exactly what Reeve said when I asked him why he was doing this. I knew he had the means to take care of his child, so I didn’t understand it, at first.”
“I still can’t believe he’d give up his child.” I bury my head in my hands. “How could he do that?”
“It wasn’t easy on him, but he told me there was no choice. He said it was you or Bodhi. He was working to win you back at the time. He told me how lost he was without you, and he said his life was not worth living if you weren’t by his side.”
“What a fucking crock of shit!” Dillon hisses, losing the tenuous hold on his control.
Tears stream down my face, and stabbing pain settles on my chest. “This is so wrong!” I cry out. “How could both his parents abandon him?” I hate Saffron even more now, but I have no clue how I feel about Reeve. I’m shell-shocked and my head is a mess.
“Would you have left him if he’d told you?” she asks, removing a tissue from her pocket and wiping her brow.
I rub at my tears, leaning into Dillon for support. I don’t need to think about it for long. “Yes. Your sister was a very sore subject for me. I was only twenty, and as much as I loved Reeve, I would never have forgiven him for getting my archenemy pregnant, no matter the circumstances. I know I would have walked away.”
“If he hadn’t been so fucking possessive with you, everything could’ve been different,” Dillon says, standing and pacing the room.
“It wasn’t a good situation, and I don’t know how Reeve could make that decision because he seemed like a good man. I know he was a good man,” she adds. “He wasn’t like my sister. My sister would never have considered her baby for a single second, except as a means of extorting money or marriage from Reeve. She was absolutely furious when he went back to you and apoplectic when she discovered he’d married you and you had a child.”
“Did Reeve visit Bodhi?” I ask, needing to know how deep the betrayal extends.
She shakes her head. “He held him as a baby when the adoption paperwork went through, but he didn’t visit again. At his request, I sent him a letter every year updating him, and he always sent gifts for him in December. One for his birthday, and one for Christmas.”
“Does Bodhi know he’s adopted?” Dillon asks. “Does he know who his bio parents are?”
“He knows he’s adopted, and he knows the gifts he receives are from his bio dad, but he doesn’t know their names.”
“Has Saffron ever visited him?” I ask.
She shakes her head again, and it’s becoming a familiar pattern.
“Never?” I wonder if she even looked at him or held him after she’d given birth. I fucking hate that bitch with every fiber of my being. I hate she gave Reeve a child when I didn’t. I dig my nails into my thighs, feeling sympathy for Bodhi. He’s an innocent child caught up in this mess.