Ice Cold Hearts: A Single Mom, Hockey, Reverse Harem Romance (Forbidden Fantasies)

35. Oliver

Igenuinely don’t know what I’m more horrified by—the fact that I have a daughter and Emily hid it from me or the fact that the agent I trusted with my career treated her so horribly that she felt her only choice was to hide it from me.

She should have told you.

She tried, but you blew her off, didn’t you?

I’m trying to be angry at Emily, but after seeing her fall to pieces on the couch and how small and pathetic she looks wrapped up in the blanket, my fury at her dissipates as fast as it forms. It hurts that she kept this from me, and I know that wound isn’t going to heal anytime soon. Still, I can’t bring myself to hate her. She was young and scared, and she did it to protect her baby.

My baby.

Hadn’t I wished for a daughter just like Audrey one day? Life clearly has a wicked sense of humor.

I had missed so much of her life already—first words, first steps, first smile. The guilt is a force of its own as it tears through my body. It’s enough to bring me to my knees.

“That night in the shower, you were trying to tell me then, weren’t you?” I ask.

“Yes,” Emily says earnestly.

“And I just brushed you off. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn”t want to listen to you.” A horrible thought occurs to me. “Just like I didn’t want to listen to you about Liza.”

Liza is a pain to deal with, but I just thought it was because she’s passionate about her job and overdoes it sometimes.

Is that really what you think, or did you just make yourself believe it to keep the peace?

That woman is clingy, overly demanding, and constantly trying to wedge her way into places in my life she doesn’t belong in. How many of the women I dated were actually scared off by Liza instead of actually losing interest in me? How many phone calls to her office for me did she just ‘forget’ to send through? What else could she have been hiding from me?

I think of all the times she had “accidentally” spilled food or drinks on nearly every woman I found attractive, all the times she just happened to be at the same club, or all the times she coincidentally ran into me at the grocery store. I’d seen Liza lie through her teeth to brands that wanted to sign me for endorsements. Had I really been naive enough to think she wasn’t doing the same things to me?

Every one of our encounters is now bathed in this harsh new light. The day I brought Emily lunch at the hospital comes to mind. Had they really gotten there early or was she just trying to see where I was and who I was with that day? I think of the way she obsessively confirmed where I was over the phone. Had she been the one to tip off the press that I was there?

She was asking you a lot of questions about where Audrey went to school last week. How much of that was actually for her cousin’s daughter? Did her cousin even really have a daughter? Could she have been the one who leaked that to the press?

Just the idea of it makes me feel nauseated. At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it, but now, it seems like too big of a coincidence. Liza was the only one besides Hank who knew where Audrey went to school, and Hank is too well trained and too well paid to leak information. Although how would she know where Emily lived? Maybe it wasn’t Liza, after all. Maybe I’m just making a mountain out of a molehill.

Then I remember that I’d used her computer to have flowers delivered to Emily while we were away this week. It had been a last-minute thought and my phone had been dead, and Liza hadn’t hesitated to offer up her laptop for me to use. She’d had access to that information too. The thought makes my blood run cold. Had I been partly responsible for what happened today?

I turn to Alexei and Ian, hoping for a second opinion.

I tell them my suspicions and ask, “Do you think she’s capable of doing something like that?”

“In a heartbeat.” Ian nods. “But I don’t think we’d ever be able to prove it.”

“I’ve never liked her,” Alexei says gruffly. “She’s nothing but trouble, and I wouldn”t put it past her to do something like this.”

I throw myself to my knees in front of Emily. “I am so sorry you had to go through this all alone. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about Liza. I didn’t want to upset anyone, especially not someone who had my career in their hands, and I ended up looking the other way with her far too often. You should have never been treated like that, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make it up to you, but I need you to know if I had known, I would have been involved from day one. I’m sorry I let you down.”

She blinks in surprise. “You don’t hate me? You’re not kicking me out? Oliver, I don’t understand.”

“I’m beyond hurt that you took this long to tell me. Don’t get me wrong,” I say, “and it’s going to take a long time for me to heal from that, but if you can look me in the eyes and promise me that you will never keep anything like this from me again, from any of us again, I think this is fixable.”

“I promise,” Emily says, pulling me off the floor to sit next to her.

“I’m going to make her apologize to you,” I say fiercely. “I’m going to find out where she is, drag her ass back here, and then make her give you a full apology. And then she’s fucking fired.”

I start to stand, but Emily pulls me back down.

“Don’t,” she pleads. “I don’t need that. Please don’t fire her on my account. She got you to the Cold Hearts. I’m sure we can figure out a way for you to still have both.”

“I got myself on the Cold Hearts,” I say, actually believing it for the first time. “My talent and attitude got me a top spot, not my agent. If I’d had anyone else representing me, I could still have had my choice of team. She didn’t make me who I am, and I’ll be damned if I keep working with someone who has treated you so disgustingly.”

“Just think it through,” Emily begs.

“I don’t need to. I’m done with her. If she hadn’t threatened you and scared you off, I could have had four years with my daughter instead of just a few months. Yes, you made the choice not to tell me, but her threats are why, and that’s unforgivable,” I say tersely. “This ends now.”

“Emily has a point, Oliver,” Alexei says. “I agree with everything you’ve said, so don’t give me that look, but you do need to come at this logically. Running headfirst into a brick wall isn’t going to solve anyone’s problems. You need to think.”

I hate that he has a point.

“Fine,” I grumble.

“Did you add in the loophole to your contract that I told you to add? The one where you can buy out your contract at any time,” he asks. “Please don’t tell me you ignored that advice like a dumbass.”

“Yes, I did include that,” I snap. “It was a good idea. I’m not going to refuse to do something sensible just because someone else told me to do it.”

Ian snickers, and I give him the finger.

“So, let’s go that route,” Emily suggests. “You buy out your contract and find someone else to represent you. I’m sure Ian and Alexei could recommend someone good. That way, you’re covered against any lawsuit she could file and get rid of her for good.”

“She’s still going to apologize to you,” I say darkly.

“I really don’t need?—”

“Let it go, Kitten,” Alexei growls. “You’re not going to get your way with this one.”

I shoot him an appreciative smile.

“Okay, so I’ll liquidate some of my assets to buy it out, and maybe I’ll throw my hat in with Frank.” I nod at Alexei. “Your guy has been trying to poach me for years.”

“He’s going to lose his damn mind,” he says, shaking his head.

“I think you need to keep Liza from finding out about it until you get all your ducks in a row,” Ian suggests. “It’ll keep her from being able to do any major damage.”

“Good plan.” I nod. “I’ll hit the bank and arrange a meeting with Frank’s agency tomorrow. It’s too late to do anything about it tonight.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Alexei promises.

“Thank you,” I say.

“You should also schedule a paternity test,” Emily adds.

“Why?” I ask, offended. “Do you think you’re not the mother?”

Ian laughs, but Emily scowls.

“How are you ever going to trust me if you don’t have proof?” she demands. “Don’t you care about that?”

“What reason would you have to lie? How old is Audrey?” I ask.

“She’s almost five. What does that have to do with anything?” she replies.

“Have you ever in the last almost five years tried to sue me for child support or tried to get anything at all from me?” I prompt.

“No,” Emily says, confused.

“So you’ve been doing it completely by yourself with no help from me and never asked for a thing. You’ve never blackmailed me or held this information over my head for your personal gain, and even before I knew she was my daughter too, you fought me tooth and nail whenever I tried to buy anything for her,” I say, “so what benefit would you have to lie to me about this? None. I trust you. If you say I’m the only possibility, then I’m the only possibility. I don’t need a test to trust you. Besides, now that I think about it, she looks a lot like one of my younger sisters did at that age. My grandmother too, as a matter of fact. How did I not see that before?”

Emily flinches and leans away from me.

“What is it?” I ask, resting a hand on her knee.

“That’s what Liza said too. She said she was going to get family photos and do a throwback campaign on social media and” —she stops to take a breath— “she said she’d make sure people noticed the similarities between your sister and Audrey.”

My blood boils. “She what?”

Emily shrinks back further. “I”m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“My ‘family’ thinks my career is beneath me. My ‘family’ has been ignoring me my entire life unless they needed something from me. Liza knows good and well that they are off fucking limits and she’s known that from day one. I will not give them any headlines.” I take her hands and force my voice to be calmer. “I’m not angry at you. I promise you, I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to repair the damage she’s done to you.”

She rests her forehead against mine. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“So.” Alexei clears his throat. “About Ian and me.”

“I know, right? Who would have thought the three of us would have a baby, huh, guys?”

“The three of us?” he sputters.

“You sure you don’t want us to step back so you and Emily can—” Ian starts.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” I interrupt. “You’re not getting out of Audrey duty that easily. No way in hell will I be able to get that child to bed by myself. You said you were committed to this relationship, that you were all in, remember? No backsies.”

“Backsies?” Emily laughs.

“That is a perfectly legitimate legal term,” I say pompously.

Ian sighs exasperatedly. “Are you sure you still want us, Emily? Oliver made his feelings clear on the matter, but Alexei and I will back off gracefully if that’s what you want now.”

Alexei nods in agreement. “All you have to do is say the word, and you can be a little family of three.”