This is so fucked up.
Lori nods. “That’s exactly what Reeve said when I asked him why he was doing this. I knew he had the means to take care of his child, so I didn’t understand it, at first.”
“I still can’t believe he’d give up his child.” I bury my head in my hands. “How could he do that?”
“It wasn’t easy on him, but he told me there was no choice. He said it was you or Bodhi. He was working to win you back at the time. He told me how lost he was without you, and he said his life was not worth living if you weren’t by his side.”
“What a fucking crock of shit!” Dillon hisses, losing the tenuous hold on his control.
Tears stream down my face, and stabbing pain settles on my chest. “This is so wrong!” I cry out. “How could both his parents abandon him?” I hate Saffron even more now, but I have no clue how I feel about Reeve. I’m shell-shocked and my head is a mess.
“Would you have left him if he’d told you?” she asks, removing a tissue from her pocket and wiping her brow.
I rub at my tears, leaning into Dillon for support. I don’t need to think about it for long. “Yes. Your sister was a very sore subject for me. I was only twenty, and as much as I loved Reeve, I would never have forgiven him for getting my archenemy pregnant, no matter the circumstances. I know I would have walked away.”
“If he hadn’t been so fucking possessive with you, everything could’ve been different,” Dillon says, standing and pacing the room.
“It wasn’t a good situation, and I don’t know how Reeve could make that decision because he seemed like a good man. I know he was a good man,” she adds. “He wasn’t like my sister. My sister would never have considered her baby for a single second, except as a means of extorting money or marriage from Reeve. She was absolutely furious when he went back to you and apoplectic when she discovered he’d married you and you had a child.”
“Did Reeve visit Bodhi?” I ask, needing to know how deep the betrayal extends.
She shakes her head. “He held him as a baby when the adoption paperwork went through, but he didn’t visit again. At his request, I sent him a letter every year updating him, and he always sent gifts for him in December. One for his birthday, and one for Christmas.”
“Does Bodhi know he’s adopted?” Dillon asks. “Does he know who his bio parents are?”
“He knows he’s adopted, and he knows the gifts he receives are from his bio dad, but he doesn’t know their names.”
“Has Saffron ever visited him?” I ask.
She shakes her head again, and it’s becoming a familiar pattern.
“Never?” I wonder if she even looked at him or held him after she’d given birth. I fucking hate that bitch with every fiber of my being. I hate she gave Reeve a child when I didn’t. I dig my nails into my thighs, feeling sympathy for Bodhi. He’s an innocent child caught up in this mess.
“She has no interest in him, and he’s the most adorable little boy. He has brought immense joy into my life, and I don’t see how anyone could fail to love him.”
“Does he have any health issues or problems because of the drugs she took during pregnancy?” I ask.
“He was underweight when he was born, and he didn’t speak until he was three, and then he had a slight speech impediment. He attended speech therapy for a year, and his speech is fine now. Although, he’s a quiet boy who doesn’t talk a lot. He’s been evaluated by child psychologists and mental health professionals, and there was no long-lasting damage, thank God.” Tears well in her eyes. “He doesn’t deserve any of this, and I’m so worried what it will do to him if this comes out.”
“It seems Reeve and Saffron were well suited after all,” Dillon growls, crossing his hands at the back of his head. “Both of them were selfish cunts.”
His reaction is perfectly understandable to me, but I can’t work out how I feel. “I don’t know what to feel. What to think,” I admit. “I had no idea Reeve did this or that he was carrying this secret all the years of our marriage.” I wonder did I ever truly know him at all, because the man I loved would never give up his own flesh and blood. I feel sick thinking he did that for me.
“Why didn’t Saffron say anything after Reeve died? She had a perfect opportunity to sell her story then, and it would have hurt Vivien the most.” Dillon flops down on the couch beside me. “What don’t we know?”
“Reeve’s attorney sent her a reminder of the NDA, which is intact until she dies. Reeve left clear instructions that if she breached the terms his estate would sue her for the full financial penalty. He suspected she would do this, and he planned for every eventuality.” She drinks the last of her water. “Her name isn’t on Bodhi’s birth certificate. Travis and I are listed as the bio parents. I’m not sure how Reeve made that happen, but I know he was worried about someone finding it at a future point and outing the truth.”
“Wow. He really thought of fucking everything, didn’t he?” Dillon fumes. “I wonder what else he was hiding, seeing as he was such a master at covering his tracks.”
Acid crawls up my throat, and I wrap my arms around myself.
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” she says.
“Are you sure?” Dillon eyes her warily. “He seems to have confided a lot in you.”
“That was about Bodhi because we both had a vested interest.”
“Saffron is going to be a problem,” I say, knowing her silence will not last long, NDA or not. I might not know how I feel, but I know I don’t want this coming out in the media. It will drag everything to the surface again, and I need to protect Easton.
Bodhi needs protection too.
“Saffron is an addict. All she cares about is her next fix. She showed up at my house a few months ago, saying she was going to sell her story because she needed the money. I panicked because I didn’t want this coming out now.” She hangs her head, exhaling heavily.
“How much did you give the junkie whore?” Dillon asks.
Shame is etched upon her face when she lifts her head. “Ten thousand, but I know she’ll be back for more.”
“Why didn’t you go to Carson Park?” I ask.
“I did afterward when I calmed down. He told me if she comes back looking for more to call him and he’ll deal with her.”
I thought I had left Saffron Roberts in the past, but it seems she refuses to play dead. I still don’t know why Lori is here, and I need to find out ASAP because I would like her to go so I can talk to Dillon about this. I need to talk to Alex too. If he knew about this and said nothing, there will be hell to pay. That will be the end of our friendship, awkward and all as it would be.
“Do you need money?” I ask. “Is that why you’re here?”
She balks, and I think I’ve offended her.
“I continue to receive the generous monthly child allowance from Reeve’s estate, and my ex is still paying alimony under the terms of our divorce. This isn’t about money.”
I make a mental note to rip Carson Park’s head off his shoulders for hiding this from me. I’m sure he’ll pull the “client-attorney confidentiality” line, but how the fuck could he have kept quiet about this?