Chapter 30 Shattered Reality
THIRTY
Shattered Reality
Jack
“So, it’s true?” Logan glanced between me and Elle. “You two are screwing?”
Fuck. My big goddamn mouth. The truth was out, and it was only a matter of time before everyone else found out. Unless...
“So?” I tightly twisted the fabric of his coat collar around his windpipe. “You got a problem with that?”
Logan’s face turned a pinch blue for all of two seconds before he shook his head.
I let him squirm for another five seconds while his lungs screamed to breathe, but a voice in my mind urged me to let him go.
This was Faith’s father, and I cared about her.
It wasn’t her damn fault she had a fucked-up father.
I released Logan.
He coughed, “I’ll be charging you with assault.”
“Try me,” I hissed and grabbed Logan by the front of his coat.
Logan squeaked like a goddamn girl.
“Stop it, Timber!” Elle insisted as she touched my shoulder and squeezed me to get my attention. “Let Logan go.”
I cursed but freed the scumbag.
Suddenly, there was a crunching sound behind me, and I turned around. The car moved backward with the tires flattening the icy snow as it rolled down the slight incline of Noelle’s driveway. But the screams coming from inside the vehicle made my heart jump.
“Help!” Faith cried out repeatedly.
“Sweetheart!” Logan yelled with horror on his face.
Logan stood rigid. He didn’t move a goddamn muscle while Elle ran for her daughter. Her hair flew in the wind.
“Oh my God, Faith!” Noelle cried out with desperation.
I leaped into action. Two strides ahead of Elle because a patch of black ice slowed her down while I somehow caught my balance and slid down the frozen path.
I stumbled once my boots found the pavement and collided with the hood of the car.
Frightened sweet brown eyes caught mine in the passenger seat, and my adrenaline reached an all-time high.
“Mr. Timber! Help me!” Faith cried out with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Quickly, I hurried to the driver’s side and flung the door open. I hopped into the seat and pushed down on the brake as the tail end of the vehicle hit the street. The engine cut, my hand shook, and I couldn’t stop my rapid breathing.
“Jesus, kiddo...” I turned to Faith. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Faith flung her arms around me.
“You saved me. Thank you,” Faith whispered in my ear.
“Anything for you, kiddo,” I said as I hugged her right back and carried her out to safety.
Elle scrambled to our side.
“Faith! Oh gosh, sweetheart!” Elle grabbed her daughter’s face in between her hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, Mommy,” Faith whispered.
I handed Faith straight over to her worried mother.
Panic lines creased Elle’s face, and she couldn’t take her eyes off her child.
She put Faith down as her hands shook while she frantically inspected her body, and when she didn’t find any injuries, she hugged her close.
Her eyes locked on mine over her daughter’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” Elle mouthed at me.
“I got into the front seat like Daddy told me to. Then I didn’t want you to be mad at me, and I changed my mind,” Faith explained with tears in her eyes.
“I went to get into the back seat, but my foot must’ve slipped and hit something.
The car started moving, and I... I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, Mommy. ”
Faith burst into tears while Elle consoled her. Logan came over and reached out to touch his child, but Elle picked Faith up into her arms. His daughter was no longer within reach.
“Christ, Elle, let me—” Elle shoved Logan in the chest.
“How could you, Logan?” Elle interrupted with a stone-cold glare. “I warned you not to be careless with Faith, and you didn’t listen.”
Elle walked past Logan and headed straight for her house.
Logan stood there frozen in shock. He blinked several times while he watched them go, and he didn’t run after them. Goddamn bastard didn’t deserve to. His actions must have stung him with the harsh reality of Faith being hurt.
“I didn’t know,” Logan mumbled repeatedly.
The dirtbag had the goddamn nerve to turn to me. Fucking prick.
Without warning, I grabbed Logan by his fucking expensive jacket that he appeared to care about more than his damn kid, and I sent him flying backward.
Heaved his sorry ass right up against the side of his car with a hard thud, and I went right after him.
Logan reacted. He went to move, but I stopped him with my hand pushing against his chest, and he couldn’t budge.
“You could’ve hurt Faith,” I snarled with my upper lip twitching at the thought of that innocent little girl in a hospital bed, and I clenched his coat. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me? You’re the asshole sleeping with my fiancée and—” I shook Logan.
“Ex-fiancée,” I hissed.
Logan rolled his eyes and rambled on. “Spending far too much time with my damn child. I’m her father! Not you!”
I had a fucking powerful urge to punch his egotistical brain in. The guy thought the whole damn world revolved around him and his stupid, shitty, goddamn needs. I had to set him straight. Faith deserved a better dad than this idiot cowering in front of me.
“Why don’t you act like a dad then?” I shook Logan to knock some damn sense into him. “Be a man. Your daughter could have seriously injured herself. Christ! Faith could’ve died because of your recklessness.”
Logan quit fighting me; his stare went blank, and all the anger left his face. His entire body went limp in my grasp, and he wouldn’t defend himself if I made him eat shit. Instead, his eyes welled up with tears that fell down his face.
Logan shoved me once. “Let go of me.”
I released Logan and stumbled back in shock at his rash change of attitude.
I’d fully anticipated a stubborn confrontation, but he was displaying the complete opposite.
The father in front of me was utterly destroyed.
He resembled a little boy pouting over everything he could’ve lost as the true reality of the dire situation hit him.
He made himself a victim, but I refused to let this go.
“Faith deserves a father who will keep her safe and—”
Logan interrupted, “Like you, old man?”
His eyes bored into mine for what felt like a fucking eternity as I stared back at him in disbelief. The reality of my own strange predicament slammed into me at full speed, and my pulse pounded. My head throbbed, and I touched my forehead.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Bullshit. I may not be the best dad, but you are no better for them...” Logan snarled, bit his upper lip, and ran his hands through his hair. “You’re old enough to be my daughter’s grandfather, for God’s sake!”
Fuck. Logan was a complete bag of shit, but he was right. Goddamn it. The bitter truth hurt when it came from someone else instead of inside my head.
“I... I—” I stammered, unable to formulate words.
“Noelle should be with me...” Logan rambled on and pointed a finger at himself. “Not you, Timber, and you fucking know it.”
What the hell was I doing?
I had been too caught up in Elle, and I couldn’t see the actual picture clearly.
Faith deserved a complete family. Not a broken one.
I interfered with her happiness and got in the way, making everything fucking complicated.
I had no business stepping into what could be a happy household for Faith. The kid meant too much to me.
I backed away from Logan with a sudden pain in my chest as my heart throbbed unlike anything I had experienced before. My damn ticker had broken, shattered into a million fucking pieces by the decision I had to see through. I had to let go of the woman I loved and her daughter too.