“What?”
“You told me you’d been sleeping with him. I’m not an idiot. Of course, I knew there was a chance the baby wasn’t mine. I knew you were refusing to commit to me, to accept my proposal, because you wanted to make sure. I don’t hold that against you, Viv. I respect you for trying to do the right thing by me and your baby. It’s why I never said anything, and if you’re beating yourself up over that, don’t.”
“Oh, Reeve,” I choke out, in between sobs, placing my hand on his.
He clears his throat and looks at me. Pain is written all over his face, and my heart is breaking. “Please tell me Easton is my flesh and blood? Please tell me he’smy son. I love that little boy with everything I am. Please don’t say he’s his. I can’t lose him.”
I can scarcely speak over the lump in my throat. “Pull over, please,” I croak. We’re not that far from home now, but I can’t tell him this while we’re driving.
“No, Viv. Just say it. I can’t bear it a minute longer!”
Tears leak from my eyes of their own volition. “You are still Easton’s dad, Reeve. In all the ways that matter, he is still your son.”
“Vivien,” he rasps in a strangled voice. “Is he my biological child or Dillon’s?”
Strained tension bleeds in the air, and the only sound is the whoosh-whoosh of the wipers and the pitter-patter of rain as it continues tumbling from the dark night sky. “He’s Dillon’s,” I whisper, my lower lip wobbling.
“No!” Reeve’s anguished cries fill the small space, almost smothering me. “No. He can’t be. He’smyson! He’s mine.You’remine. He can’t have you!” Tears cling to his lashes and his cheeks as he stares at me with the same lost, vulnerable expression I used to see on his face as a kid when his dad did something hurtful.
“I’m sorry, Reeve. I’m so sorry.” I scrub at my eyes, smoothing a hand across the tight pain in my chest. “But he’s still your son. You’re still his father, and I’m still your wife. That won’t change.”
“You can’t tell me this doesn’t change things, Viv, because it does,” he yells.
The car jerks forward as he accidentally presses down on the accelerator. Slamming his palms down on the horn, he pushes it repeatedly in a scary display of frustrated anger and anguished hopelessness. The horn blares along the dark, desolate stretch of road. Plush homes shielded behind high walls and gates are too far back to complain about the ruckus. Tall, old oak trees line the other side of the road behind flimsy fencing. Some are leaning at precarious angles; their branches battered by the brutal rain dumping from the heavens.
“Calm down, Reeve. Please. You’re going too fast.”
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!” His eyes look wild as he fixes them on me. “I have sacrificed so much for you! For our family. And he’s going to try and take it all from me!” Scrunching his fist, he slams it into the dashboard over and over.
Sacrifice? What sacrifice?“What the hell does that mean?”
“My heart is breaking, Viv.” He stares at me with tears pouring down his face. “I don’t want him near my son. I don’t want to have to explain this to Easton. I can’t lose him. I can’t lose you. I won’t. I—”
“Watch out!” I scream as a car pulls out onto the road from a small side road. Visibility is poor, and they haven’t seen us.
Reeve reacts fast, swerving and accelerating to outrun the car, but it clips the rear end of our Maserati, sending us into a tailspin on the slippery road. I scream as Reeve struggles to regain control of the car, both of us bouncing up and down in our seats.
It all happens so fast.
Reeve yanks on the wheel, and my head whips forward and then back with the motion as the car jerks violently to the left. A distressed sound rips from my husband’s lips as our car darts forward, breaking through the rickety fence bordering the left-hand side of the road. Pieces of wood fly all over our car as we bounce forward. Reeve wrestles with the wheel, trying to regain control. I’m screaming, but it’s as if someone else is making these high-pitched screeching noises.
The next few seconds happen as if in slow motion. Reeve curses before unlocking his seat belt and throwing his body across me. His arms band firmly around my upper torso as he clings to me. I want to shout at him to strap himself back in. To not be a martyr. But I can’t get the words out of my mouth. I can’t stop screaming. Adrenaline shoots through my veins as liquid terror plays havoc with my insides.
Metal scrapes loudly, piercing my ear drums, and I’m jostled forward with force as we plow into a tree. My terrified eyes startle in extreme shock and gut-wrenching panic as a looming darkness descends over our car. The tree lands horizontally on top of us with an earth-shattering thud. The roof buckles, pressing down on us, flattening the space in the car and crushing Reeve. Fear for my husband is my last conscious thought as my head slams into the side of the window and my world is plunged into pitch-black darkness.