“Calm down before you have some kind of relapse.” The thought that she could make herself ill again worried him. He leaned forward in his chair. “He’s fine, Tonya. He’s with family. I couldn’t very well keep him here at the hospital.”
“I will not calm down! Carlton, surely we can work something out. I’m all he knows. He must be so scared. Can’t we come to some sort of deal?” She started coughing and Carlton jumped out of his chair.
“Latonya, listen to me. You aren’t going to be any good to Terrence if you don’t get better. Please calm down so that you can fully recover.” He let his hand rest on her forehead and she eyed him wearily.
The apprehensive expression filled with her lack of trust for him sent a sharp pain through his heart. “Just get some rest. Get better and I will take you to him, okay?”
She took several shaky breaths and soon it became clear to Carlton that her lack of energy had won out. She closed her eyes and he let out a sigh of relief. He hoped that by the time his wife woke up again, he could figure out a way to at least get her to trust him enough to come home with him.
When Latonya opened her eyes in the hospital room again, she found her face wet with tears. Her memories had made her cry in her sleep. She noticed that Carlton hadn’t moved from the chair beside her bed.
What is he still doing here? What does he want? Does he want to rub it in that he managed to snatch another child from my arms?
She tried to think of what to do next. Both of her babies were in another country, and the man who put them there sat in the room with her. She’d made a difficult choice when she disappeared and didn’t stay to fight for her first son. At the time, she did it because she couldn’t risk her unborn child’s life. Now it seemed like she would lose them both, after all. However, none of that would stop her from making her way to the Bahamas to fight for them. Far from the pregnant and scared twenty-four-year-old she was when she lived there before, she was certain that the Bahamas had never seen a wrath like the one she intended to bring in order to get both her children back.
Stirring, Carlton opened his eyes. His face was full of stubble. His eyes were bloodshot. He ran his hand across his face and yawned.
“Why are you still here, Carlton? Isn’t it enough that you and your grandfather have taken my child out of the country?” Her lips managed to curl into a snarl even as her mouth shook furiously. “I want you to know that I intend to fight you for custody of both my sons. And I’d like you to leave, Carlton.”
Carlton seemed to be studying her in deep contemplation. She didn’t know what he was trying to figure out. And she didn’t care. She wanted her children.
He took a deep breath and sighed before speaking. “No, Latonya. I’m not going anywhere. I came here to find you for a reason and I’m not leaving until I have what I came for.”
The thought that something might be wrong with her child ran through her mind. A chill went through her.
Struggling, she sat up in the bed and found that her entire body still ached. “Is there something wrong with my son? Is that why you came looking for me?”
“I came looking for you because our son told me that he didn’t want anything for his birthday this year but his mommy. He said that he waited for you to come back to us on your own, but you must be lost or hurt. He wants his mother.” Carlton rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn.
Even though she knew he must have spent the night sleeping in that chair, given the fact that he was there every time she woke up, his yawn irritated her. Her heart ached for her son. Of course little Carl wanted his mother! She wanted him also. Every day she spent away from her child had been filled with want.
Latonya narrowed her eyes. “If you hadn’t thrown me out of our home I would be with my son right now! I didn’t want to leave my child. You wouldn’t let me take him with me. You made me leave him!”
Carlton visibly flinched. For a moment she thought that she glimpsed regret on his face. That would be the day! she thought angrily.
He stood and walked over to her bed. “I’m here to take you home, Latonya. Our son needs his mother. I need…I need to try to make things right for my sons’ future. Both of our sons need both of their parents in their lives.” He hesitated a moment and took a deep breath. “I know it’s a lot for me to ask of you and I know that you don’t have any reason in the world to trust what I’m saying. But I want to try to put our family back together.”
Blinking, Latonya let out a hiss of air. He actually thinks he can just waltz in talking about his wants like I’m supposed to jump!
She let her options roll over in her head. With the kids in the Bahamas, they were limited. If she could get them back in the States, then she would be in better shape. “Bring them back to Miami and I’ll go with you to Coconut Grove. If I move in, it won’t be to live as man and wife. I won’t share anything with you but the children.”
He stared at her for a moment and then he smiled. A series of emotions crossed his face. Latonya recognized at least two of them, relief and joy. Both puzzled her.
He caressed her cheek with his hand before moving away from the bed. “Get some rest. Your doctor is discharging you tomorrow and we will fly to Miami as soon as you’re released. I’ll have Grandfather bring the kids so that they can meet us there. Carl has waited quite some time to see you again, and Terrence has been worried about you since you collapsed. He asks about you every day. They both want to see their mother. They need you.”
Swallowing, she willed her heart to stop its rapid palpitations. As long as the boys were in the country, she had a chance of eventually gaining custody. She would fight this time. She just had to make sure they came back to the States. She would tell Carlton anything he wanted to hear, if it meant that he’d bring her children back to the United States.
He walked toward the door. “I’m going to leave for a little while so you can get some rest.”
Following him with her eyes, she wondered if she could really live with him again. Could she stay in his home long enough to gain custody? Could her heart take prolonged exposure to the one great love of her life? The man who broke her heart worse than the day her father left? Feeling the hardened shell that covered her heart, she knew that she could. That shell gave her the immunity she needed.
She’d spent a lot of time healing herself after Carlton threw her away like trash. The only thing that had kept her from falling apart was the fact that she had to take care of the child growing inside of her. Thinking about Terrence and Carl with their similar little faces made her smile despite her sadness. She loved her sons with everything inside of her. Thinking of them made her know what she had to do. She couldn’t deny her sons any more than their father could. Eventually, she’d find a way to free herself and them.
Chapter 17
Studying Latonya carefully as she sat across from him in the private jet, Carlton noted the way she nervously crossed and uncrossed her legs. In the three years since he’d seen her last, she had changed so much—especially in appearance—so she couldn’t be found.
The private detective had had trouble identifying her because she’d taken to wearing green contact lenses, cut her long, wavy auburn hair into one of those pixie cuts that lay flat on her scalp, and dyed it jet-black. Though she was as beautiful as before, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
When the detective found her and his son, Carlton knew he had to get to her and bring them both home. Beyond that, he hadn’t figured out much more. He felt incredibly lucky that he’d convinced her to come home with him. However, Calrton wasn’t delusional. He knew her coming back had more to do with the kids than him.
Talking Grandfather into bringing the boys to Miami had been harder than he’d imagined. He almost had to threaten his grandfather with never seeing the children again. He had promised Latonya that the kids would meet them in Miami and he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stop him from keeping that promise. Not even his grandfather.
He wanted his wife back. He had no idea how he was going to get her to give them another chance after the way he ruined things between them. He only knew that he had to try.
Latonya shifted again and sighed. He felt the need to console her, to tell her that everything would be fine. Truthfully, he had no idea how things would be. He only knew that a few months ago when his son told him that he wanted his mother, he felt like he finally had a reason to do something he wanted to do from the moment he’d kicked his wife out.
Finding her after three years had been more difficult than he anticipated. He wondered how she managed to remain so well hidden. He noticed that her wedding rings and diamond earrings were gone. While that would have given her a significant amount of money, it wouldn’t have given her enough to disappear so thoroughly. Even the Range Rover she’d been driving, which they never found, couldn’t have helped her that much financially if she’d sold it. Not for three years. Certainly not with doctors’ bills and the like.
Eyeing her suspiciously, he asked, “Who helped you to disappear?”
She jumped in her seat and opened her eyes. The sound of his voice broke up the hours of silence that they’d nurtured since leaving the hospital and getting on the private jet. When she turned and faced him, her eyes widened in shock for a matter of seconds before she masked it with her cool and icy demeanor.
Arching her eyebrow, she sneered before letting out a hiss of air between her teeth. Her eyes flashed and a flood of emotions passed through them. He registered disgust and anger.
“Why are you so concerned? It didn’t bother you when you kicked me out. You didn’t care what kind of help I had then. Why the hell are you so concerned now?”
“I was concerned. That’s why I never closed any of your accounts. I assumed that you would go to your family and…well…none of that matters now. The fact is you had money and credit at your disposal and you didn’t use it. Yet you were able to disappear, take a new name, Dana Dash, and keep my child away from me. Who helped you to do that?”
