“I didn’t get to help you with your first steps or teach you how to ride a bike.”
“Shut up!”
Ignoring him, I advanced a few steps forward. “I missed your first day of school and your first crush on a girl.”
“Shut. Up!” he seethed, his fists clenching.
“I didn’t get to be the hero when you were scared about monsters under the bed or in the closet. Or calm you down when the thunder and the rain were too much.”
“No,” he wailed, “You don’t get to say any of that.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Zane. I’m so fucking sorry I left you alone.”
His chest caved in as he fought tears, backing up almost to the door.
“I never knew about you. If I did, I swear to you that I would have spent every day of the last seventeen years loving you as you deserve.”
Zane sank back against the door, tears filling his eyes as he finally looked into my own. There was so much heartbreak that I felt it within my chest. The ache was unbearable. I wanted to claw that horrible, crushing feeling from my heart and rip it away. But I couldn’t do that.
“I would take all the pain away if I could, Zane. I swear to fuck that there isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do to make this right if I could.”
Something in his eyes shifted, and I was terrified that he would reject me and tell his mother they needed to leave. I moved from foot to foot and hoped like hell that I had a chance of keeping Zane in my life.
With a cry, he pushed off the door and ran right into me, throwing his arms around my waist as he nearly knocked us both down to the floor. Shocked beyond comprehension, it took a few seconds before I wrapped my arms around his back and held him, overwhelmed by the flood of emotion that kept washing over me.
“I have a dad,” he choked out, and then Zane began to cry.
There was nothing, not a single thing on this earth that hurt as profoundly as holding my son and listening to his tears. Whatever portion of my soul was left after my deal with the devil, it was soaked up by this one moment.
I let out a ragged breath and clutched him against me, promising that I would make this right.
Sid Bullard stole my son, the love of my life, and seventeen years I could never recover.
My Reaper felt caged and wild within as his restlessness spread into every cell in my body.
Vengeance was coming, and I would brutally reap Sid’s soul.