Chapter 7 #6
Jake blinked, visibly rattled. His mouth opened like he had something to say, but no words came out. He looked around, noticing the parents staring, the kids watching, phones still raised. His jaw clenched as he tried to salvage the last shred of control.
“You’re delusional,” he finally muttered, voice low, bitter. “You think you can just walk in here and pretend like you're some angel?”Jake took a sharp breath, eyes bouncing from her to Rio, then back again. “You embarrassed me. You humiliated our family. Don’t think you’re some kind of hero now.”
Kylee just stared at him. “No, Jake. I don’t think I’m a hero. I just think I’m done being your victim.”
Jake scoffed, but he had nothing left. His power was slipping through his fingers, and he knew it. He turned, grabbing Jake Jr.'s hand, muttering, “Let’s go.”
But Jake Jr. hesitated, looking at his mom with wide eyes. Rio stepped forward, but not toward Jake toward Kylee. His voice was calm, quiet, but strong. “You’re incredible, you know that?” She glanced up at him, her defenses still bristling.
“You didn’t need me to step in,” Rio added, more for her than anyone else. “You owned the moment. That was all you.” He wasn’t puffing out his chest. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He was looking at her like she was fire and gravity and the most beautiful kind of storm.
Jake Jr. was frozen between them, eyes wide, clutching his little football glove like a lifeline.
Jake sneered, looking from Kylee to Rio. “You think you can just show up, play the victim, and steal my son?”
Kylee didn’t move. “I’m not stealing him. I’m his mother. And I’m taking him home.”
Jake stepped forward, grabbing Jake Jr.’s arm. “Like hell you are!” Before he could finish, Rio moved between them with terrifying calm. “Let go of him.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell is this? You think you’re gonna play daddy now? Is this your rock star rescue fantasy?”
“No,” Rio said. “But I am a man who wouldn’t talk to my wife like she is garbage. And I won’t stand by while you traumatize a little boy.”
Jake Jr. whimpered, tugging his arm away. “Daddy, stop.” Jake looked down at his son, startled.
Kylee knelt to her son’s level, ignoring the crowd, ignoring the phones. “Jakey… do you want to come with me?” Jake Jr. nodded fast, tears welling in his eyes. “I wanna go with you, Mommy.”
Jake stepped back like he’d been slapped.
Kylee stood, her voice steady but shaking inside. “Emergency custody papers were filed this morning. You’ll be getting served any minute now.”
Jake’s face twisted in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You’re using that guy’s money to take my son from me?”
Kylee squared her shoulders. “I’m doing whatever I have to protect my kids. That’s why I’m not asking anymore! I’m taking him!”
Rio placed a protective hand on Jake Jr.’s back. “You’ll get the legal notice soon. Don’t make this uglier than it already is.”
Jake stared at both of them, stunned silent for the first time. His face was red, jaw tight, chest heaving. “You’ll regret this,” he finally muttered.
Kylee held her son’s hand tightly. “I already regret staying as long as I did.” She turned and walked away, Rio right beside her, Jake Jr. between them.
The crowd watched in complete silence, phones still pointed but this wasn’t tabloid fodder anymore.
This was a woman taking her life back, one step at a time.
Jake stood in the middle of the field, watching the backs of Kylee, Rio, and his son as they disappeared into the parking lot.
The echo of Jake Jr.'s voice calling “Mommy!” still rang in his ears louder than the murmurs and whispers of the crowd around him, louder than the click of cameras still snapping, louder than the blood roaring in his own ears.
He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles cracked.
His chest burned not just from rage, but humiliation.
The audacity. She humiliated him again. That rock star with his smug smirk, leather jacket, and goddamn celebrity security detail just walked into his life and took everything that was his.
Jake kicked a water bottle near the bench, sending it flying into the fence. "FUCK! FUCK! FUUCCCKKK!” He screamed.
Rachel scurried toward him from the parking lot edge, with a big smile, phone in hand. “Jake, this is going viral. Everyone’s talking about how Rio just took your kid”
“Shut the fuck up, Rachel!” he snapped, spinning toward her.
She flinched and stepped back. He didn’t care.
Jake shoved his hands through his hair and paced in tight circles like a rabid animal, muttering under his breath.
“Bitch thinks she can take my kid? She’s delusional.
Filing emergency custody with that fucking Hollywood lawyer? She thinks that makes her untouchable?”
Rachel hesitated. “What are you going to do?”
He stopped pacing, eyes sharp as razors.
“I’m gonna bury her!” He stormed toward his Ferrari and yanked the door open, nearly ripping it off the hinge.
“I want every dirty thing we have on Kylee ready to go now. You call my lawyer, tell him I want everything exposed. Her affair, Rio, the pictures, every goddamn detail. She wants to play this game in public? Then let’s give the world a real fucking show. She wants a war? She just got one.”
As Jake slammed the door shut and peeled out of the parking lot, tires screeching and engine roaring, the calm mask he’d worn for years was gone. What replaced it was something darker. He’d lost control and Jake Waterman was the kind of man who didn’t lose without blood.
The sun was dipping low, casting long shadows across the polished floors of the house Kylee once called her sanctuary.
Jake’s Ferrari came screeching to a halt in the driveway.
He didn't bother closing the door behind him as he stormed up the steps and slammed his shoulder into the front door, splintering the frame.
It crashed open with a sharp crack that echoed through the house.
“MOMMY!” Macy’s voice shrieked from the hallway. The sound of her tiny feet running. Kylee came flying out of the kitchen, holding Kayla against her hip, eyes wide and terrified.
“Jake?!” she gasped. “What the hell are you doing?!”
His chest heaved. His eyes were red-rimmed, bloodshot, unblinking. “I told you, Kylee,” he growled, storming past her toward the master bedroom. “You took everything. Now I’m going to show you what that feels like.”
“Jake, stop what are you talking about?!”
He was already in the bedroom. She followed him, clutching the Kayla against her chest, heart hammering. He was tearing open the walk-in closet, tossing shoes, coats, and boxes aside until he reached the locked safe in the corner.
Her stomach dropped. “Jake,” she cried, voice shaking. “Don’t do this. Please. The girls”
He spun on her. “YOU MADE ME LOOK WEAK! YOU THINK YOU CAN HUMILIATE ME AND JUST WALK OFF WITH MY KID?!”
Kylee took a cautious step back.
“Put the safe code in,” he barked, his voice trembling with rage. “NOW.”
“I….I don’t remember it.”
He stormed toward her like a madman, Kayla crying in her arms. Kylee shrieked, shielding the baby, yelling, “JAKE, PLEASE! STOP!”
Suddenly the front door opened. “Babe, I'm back” Rio’s voice stopped cold. He stepped inside, bags in his hands and froze. He saw Macy crying in the corner of the hallway her face was blotchy red, hands over her ears. He heard Kayla screaming from the bedroom.
And then…..
Jake’s voice: “Don’t you fucking lie to me, Kylee!”
Rio dropped the bags and took off down the hall. He reached the bedroom in three strides and the moment he stepped inside and saw Jake grabbing Kylee by the arm, pushing her toward the safe, Rio lost all control.
“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HER!”
Rio charged. He slammed into Jake like a freight train, knocking him back into the closet door. They both hit the ground with a thud that shook the walls. Kayla was crying louder now, Kylee screaming for them to stop.
Jake threw a wild punch Rio dodged and landed one of his own, straight to Jake’s jaw. Jake fell sideways with a groan, but scrambled up again, lunging toward the closet.
Rio grabbed him by the back of the shirt and dragged him backward, throwing him into the nightstand. A lamp shattered.
“You come near her or those kids again,” Rio growled, chest heaving, “I swear to God I’ll make you regret ever being born.”
Jake spit blood on the floor and laughed, dazed. “She’s not worth it, man. She’s a whore. She’ll crawl back the second you get bored.”
Rio’s eyes went black.
He raised his fist again but Kylee stepped between them, breathless, sobbing, “STOP! Please!”
Rio froze, trembling with fury.
Jake stumbled to his feet. “I’m calling my lawyer,” he slurred. “You’ll both rot before you take my son from me.”
“GET. OUT,” Kylee screamed.
Jake looked at her one more time wild, broken, vengeful then turned and staggered out of the room, slamming the front door behind him so hard a picture fell off the wall.
The silence afterward was deafening, broken only by the sniffles of Macy, still curled in a corner, and Kayla whimpering against her mother’s chest. Rio turned to Kylee.
Her eyes were glassy with shock. She looked down at her daughters, then back at him.Rio pulled her into his arms without a word, holding her as she finally let go shaking, sobbing into his chest while the world crumbled around them. The house had gone still again.
Kylee sat on the edge of the bed, arms wrapped tightly around Macy, who clung to her like a lifeline, her tiny face buried in her mother’s chest. Kayla had finally stopped crying and was nestled against Rio’s chest, his hand cradling her gently, rocking her with surprising instinct.
Kylee glanced up at him, her eyes glassy and swollen from tears. “You’ve got this magic touch or something,” she whispered, trying to smile, brushing Macy’s hair behind her ear.