Chapter 12 Noelle #2
Her eyes are always sharp as icicles. “I heard about last night. Scaring my poor boy off when he was just checking on his son… You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Annoyance flares hot in my chest, but I swallow it, glancing at Grant and Dean who are just ahead of me with Eli.
Which is probably for the best since I don’t want Eli witnessing any of this.
Evelyn is the sole reason I’m convinced Jared keeps coming back around. Aside from wanting to torture me, this woman has been hellbent on adopting Eli as her grandson and never returning him.
I’ve heard through the grapevine over the past year that she’s been pushing Jared to marry someone with the single intention of giving her grandkids.
Why she’s decided to hyperfocus on my son, I’ll probably never know, but it’s so damn annoying that I’m close to filing a report with the cops against her too.
After Eli was born, I was foolish and desperate for him to have a father figure beyond my dad.
A man who’d come home from work and laugh with us over dinner, the kind of two-parent picture that had been the background of every holiday memory I ever had.
I convinced myself he needed that illusion of normalcy more than he needed whatever safety I could actually give him on my own.
Jared walked into that part of my life like a solution to a problem I had no idea how to fix.
He was handsome in that tired, movie-star way. He wanted to be needed and I, stupid and hungry for anything that looked like rescue, let him be. At first he played the role perfectly.
Charming in public, doting with a sippy-cup when Eli wanted it, murmuring sweet things to me in the dark that had me imagining a future I might actually have a chance at getting.
The lies were small at first, easy to forgive, and I forgave them because I wanted them to be true.
Then the year mark came and I caught him. His mask slipped and I saw the truth: he’d never actually cared about Eli the way a father should, never cared about me either.
We were just props used as evidence Jared could present to the world to look respectable.
A bargaining chip for his mother to back off and to stay in my bed on his terms.
All the while leading a double life with another woman behind my back.
When I pushed him out of my life, I thought that would be the end of it.
I imagined a clean break, a chance to start fresh and forget any of that ever happened.
But he kept coming back.
Short appearances outside my shop before the cops chased him off, drunken shouting at the end of my dad’s driveway in the middle of the night before a shotgun was pointed at him, text messages threaded with guilt over me not giving him a second chance, or an opportunity to explain himself.
Over and over again he used my hunger for a family as a weapon to try and chip away at my resolve.
He turned my worst moments into a stain I couldn’t scrub away.
“You wanted this,” he’d sneer at me every time he found me again. “You begged me to be his dad, remember?”
Evelyn never saw her son’s flaws. She never wanted to see the man she raised as anything other than perfect.
If Jared had faults, Evelyn’s blinders were Olympic-level.
To her, I was not a woman who’d been manipulated and threatened, I was the thief who’d “stolen” her grandchild the moment I decided to cut all contact with that family.
And still, to this day, she believes she’s owed something she never even earned.
I feel the old, ugly coil of shame tighten in my stomach as she eyes me up and down like I’m a piece of furniture she’s deciding whether or not to throw out.
“You’re not letting Eli talk to his father.
What kind of mother denies a child that?
Jared’s heartbroken, and here you are, parading around with these… other men.”
Hearing her call them “men” like it’s a scandal is enough to make my skin prickle. I force myself to remain calm even though I don’t feel it. “Evelyn, this isn’t the time. Or the place. Please.”
“The hell it isn’t!” she snaps, taking a few steps forward to get right in my face. “If you don’t let Jared see his son come next week, I’ll be calling CPS and filing a report.”
For a beat the world tilts. My mouth drops open because there’s no bigger weapon she could pull out to use against me. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she bites back.
I am so angry I barely register the two shadows who close in behind me until a strong hand presses down on my shoulder—steadying me, not restraining—and I look up to find Grant filling my peripheral with his bulk along with Dean.
Grant isn’t looking at me, though.
His gaze is locked on Evelyn. “Is there a problem, ma’am?”
She huffs. “This has nothing to do with you. Go away, we’re having a private conversation.”
“Back off, lady. She’s done nothing wrong. Leave her alone,” Dean snaps. He has Eli tucked behind him, out of view.
Evelyn recoils, shooting me a nasty glare before retreating with a huff. “I mean it, Noelle. I better see you bringing him to my house by next weekend, or else you know what will happen.”
I watch her vanish into the crowd, leaving me more drained than yesterday.
CPS? She can’t be serious.
The very idea of social services showing up at my door and knocking politely while holding the power to decide whether I’m a fit mother hits me like a punch to the ribs.
Every insecurity I’ve ever carried as a single parent floods in all at once.
Every sideways glance I’ve gotten from strangers who saw me young and alone with a baby.
Every whispered judgment I’ve overheard in grocery store aisles while picking up formulae or inside my own shop when they think I’m in the back marking inventory.
All of it comes rushing back like a tidal wave.
It doesn’t matter that Eli’s happy.
That my childhood home is spotless, that I work myself to the bone to keep his world steady, safe, and full of love.
It doesn’t matter that he’s thriving, that everyone he meets adores him, that I make sure he wants for nothing.
Because the truth doesn’t always matter when someone has the power to be convincing.
Vindictive and manipulative Evelyn has always known how to twist reality until it bends in her favor.
The thought of some stranger standing in my doorway looking around our home to search for proof that I’ve failed is every nightmare I’ve ever had made real.
I can already see it: the sterile questions, the cautious tones, the looks that are exchanged while inspecting my home and measuring it for what it’s worth.
“Mama?”
I turn automatically, my heart already softening at the sound. Eli’s peeking around from behind Dean’s leg, his wide hazel eyes darting nervously between me and the space where Evelyn had stood moments ago.
His small hand clutches the fabric of Dean’s jeans, the picture of innocence and confusion.
“Mama, why was she yelling at you?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and force a steady breath, pushing down the panic clawing at my chest. Eli doesn’t need to see that. He doesn’t need to see how rattled I am.
“Hey,” I murmur, crouching down until I’m at his eye level. I hold out my arms, and he steps into them without hesitation, warm and solid and real against me.
I hug him tight, pressing my cheek against his curls, breathing him in like I can center myself through his scent alone. “She’s just…having a bad day, that’s all. No need for you to worry about it, okay?”
He nods, his head still resting against my shoulder. “She was being mean…”
“I’m okay, I promise.”
He tilts his head up then, eyes squinting a little like he’s testing whether he believes me or not. “You promise promise?”
I smile. “I promise promise.”
He studies me for another second before accepting that answer with a solemn nod.
I kiss his temple and stand up again, hoping it’s enough to keep him from asking anything more.
“We should probably go,” Grant suggests.
I hold back another sigh and simply nod. “Good idea.”
Callum’s surprised to see us when we step through the hotel doors.
The warm air washes over us like a soft wave after the bitter wind chill outside.
He’s just coming out of the other room, still wearing the same flannel from earlier with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, a mug of coffee in one hand.
“That was quick.” His gaze flickers from Grant and Dean, to me, lingering just a moment too long. “Didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”
He’s studying me, assessing, in the way Callum always does, with that quiet, analytical silence that makes it impossible to hide anything from him.
His eyes slide down to Eli who’s clinging to my hand, his little cheeks pink from the cold, then back up to my face. I can tell he knows something’s off.
“We ran into someone, uh…combative,” is Dean’s grand explanation.
“Combative?” Callum echoes, one brow arching.
Dean doesn’t answer right away, glancing at me for permission, maybe, or for backup.
But I can’t bring myself to meet his gaze.
My throat feels tight, raw from too many words bitten back today and the looming threat that I might soon be in the midst of a legal battle.
I focus on unbuttoning Eli’s coat instead, pretending not to notice the way Callum’s attention is focused back on me again.
His silence is louder than any question he could ever ask.
When I finally look up, I manage a small, tired smile. “It’s fine. Just…someone I used to know. It’s handled now.”
That’s a lie and we both know it, but Callum doesn’t call me on it.
Instead, he studies me a beat longer, his brow furrowing slightly like he’s filing the information away for later.
Then he exhales slowly and nods once.
“Alright.”
Eli breaks the tension before it grows too overwhelming. “Can I watch a movie?”
I fix his shirt before standing up straight again. “Sure, baby. Go ahead. You can pick one from the list on the table.”
He grins, bounding toward the TV stand and scrolling through the hotel’s movie menu with the remote in hand, humming under his breath.
The rest of the day drifts by in a blur.