Chapter 49 Javier
Forty-Nine
Javier
I sat in my car for several minutes while parked in the lot of Rafael’s building.
If I went in too worked up, I would probably punch him in his face as soon as I saw him.
So I sat behind the steering wheel, breathing as evenly as possible and staring at the lock screen wallpaper on my phone.
It was a photo of me and Aleesa that Octavia had taken when we were at Disney World.
Aleesa was on my shoulders, and I held her hands and smiled as she cheesed really hard for Octavia.
A smile tugged at my lips. My daughter had such a beautiful soul. And after dealing with Rafael, I was going to keep her. There was no doubt in my mind now. With that in mind, I climbed out of my car, slipped my phone into my pocket, and headed for the front door of the building.
After signing in, I rode the elevator up to floor fourteen and was immediately greeted with the secretary’s desk.
The sight of it made me pause. I’d never been to Eloise’s job before, but knowing this was the place where she’d worked—where she’d encountered Rafael every single day—caused my stomach to twist.
“Can I help you?” the secretary asked. She was young, with big blue eyes and brunette hair. She forced a smile as she stood with wariness. Something told me she knew exactly who I was. After all, she did manage this man’s schedule and handle his affairs.
“I am here to see Rafael.”
“I’m afraid he’s busy at the moment, but if you leave a message for him and your number, I can call back to arrange a meeting with you.”
“Oh. A message?” I approached her desk, raising my chin. “Tell him he has two minutes to get his ass out here or I will start my countersuit right now.”
The woman’s eyes rounded. With a large step back, she said, “Uh . . . one moment.”
She took off in a flash, rounded a corner, and disappeared. I folded my arms. It took a minute for her to return with Rafael trailing behind her.
“What the hell, Javier?” he snapped, marching toward me. “How dare you come to my workplace with this shit.”
“Would you rather deal with your bullshit in court?”
His brows pulled together as he looked from me to his secretary. “Lidia, go get me some coffee or something.”
“Yes, sir.” Lidia collected her purse in a hurry and headed toward the elevator.
“I hope you did not talk to Eloise that way,” I said when Lidia was gone and the doors had sealed shut.
“Follow me,” he grumbled, ignoring my words.
I followed him to his office. He offered that I sit. I didn’t.
“So I am going to get straight to the point, because, unlike you, I do not like my time wasted.” I pulled my phone out and started playing the recording as Rafael lowered into his seat.
As each sentence of his played, his face whitened more and more. Where was that smug smile now?
I paused it, and he shot out of his chair. “You hired that woman to follow me, didn’t you?”
“I did not hire anyone.”
“So how did you get that? You set this up!”
“Rafael, I am not a schemer. I do not give enough fucks about you to have anyone waste their time following you around. We can just consider this my lucky break. So here is what will happen—” I walked closer to his desk, and he backed away.
“You are going to drop this custody battle, you are going to leave me and my family the fuck alone, and if you do not do that, all it will take is one click from my lawyer to have this recording sent to Judge Dalton.”
Rafael’s throat bobbed.
“What do you think the judge will say when she finds out that you only wanted custody of a four-year-old so you could milk her for cash?”
“Oh, you are so full of shit,” Rafael growled. “She came from my fucking balls, so you know I have the right!”
“No,” I snapped, storming around the desk and gripping his collar.
“You have no fucking right, and you are lucky I did not rip your balls off the moment Eloise told me about you.” I shoved him backward until his back was against the wall.
He tried acting like he wasn’t afraid, but I saw it in his eyes. The fear swimming in them.
“If you do not drop it, the judge will know everything, and she will leave custody to me. And once that’s finished, I will countersue you for everything your minuscule life is worth for trying to ruin mine. You know that I love her and that she is better off with me. Do not fight me on this.”
“Fine, whatever,” Rafael said. “Just get the fuck off of me.”
I kept hold of his collar, still glaring down at him. Then, after counting to ten in my head and forcing myself to calm down, I shoved him away and stepped backward.
“Call your lawyer. Now.”
Rafael blinked at me several times, almost as if he thought I was joking. But I was not, and he fucking knew I was not, so he sat down in his chair and picked up his cell phone.
His hands shook as he tapped the screen a few times, then pressed the phone to his ear.
“Put it on speakerphone,” I ordered.
He released an irritated sigh but did as he was told.
The phone rang a few times before a male answered.
“Hey, Jim. It’s Rafael.”
“Hey, Rafael. What’s up? Gotta make this quick—I’m on my way to a hearing.”
“Yeah, listen. I need to drop the custody battle.”
The line was quiet for a few seconds. “What are you talking about?”
“You heard me. I need to drop it. Today. Send a notice or a letter or whatever to the judge and let her know I no longer want custody.”
“Uh . . . okay. What’s going on, man? We had this bagged.”
“He knows, all right?” Rafael pinched the bridge of his nose. “Javier has a fucking recording of me when I had lunch with Matt yesterday. Some . . . woman that he knew overheard me talking and got the whole thing.”
“Shit. What did you say?”
“I was talking about the kids clothing line and about the girl, of course. And about how much money we could make with her as the face of the brand or whatever.”
I hated when he called Aleesa the girl, like she was just some random kid he could pick out of a lineup.
“God damn it, Rafael! This is why I told you to keep your fucking mouth shut about it! Telling the media was one thing, but talking about it in public? It’s the dumbest thing you could’ve done, even if it was with Matt.”
“I know.”
“Fine,” his lawyer snapped. “I’ll contact Judge Dalton today to cancel the battle. But you’re still paying me for my time.”
“Okay.”
“I gotta go.” His lawyer ended the call, and Rafael sat back in his chair.
“Happy?” he asked, throwing his hands up.
“No. But it will do.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just get the fuck out of my office.”
I made my way to the door but paused before walking out. “Did you even care about being a father?”
Rafael stared at me briefly before lowering his line of sight.
“I . . . don’t know. But I could have eventually cared.
And I just . . . I wanted to see the kid in person.
And whether you believe it or not,” he said, rising to a stand, “I cared about Eloise. I fucking loved her. That sucks for you to hear, but it’s true.
I loved her . . . she just didn’t love me back.
And you were right before.” He swallowed hard, as if he were swallowing a chunk of his pride.
“She told me she was choosing you over me when she ended our affair. Even after I had promised her the world.” He scoffed, head shaking.
“To this day, I still don’t understand why, if she claimed to be so unhappy at home. ”
“You do not understand it because Eloise did not care about worldly things,” I said.
“She did not care that you had money. She did not care that you were some semi-famous fashion designer. She took the job because she was bored, and sadly, she got caught up with you. What she really cared about was intimacy and love. She wanted someone to be able to give that to her every single day, but how could we, with careers like ours? We both failed her in those departments.”
“No. You failed her. You chose basketball over her.”
“I did not choose basketball over her,” I countered.
“I would have quit immediately if that was what she truly wanted me to do, but she made me promise not to quit. The thing with Eloise is that she struggled with making sacrifices. She wanted me to keep playing so that we could keep living out our dreams and have enough money to provide for her grandmother, but she also wanted me to be home more. She struggled with the sacrifices she had to make, while I failed to meet her needs.”
“I would have done better if she’d given me the chance,” he muttered.
“But she did not bother giving you one, did she?” I shot back. “Because she knew which one of us loved her most, no matter what she felt inside. She did not choose you, Rafael, and even if she were still alive, she would not choose you.”
He said nothing to that, but I could tell my words hit him like a ton of bricks. His shoulders slumped, and the frown he wore melted away. Looking at him now, he looked like a sad little boy that had no one to love, and no one to love him back.
“Like I said before, I do not ever want to hear from you again.” I gripped the doorknob and gave it a twist. “And if you ever put your hands on my girlfriend again, I will rip you to fucking pieces.”