Page 102 of Just My Luck

A pit opened in my stomach when a single tear slipped from under her lashes. “It’s not about the money, not really. I’m just so scared, Abel. I can’t lose them. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Hey, hey.” I softened and dotted light kisses across her face. “You aren’t going to lose them... or me.”

A silent sob racked out of her as she folded herself into my embrace. I held her tightly, unsure of where this flood of emotion was coming from.

“I have to choose,” she sobbed. “That’s the problem. Because he did this, I have to choose between you or them—between my calling as a mother and my heart’s desire as a woman.”

Her words cracked through my skull.

She thought she had to choose.

The hard callus that had been slowly peeling away because of their love re-formed in an instant. I held the woman I loved. “Look at me.”

Sloane’s head lifted. Her face was splotchy, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “There isn’t a choice. You already know that.”

Her eyes searched mine. “He’s using you against me. If I don’t agree to joint custody, the case will go in front of a judge. The judge could take them away forever. My attorney—she said that our relationship?—”

She could barely get the words out, but I understood.

I had known from the moment Jared tipped his hand that he would use my past to hurt Sloane. In the depths of my soul, I had already known it would come to this.

Though I didn’t anticipate how deeply it would hurt.

My back ached and my chest burned. My jaw clenched tightly as I swallowed past the lump that had expanded in my throat. “Sloane,” I ground out, holding her precious face and willing her to listen to the words I needed to say. “There isn’t a choice.”

Her lip quivered. “I know.”

She knew, just as I have always known.

A shuddered breath coursed through me. I was going to fall apart in front of her if she kept looking at me with those soft, sad eyes.

“There isn’t a choice,” I said again, more firmly. “When it comes down to it, it’s them.”

Her grip on my shirt tightened as she whispered, “I don’t want this to end.”

I stared over her head at a spot on the wall to keep from crumpling. “I know. You’re doing this for them. It’s the right call.”

She stepped back, finding her resolve and lifting her chin. “Where does that leave us?”

My hands rubbed down her arms. “Right now, nothing changes. We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Nothing changes?” She looked at me with hopeful eyes, and I wanted to hold her and reassure her.

Instead, I cleared my throat. “Maybe a few things need to change.” I dragged a hand across the back of my head, sinking lower as the reality of our situation became clearer. “I should probably leave... stay with one of my brothers, or hell... maybe Bax will let me rent the other room in the cabin.”

Her hazel eyes searched mine. “You want to go?”

I held her shoulders. “Hell no, I don’t want to go, but the less ammunition we give Jared, the better. If I’m not around or involved in your life, he can’t use that against you.”

“Isn’t there any other way?” she pleaded.

I shook my head. I wish there was literally anything I could do, but that was it. “I can’t erase my past, and you can’t pick a different ex-husband. For now it’s all we have.”

Her eyes swept over Ben, sleeping on the couch. “They’re going to be so heartbroken.”

I steeled my spine. I’d made my mistakes—this was the bed I’d made. I knew the entire time I didn’t deserve a life with Sloane and the twins.

It was always going to have to come to this.