Chapter 24
Today feels like any normal day. The money that’s coming my way still a bit like a dream. A foreign concept that I haven’t fully accepted as my own. Right now, my focus is on adjusting to having a dog in the house and keeping him away from the clothes that Freya and I are tailoring for our clients.
After last night, I get the feeling that something has shifted with Gareth. I’m not sure if it’s the stress of the World Cup approaching or what, but he still feels off. When he left for training this morning, he didn’t wake me like he normally does. He simply slipped out without a word.
Freya, Sophia, and I are busy making dinner when my doorbell buzzes. With excited eyes, Sophia dashes for the door, and I call after her, “Check the camera before you open it!”
I wipe my hands off and head over to see who it is when I hear Sophia exclaim, “It’s Daddy!”
She opens the door and wraps her arms around his hips in a tight hug. It’s been over two weeks since he has seen her, so it’s no surprise that she’s having this level of reaction.
Callum’s smile seems stiff as he pats Sophia’s head awkwardly. “Hello, Sophia.”
“Did you come to have dinner with us?” she asks brightly. “Did you come to see Rexy? Mum says we have to keep him in the yard when it’s nice out. Come out back, I’ll show you!”
She grabs Callum’s hand and tries to pull him into the foyer.
“Not right away, Sophia. I need to talk to your mum first.” He looks up at me and smiles awkwardly. “Do you have a minute?”
Suddenly, Freya appears in the foyer with us and tuts, “Sophia! I think you and I should take Rex for a walk. Show him around the neighbourhood. What do you say?”
“Yes!” Sophia exclaims, but then her face falls. “Daddy, will you still be here when I get back? Can you stay for dinner?”
Callum looks over at me and plasters on a smile. “I’d love to if it’s okay with your mum.”
Sophia turns wide, pleading eyes to me. “Mummy Gumdrops, pleeease, can Daddy stay for dinner? Please, please, please!”
Anxiety bubbles in my chest because I know Gareth will be coming over soon, but I don’t know how I can possibly say no to her. Fighting back my eye roll, I nod and reply, “Sure.”
She squeals with delight, then grabs Freya’s hand, yanking her down the hall and out to the backyard to get Rex.
I cut Callum a look. “That was awkward.”
“What?” he retorts, straightening his tie.
“You shouldn’t have said yes for dinner. This is my time with her.”
“Come now, Sloan. We’re a family. We should be able to have a meal with each other.”
I take a deep breath before replying, “Well, you should be able to stick to our custody agreement and show up for her on the weekends you’re allotted. You’re really disappointing her every other weekend, Cal.”
“That’s why I’m here to talk. Can we sit?” he asks, gesturing to the living room.
I roll my eyes and stomp over to the sofa, nerves erupting in my veins over what Callum could want now. I sit down and, instead of Cal taking the open chair across from me, he takes a seat right next to me. Far too close for comfort.
“Callum, if you’re going to try to ask me for more time with Sophia, you should know that I’m prepared to fight.”
Callum’s eyes narrow as he smooths his blonde coiffed hair back. “I’m not here to fight with you, Sloan. I’m here to tell you I want our family back.”
My face contorts into what I can only imagine a Picasso painting would look like. Callum could have told me he is a flying purple cow, and I would have believed that more than I believe this. “You have to be joking,” I reply with a laugh. “You’re engaged to Callie.”
“Not anymore,” he replies and scoots in closer to take my hand in his. “I broke it off with her after the funeral. The minute I saw you and that footballer together, I knew I made a horrible mistake.”
“Callum,” I reply, staring down at his hand wrapped around mine like some sort of evil serpent. “You don’t even love me.”
“Of course I do, Sloan. You’re the mother of my child,” he states flippantly like what I said is ludicrous. “I made some mistakes, but I want to be a part of yours and Sophia’s lives again.”
“But you’ve cancelled on Sophia two times in a row now. How is that wanting to be a part of her life?”
“I was trying to get my own life together first!” he retorts, his blue eyes fixed on mine. “But I’m different now. If we get back together, you’ll see that.”
I grit my teeth and stare back at him, willing myself to stay calm. “It’s really coincidental that you’re saying all of this after our meeting with the lawyer yesterday. What did your letter from Margaret say exactly?”
His face deepens to a crimson colour and he replies, “I was planning to talk to you after the meeting, but you left too quickly.”
“Because you were going on and on about the fact that I wasn’t a Coleridge!” I exclaim, pulling my hand out of his and sliding away from him.
“That’s what I want to change,” he replies, shifting closer to me again.
“We can be a proper family again. Get remarried. You can take my name, and we’ll all be Coleridges together.
I’ll be better this time around, Sloan. A proper father, the way you’ve always wanted me to be.
I know how hard it was for you to grow up without a father, and I don’t want that life for Sophia. ”
His words pierce through a dark part of my heart that I keep locked away. “Neither do I.”
“See? Then we’re on the same page. And it will be like old times but better.” He reaches out and cups my cheek, the touch foreign and surprising. “You’ll still be in complete control of Sophia. I won’t stand in your way of that.”
I jerk out of his touch, so he drapes his arm on the back of the sofa behind me.
“This is ridiculous, Callum. You don’t know me at all. You never have.”
“I know it kills you to not have access to Sophia every single day. If we’re together again, that all goes away.
No more custody agreement. No more part-time motherhood.
” Callum leans in, an urgency and hopefulness in his eyes I’ve never seen before.
“Don’t you want that, Sloan? Don’t you want to wake up with Sophia under your roof every day? ”
“Of course I do,” I reply, my throat closing up over how much I hate this. How much I hate that he still gets to be a part of her life.
“Let me give that to you, darling.”
Callum suddenly leans in to kiss me, but I yank back and shake my head in shock.
“What the fucking hell is going on here?” Gareth’s deep voice growls. My eyes swerve over to see him standing in the foyer, the door wide open behind him.
Callum is still holding my face, our bodies still touching. Everything about this looks so much worse than it really is. And Gareth is one hundred percent pissed. Like a giant, angry bear ready to attack. He drops his training bag down on the floor and his hands tighten into fists at his sides.
“Gareth, nothing is going on! Callum is crazy.” I push back away from him and stand, smoothing my dress down and feeling horrible for how bad it must have looked.
Gareth moves his harsh eyes from Cal to me, and I crumple when I see a flicker of hurt on his face. “You certainly weren’t arguing with what he had to say.”
“I was just about to!” I retort, crossing my arms over my chest for some pathetic form of protection.
Gareth’s stare is unrelenting on me as his jaw muscle ticks angrily beneath the skin. “So you’re saying none of what he said is true for you?”
My mouth opens, but no words come out. Everything’s locked inside of me in some strange, confused place that I can’t fully access.
He nods knowingly. “This actually makes perfect sense, Sloan.”
“How?” I exclaim, my voice tight inside my throat.
“Well, you don’t need me anymore,” he replies flippantly.
“You made that perfectly clear yesterday. And if Callum is offering to be a father to Sophia again, then that solves all of your problems. I know how much it kills you when he doesn’t show up for her.
Getting back together with him means you can protect her. ”
“Are you crazy?” I shriek, striding around the sofa to stand in front of Gareth. He’s tall and looming down over me. A scary mask on his face that I haven’t seen before.
“How could you think so little of me?” I retort, my eyes stinging from the way he’s looking at me.
“I don’t think little of you,” he replies through clenched teeth and takes a step closer to me. “I think everything of you. And I know you, Sloan. You will put Sophia first always, and I can’t stop you from doing that.”
“Sloan, just tell him to leave,” Callum interjects, moving over to us and trying to grab my arm. “We were in the middle of something.”
“Callum, you go!” I exclaim, turning on my heel and walking straight at him, forcing him backwards toward the wall. “There is nothing here for you. I’m with Gareth, and I want you to leave.”
Callum laughs a haughty, bark of a laugh and narrows his eyes at Gareth. “Before you kick me out, perhaps you should ask your footballer why his lawyer is sniffing around our personal affairs.”
My brow furrows. I look over at Gareth to see that his hard mask has slipped, revealing guilt. “What?” I manage to croak out.
Callum sneers and adds, “Harry Morrison called me today to tell me that a lawyer from London named Santino inquired about the paperwork you signed yesterday. Said he is the Harris family lawyer and he wants to make sure everything is above board.”
“Is that true, Gareth?” I ask, my chest aching from betrayal.
“I was going to tell you,” Gareth retorts, moving in closer to me.
I back up. “Tell me that you went behind my back and hired a lawyer to look into my personal business? We already talked about it. I told you I am fine on my own.”
“I was trying to do what’s best for you,” he argues, staring at me with pleading eyes.
Callum chuckles softly from beside us. “See, Sloan? You don’t need a man like him. He’ll just end up controlling you your whole life. Mentally break you down. He’ll probably do the same to Sophia.”
Gareth slides harsh eyes to Callum. “Don’t talk about my relationship with Sophia.”
Cal barks out a laugh and adjusts his cufflinks. “Well, hopefully you’re not as overbearing as your father. I heard he’s such a monster, your mother killed herself to get away from him.”
Gareth lunges at Callum, grabbing him by the lapel and slamming him up against the wall. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!”
Callum looks over at me with wide eyes. “You see what this man is like! He’s out of control. He better not touch my daughter like this, or so help me God…”
“Shut the fuck up!” Gareth roars, his face centimetres from Callum’s.
“You are a spineless, worthless, desperate pig of a man. You don’t even deserve to be called a man.
A man is there for his family, his wife, his daughter.
A man shows up when he’s supposed to, not just when he needs money!
You don’t even love Sophia, you fucking bastard. ”
Suddenly, there’s a high-pitched whimper behind me. I turn around and my stomach drops when I see Sophia standing in the open doorway with Rex on a leash. Her wide, teary eyes are on Gareth and Callum. Her chin wobbling, her hands shaking.
She looks over at me, and I drop down on my knees in front of her. “Sophia,” I cry, reaching to pull her into my arms.
She pulls away and stares up at Gareth, who quickly releases Callum and lowers himself to one knee beside me. “Sophia, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re a liar, Gareth!” she cries, her words piercing through the room like shattered glass. She drops Rex’s leash and lunges at Gareth, swinging her tiny fists back and landing them on his chest. “You’re not grown-up! You’re a liar!”
He turns his face to the side, his eyes wrecked with pain and anguish as he croaks out, “I’m so sorry, Little Minnow.”
I reach out to stop her from hitting him, but she yanks her hands away from me and takes off up the stairs with Rex following on her heels, dragging his leash behind him. My eyes connect with Gareth’s as we both drag huge breaths into our lungs.
Freya then appears in the doorway, out of breath as she states, “Blimey, Sophia and Rex are too fast for me. We should think about getting an elliptical trainer, Sloan. Or a treadmill. Something! That sewing machine pedal is doing nothing for the circumference of my arse.” Her voice stops as she looks around the room and sees us all standing here, frozen in horror. “What have I missed?”
Gareth shakes his head and stands up slowly, grabbing his bag up off the floor. “I don’t belong here.”
He moves to walk out the door but pauses when I call out, “Gareth.”
He shakes his head again, refusing to look back at me. “I don’t belong here.”
With that, he walks out of my house and out of my life.