Page 228 of Love Unwritten

I wipe my face. “Make this right and be the mother Nico needs.”

“Or what? You’ll take me to court?”

My lip curls in disgust. “I’m not going to threaten you with money to make you see reason.”

I will always pay child support, but her alimony—which makes up eighty percent of what I pay her—will be revoked the moment I call my lawyer and break the news about Hillary’s secret engagement.

“How noble of you,” she sneers.

I reach for the door but pause and look over my shoulder. “Nico wouldn’t want me to, because whether you choose to reciprocate or not, he loves you, although if you keep this up, there will come a day when he no longer will. I promise you that much.”

“And if he doesn’t? Then what?” Desperation bleeds into her every word.

“Pray that never happens, because the moment he wants you out of his life, I’ll make sure you’re no longer a part of ours.”

“Three bouquets in one week?” Ellie turns the camera so I can get a look at the floral arrangement I had sent to her room before she checked into her hotel in Lisbon. I wanted her to have something of mine there when she arrived in Portugal, just like I’d done in the other countries she visited.

“Do you like them?” I chose a summer arrangement that the local florist recommended, although I was hesitant since Ellie said she wasn’t the biggest fan of roses.

“Yes. They’re beautiful, just like the others.” She spreads out on the bed with a sigh. The sun hasn’t even set here yet, and she is already getting ready to fall asleep.

I’m hit with another urge to fly to Europe to see her. It’s only been seven days since I left her alone in London, and it feels like an eternity.

Fuck.

I don’t know if I’ve ever missed someone like this before—in fact, I know I haven’t. Not even when Hillary left me.

Sure, I missed my ex-wife, but it wasn’t like this. I wasn’t driven to madness in her absence, nor was I hit with a daily urge to leave my job behind and follow her around.

God, I’m tempted to do just that, but I have Nico and my business to think about.

“I hate that I have to leave them behind, though.” She sighs to herself.

Her comment sparks a new idea, and I vow to get started on it as soon as we hang up the phone.

“I miss Ellie.” Nico takes a stab at his dinner. I thought he would be hungrier after spending all day at summer camp, but his appetite matches his low mood.

“Me too,” I say while pushing a bit of my food around.

“You do?”

I sigh at the pinch in my chest that comes whenever I think of her. “Yeah. A lot.”

“How much longer until she comes back?”

“Too long.” Ellie’s absence is felt from the moment we wake up to a quiet house to the very moment I fall asleep each night.

I miss her more than I could have imagined, and we still have four weeks left until she comes home.

Nico looks at me weird.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing.” His fork scrapes against the plate without picking up any food.

“You sure about that?”

He sighs in that way of his that makes him seem older than his age. “I just…”