Chapter 27 Come to Daddy
COME TO DADDY
PAIGE
It was surprising to see a text from an unknown number.
Unknown: We need to talk. Please. Coffee? -Olivia
Olivia? As in my ex-friend Olivia? As in… Jack’s mistress?
I stared at my phone for five full minutes, thumb hovering over the delete button. She had slept with my ex-husband. The woman who had been in my bed, in my home, while I was at work being the perfect wife and mother.
I should delete it, block her number and pretend she didn’t exist.
Instead, against my better judgment, I typed a reply,
Fine. Meet me at this cafe. 4 PM.
The cafe was public enough that she couldn’t make a scene, yet intimate enough that we could talk. I arrived first, ordered a coffee I didn’t want, and waited with my stomach in knots.
Olivia looked younger than I remembered. She had always been beautiful, with delicate features and effortless dark waves, but today she looked nervous.
Good. She should be.
“Paige,” she said, sliding into the seat across from me and clutching her purse. “Thank you for meeting me. I wasn’t sure you would.”
“I’m not sure why I did,” I said, hoping I wasn’t wasting my time meeting her. “You have five minutes.”
She flinched and took a deep breath before she said, “Look, I know I’m the last person you want to hear this from, but... I think you should know the truth about Derek.”
I sat up straighter. “What truth?”
“Jack told me everything,” she said, leaning forward and her voice dropping. “About how Derek was always jealous of Jack for getting you. How Derek never forgave him for ‘winning’ you back in high school. How he has been waiting for years to swoop in and take what Jack had.”
I kept a poker face because I knew Derek had feelings for me since he was a kid, but he had never acted upon them. My hand tightened on the coffee mug. What if he had? What if I had married him instead of—
“What do you mean?” I asked instead, trying to ignore the thoughts that had been spiraling in my head for days.
She pulled out her phone, scrolling quickly before turning it toward me. “Jack showed me these. Text messages. From Derek.”
I looked at the screen, and my blood went cold.
Messages between Derek and Jack, dated months ago. Before I discovered the affair. Before everything had fallen apart.
Derek: Still treating Paige like shit, I see.
Jack: stay out of my marriage, Peterson
Derek: Someone should be in it since you’re clearly not.
Derek: She deserves better than you.
Jack: fuck off
Derek: Enjoy it while it lasts. She’s not stupid. She’ll figure out who you are eventually.
My hands shook as I scrolled through more messages. Comments about me, about Jack not deserving me and how Derek had ‘always known’ Jack would screw it up.
“These could be faked,” I said, but my ears were ringing.
I need some air.
“Could be,” Olivia shrugged, her expression full of fake sympathy.
“Or they could be real. Think about it, Paige. How convenient it was that Derek stepped in the moment you left Jack? That he offered you a place to stay immediately?” She paused before continuing, “It’s almost like he had been planning it. ”
“He was helping me.”
“Was he?” Olivia asked, tilting her head. “Or was he helping himself to something he had wanted since high school? Jack said Derek’s been obsessed with you for years. That he has been waiting for an excuse to destroy your marriage.”
The cafe suddenly felt too small and hot.
Derek had collected evidence for months and swooped in the moment I needed him, offering solutions that seemed too perfect, too convenient.
No. No, I knew Derek. He wouldn’t—
But would he? Derek who had been in love with me for decades? Derek who stopped eating when Jack proposed to me? Derek who watched me marry someone else and never said a word?
I looked at Olivia and saw the calculation behind the concern. Jack’s influence was written all over this stupid performance.
She was playing with me. They both were playing with me.
I set my coffee down and met her eyes. “You know what’s interesting, Olivia?”
She blinked. “What?”
She definitely didn’t like the change in my tone.
“How quickly you went from sleeping with my husband to being concerned about my welfare,” I said with a saccharine smile. “It’s almost like you’re not actually worried about me at all. Like maybe you’re worried about something else entirely.”
“I’m trying to help you—”
“Help me?” I asked, letting out a soft and cold laugh. “You helped yourself to my husband—ex-husband—while I was pregnant with his child. You helped yourself to my bed, my home and my marriage. So forgive me if I don’t buy your sudden concern for my wellbeing.”
“Paige, you are not—”
“Let me guess. Jack’s panicking because the divorce isn’t going his way because Derek built a case so airtight that even Jack’s expensive lawyers can’t find a way through it.
” I leaned forward. “So he sent you here to plant doubt and to make me question the one person who cares for me and loves me.”
The word spilled out of my lips with ease, and before I could take it back, I saw her face had turned pale.
“Those texts?” I asked, gesturing at her phone. “They prove Derek was calling Jack out on his bullshit months ago. They prove Derek was defending me when my own husband was treating me like garbage. If anything, they make me trust Derek more, not less.”
I stood up, gathering my purse. I pursed my lips and said, “Here’s what’s going to happen, Olivia. You’re going to go back to Jack and tell him this didn’t work. That I’m not stupid enough to fall for his manipulation. And then you’re both going to prepare for what comes next.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Me winning,” I said calmly. “Derek winning with you and Jack losing everything you tried to take from me.”
I walked out of that cafe with my head held high and spine straight. I was satisfied with the shocked expression on her face. For now.
But by the time I reached Derek’s penthouse, the doubt had crept back in.
Not because I believed Olivia. I didn’t. She was Jack’s puppet, playing whatever game he orchestrated. But the texts were real. I had seen Derek’s number, seen the timestamps.
Has Derek been planning this? Had he been waiting for my marriage to fail? Or had he just been a friend watching someone he cared about suffer, unable to stay silent anymore?
I didn’t know.
I opened the penthouse door quietly, set down my purse and keys, and heard Derek’s voice from the living room.
“That’s it! Come on, Lily. You can do it. Yes! Come to Daddy. Come to me.”
I rounded the corner and froze.
Derek was crouched on the floor about six feet away from Lily, who was standing.
Standing, not holding onto anything, with her little fists clenched and a look of intense concentration on her face.
Oh, my God…
“Come on, baby girl,” Derek coaxed, his voice soft and encouraging. “Just one step. You’ve got this.”
And then Lily took a step.
One wobbly, uncertain step toward Derek, her arms outstretched for balance.
My hand flew to my mouth.
“Yes! That’s my girl!” Derek’s face lit up with such pure joy and pride that my eyes immediately filled with tears. “One more. Come on, Lily. You can do it.”
Lily took another step. Then another. Three steps total before she pitched forward, and Derek caught her, sweeping her up into his arms with a whoop of triumph.
“You did it! You walked! Oh my God, you walked!” He spun her around gently, and Lily shrieked with laughter, grabbing at his hair. “Wait until your mom sees—”
He turned and saw me standing there, tears streaming down my face, and his expression shifted immediately to concern.
“Paige? What’s wrong? Are you—” He stopped as understanding dawned. “Oh. Did you see? Did you see her walk?”