Chapter 33
JADE
The second the words leave my lips, I desperately want to take them back. I expect the deafening blast. I wait for the clattering porcelain, the crushing accusations from his father, the stunned scream from my best friend. I tense my shoulders to cushion the impact of this massive life-lie.
But the impact doesn't come.
The terrace remains trapped in a deafening silence. The children’s laughter drifts over from the lawn—a sarcastic background noise for the collapse of my world.
Cayden stands at the head of the table. He looks neither surprised nor angry.
“I know,” he says.
My heart skips a full beat, and the air hisses out of my lungs. My brain strictly refuses to process those two simple words.
“What?” I breathe. The sound scrapes painfully in my throat. I press my palms flat onto the table to hold myself up. “What the hell do you mean, you know?”
Cayden slides his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He ignores his mother’s horrified gasp and his father’s piercing look. His attention belongs solely to me.
“You really thought I’d just forget you after that night,” he begins. His tone is calm. “You thought I’d just check it off and move on as if nothing happened.”
I swallow against the massive lump in my throat. My fingers tremble uncontrollably.
“I distracted myself for years,” he continues, taking a step toward me. “I built my fortune. I negotiated sponsor deals. I buried myself in work. But I checked for your name at regular intervals. I knew your articles. I knew your career leaps. And I knew you’d become a mother.”
He’d been watching me. All those years I was hiding from him, I was on his radar.
“I saw you with him,” Cayden says. “Parker was five. You were at a playground near your old apartment. I was in my car. I had a meeting in the area.”
My lips part, but I can't make a sound. The idea of him watching us from a distance is surreal.
“I saw the resemblance,” he confesses. His voice drops an octave. “The way he tilts his head. His eye color. My mind immediately sounded the alarm. But I pushed it away.”
“Why?” I whisper.
A muscle twitches in his jaw. He avoids my gaze for a second and looks over at the boys on the lawn.
“Because I was a coward, Jade. I was in the middle of building my company. I was flying halfway around the world. I told myself it was a coincidence. That a child didn't fit into my life. That I’d only disappoint you both anyway.”
The pain in his face is real.
“I left you alone,” he continues, fixing his gaze back on me. “But I checked every year. I wanted to know if you were okay. I saw his first day of school in a photo in your local paper. I tracked his progress.”
“You spied on us.”
“I cared about you,” he corrects me immediately. He takes another step closer. “Until last year. When I saw him play.”
I frown. My mind races through the past months. “Saw him play?”
“The school tournament in the suburbs,” Cayden explains.
I remember that weekend.
“He moved on the ice like a pro,” Cayden says. Pride rings through every single syllable. “He has my posture. He has my intuition for the puck. In that moment in the stands, my wall finally crumbled. I had to be certain.”
“What did you do?”
“I paid an investigator,” he answers without hesitation. “It was simple. Parker had a smoothie after practice. He threw the plastic cup into a trash can outside the rink. My man secured the cup. The lab did the rest.”
“You stole his DNA!” I cry. My voice cracks. The anger breaks through the shock. I take a step back. My chair almost topples over. “You had a paternity test done behind my back!”
His father clears his throat at the other end of the table. “Cayden, that’s a legal gray area.”
“I’m his father,” Cayden counters over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off me. “I needed the proof, Jade.”
“You’ve known for a year,” I whisper. The realization slowly seeps into my consciousness. “You’ve known for twelve months that he’s your son. Why did you stay silent? Why didn’t you sic lawyers on me?”
“Because I know you,” he says. His voice drops into a soft tone that completely throws me off.
“If I’d threatened you with lawyers, you would’ve run.
You would’ve taken Parker and moved to the other side of the country.
You would’ve fought me. I didn't want a war over custody. I didn't want to play weekend dad.”
He takes a deep breath. His chest rises and falls beneath the fabric of his shirt.
“I wanted you both near me,” he confesses. The honesty in his eyes burns my skin. “I wanted Parker to get to know me of his own free will. For you to see that I’m not the idiot from back then anymore. I needed an excuse to get you into my house without you immediately taking flight.”
My mind reorders the puzzle pieces with lightning speed. The assignment. The portrait. The generous pay. The conditions.
“The Chronicle,” I breathe. I shake my head in disbelief. “You engineered this feature.”
“Alex designed the setup,” Cayden admits. “We made your editor-in-chief an offer he couldn't possibly refuse. Hayes willingly signed off on the PR move. He needed security for his investment anyway. He still thinks he chose this journalist to protect his clean reputation.”
I laugh. It’s a harsh sound. “You used Hayes. You manipulated my job. You lured me into this house under the pretext of writing a portrait.”
“I gave you the chance to get to know me again,” he defends himself. He steps even closer and reaches for my hand. I don't pull away. The warmth of his fingers moves from my wrist straight to my heart. “You kept control. You asked the questions. I waited until you were ready.”
The anger in my gut collides with a massive wave of relief. He doesn't want to take Parker away from me. He stayed silent for a whole year just to spare me the fear of a legal battle. He did all of this to bring us closer again.
I look at him. I look at the man who has upended my life from the very first second.
Then I pull my hand out of his grip.
“You’re a brilliant strategist, Cayden,” I say. My voice has regained its firm ring. “But you have one monumental error in your equation.”
He frowns. A sharp crease forms over the bridge of his nose. “What error?”
“You think you’re pulling the strings in this stadium deal,” I explain.
I brace my hands back on the table. I lean forward slightly.
“You think Hayes is nodding through your conditions because he believes in your Royals.
But you don't know what secret Hayes is guarding. You have no idea who is sitting on the other side of the table.”
The confusion on his face is priceless. The sovereign billionaire trips over his own feet.
“What are you talking about?” he asks. Business instinct displaces the family discussion.
“We’ll settle that later,” I dodge. I cast a fleeting glance at his parents.
A throat clearing draws my attention to the other side of the table. Hailey rises from her chair. She smooths her sun dress. She looks at me. There is no hate in her eyes. Not a trace of betrayal. Just a deep, understanding glow.
“I knew, too,” she says.
The sentence hits me unprepared. I blink. I look between her and Cayden. “You knew, too?”
Hailey nods. She rounds the table and stands beside me. She puts an arm around my shoulders. The touch anchors me in reality.
“Cayden came to me six months ago,” my best friend tells me. She shoots her brother a meaningful look. “He sat in my kitchen and cried like a baby. He slammed the paternity test onto the table. I wanted to call you. I wanted to rip your head off right then.”
“Why didn't you?” I ask softly. Shame burns in my cheeks. I cheated her out of her nephew.
Hailey squeezes my shoulder. She gives me a sincere smile. “Because he forbade me. He explained his plan. He didn't want to corner you. He begged me to play along. He knew you’d pack your bags the moment you felt the slightest suspicion.”
She sighs and lets her arm drop. “That stupid college pact, Jade. I couldn't have cared less about it in that second. You two are the most stubborn people I know. You’ve been making each other’s lives difficult for over a decade.
I just want my brother to be happy. And I want my best friend to stop tilting at windmills. ”
Tears burn in my eyes again. I blink them away resolutely. My friend’s forgiveness lifts a weight from my shoulders that has almost crushed me for years.
Cayden’s mother clears her throat at the other end of the table. She stands up slowly, bracing herself on the back of her chair. She looks at Cayden, then her gaze wanders to me.
“I don't understand this modern way of family planning,” she says. Her voice trembles slightly. She’s fighting hard to maintain her composure. “But the boy has your laugh, Cayden. I noticed that earlier.”
His father rises as well. He stands next to his wife. He looks at the three of us. He sees Hailey, standing protectively beside me. He sees his son, ready to risk his entire empire for a family.
“You could have let us in,” my father remarks. It doesn't sound like a reproach. It sounds like a regretful admission of his own mistakes. “We would have helped you.”
“I had to handle this alone,” Cayden counters. He doesn't take his eyes off me.
The lines on the terrace have shifted completely. The fear of discovery has evaporated. The accusations have burned up in the air. We are standing in the ruins of my life-lie, but the foundation beneath our feet is more stable than ever.
“He doesn't know yet,” I say softly, nodding toward the lawn. Parker is laughing out loud as Liam trips over the ball. “He thinks you’re just his coach. His idol.”
“I’m not going to kick the door in,” Cayden promises. He steps close to me again. The presence of his parents doesn't bother him in the least. “We’ll tell him together. When the moment is right. When you’re ready.”
I nod silently. The unconditional acceptance in his words dissolves the last hard knot in my chest. He isn't dictating the pace. He’s leaving the lead to me.
“Good,” Hailey chirps into the silence. She claps her hands. The melodramatic mood dissolves instantly. “Since we finally have that emotional baggage off the table, I’d like another piece of Helena’s strawberry cake. Keeping secrets burns an incredible amount of calories.”
A quiet giggle escapes my throat. My friend’s absurd normality saves the situation.
Cayden’s mother hesitantly sits back down. She reaches for her dessert fork. She looks over at Parker. The cool distance in her gaze gives way to a cautious curiosity. His father takes his seat again, adjusting his coffee cup.
I remain standing. Cayden doesn't budge an inch from my side. His shoulder brushes my arm. The warmth of his body radiates through the fabric of my blouse. We’ve defused the greatest family conflict. We’ve put the cards on the table.
But the real war is still waiting for us.