Sins of a Bad Boy (The Original Bad Boys Book 1) (39 page)

CHAPTER 51

William

William awoke instantly when he heard his daughter fretting, lying next to him on his king-sized bed. There was a mahogany crib next to the bed, but William had slept with his baby on the mattress every night so that he could watch over her. He’d placed large pillows on her other side so that she wouldn’t roll too far away from him and off the bed.

Her cute sounds were like music to his ears.

His daughter.

Even after a week, he still couldn’t believe that the sweetest baby in the world was his girl.

Rolling to his side, a wide smile was directed at William when she saw him.

“Morning, Eva.” He spoke quietly and rubbed his hand over her round belly. She loved it when he did that.

Eva made soft noises while kicking her legs.

Every morning, he played with her before the day began. She wrapped her palm around his pinky, not even able to close her tiny hand.

Looking at Eva’s reddish-brown hair and watching her innocent gaze upon him reminded William of Ivy and made him long for her. And although time had flown by since he’d brought his baby girl home, he’d never once forgotten about her mother.

Her mother that hadn’t contacted him. William, who almost caved on a daily basis, wanted to reach out to Ivy, but his resentment had been too strong the first week.

Nonetheless, William did get updates on Ivy often. Silk had been in contact with Sean to ensure that Ivy had moved from her old apartment. Sean had arranged for him and Ivy to live in the better area of the Loop, not even fifteen minutes away from William’s high-rise.

William shook his head, attempting to shake Ivy from his mind. Fortunately, his apartment had been busy lately. On the day he discovered Eva’s existence, he and Silk had driven to an agency to demand a trustworthy nanny immediately. When you throw money around, things can get done very quickly. And the agency had given William their best nanny – Julia – who was a middle-aged woman that William had instructed to live with him in the spare room and who had arranged everything rapidly.

A wet-nurse was acquired so that Eva could drink healthy mother’s milk, William’s apartment had been stacked with baby toys, a stroller, and a crib, and William had ordered Julia to buy anything she believed Eva might need. His décor had changed from masculine to feminine in twenty-four hours. Pink blankets, bibs, and toys were scattered around his household; there was something pink everywhere.

While William had been scared to first find out he had a baby, he’d adjusted without any trouble. It also helped that William wasn’t alone in the least. Silk, Julia, and all the female employees of the gambling club fawned over little Eva. Silk’s reaction to Eva had especially stunned William; Eva had wrapped Silk around her finger.

“William? Eva? Are you up?” Silk stopped by William’s every morning to see Eva before he went to work downstairs.

“Yes,” William said.

Silk swept inside the bedroom. The mattress dipped as he sat on the edge and bent down to place a kiss on Eva’s forehead. “Hi, baby.”

“That baby voice of yours is comical and a bit creepy,” William teased.

“Fuck you,” Silk retorted. “You just hate it that she smiles more at me than you.”

“You wish. She’s my baby girl, not yours.”

“She’s mine as well,” Silk stated, slamming his fist against his heart as if William had wounded him.

William chuckled as Julia entered in her robe with a bottle of milk in hand. “I think it’s time for breakfast for our little miss.”

William kept rubbing her belly. “She hasn’t cried yet.”

Julia came closer to check on Eva. “That’s because you two spoil her rotten.” Then she addressed Eva in a high-pitched tone, “You love it when daddy rubs your tummy, don’t you?”

Eva reveled in all the attention, beaming and wriggling her tiny body.

William held out his hand to Julia. “I’ll feed her.”

Julia gave him the glass baby bottle, and Eva drank hungrily from it.

Nowadays, William’s apartment was constantly swamped with people, and he didn’t mind it one bit. Julia and Silk each had a key, and some employees of the club often came up to visit Eva before their shift started.

Secretly, William preferred the bustle of people over the loneliness. When he was alone, he yearned for Ivy, and he wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive her for selling their child. But this new family of his never felt complete. A true mother was still missing.

“Julia, can you bathe her while I get dressed? I’m taking her with me today,” William instructed and lifted Eva from the bed to hand her to Julia.

William didn’t want to be far away from Eva on most days, so he decided to keep her close to him whenever he could.

***

William arrived downstairs with Eva in one arm. She weighed nothing and was the size of his forearm, so he enjoyed holding her this way.

Of course, Julia had dressed Eva in a pink dress, and William made a mental note to buy dresses in other colors as well. There was currently just a little too much pink around him.

It was still early morning, and the employees were cleaning the gaming hall. William crossed the Oriental carpet to the bar on his right where Silk was talking to their new manager.

“How did it go last night?” William asked.

“Better than expected. We were swamped,” Silk replied.

And the manager behind the bar added, “Word has spread that we serve alcohol, so every gambler in town wants to visit here. I closed the front entrance at midnight because we were full.”

“That’s good news.”

Silk started to play with Eva’s feet, and then he swooped her from William’s arm.

“Mr. Kade,” an employee called from the doorway, and William spun around.

“Miss Hunter is here to see you.”

Two emotions rose: hope and rage. The anger hadn’t subsided, but his love for her hadn’t either. And William wanted to see her too. “Send her in.”

Ivy darkened the doorway in a white cotton dress that came to her knees. Her hair was loose, curls combed over one shoulder. She was a burst of simplistic beauty that made his cock twitch.

Then, she looked at William. No, straight through him, her eyes passing as if she couldn’t pinpoint his exact location. And he knew why; she had gone entirely blind.

CHAPTER 52

Ivy

Several days ago, Ivy’s vision had left her completely. She felt cursed in the timing of all the negativity in her life. She lost William, her sight, and her chance to ever see her child, all in the span of a week.

Ivy had been lying in bed for days when Sean finally told her to get up and do something other than cry. And since crying didn’t make her feel better, she’d forced herself to get out of the apartment with Sean and seek help.

Ivy realized that William must’ve given Sean money for them to move and live without having to steal or con because Sean had also enrolled Ivy in a class for the blind. It would teach her to adjust to her new state, and they trained young people to rely more on their other senses. There was only one institution that offered the class, so it must’ve been expensive, yet Sean had told her not to worry about money.

It had proven problematic to live as a blind woman. The first few days, Ivy kept on bumping into everything, so she started to count steps to find her way around the apartment.

Ivy did note that her hearing was much sharper, and she could sense when Sean was near her. And since her sense of smell was much more sensitive too, she realized that she needed to learn how to recognize people by their cologne. Slowly, she attuned to her altered life.

But living in darkness makes one isolated, and Ivy felt solitude deep in her bones. Sometimes she was stuck in her own head, and because of her blindness, she couldn’t find the path to escape. She couldn’t venture outside alone yet, although she did get a cane from the teacher, but Ivy found it scary to be out and about with so many noises while she could only see blackness. However, what Ivy detested most was that she couldn’t spy on William; therefore, she had no idea what he’d been doing.

But that all changed the day she heard from Sean that William had taken back their child from the Taylors. Apparently, they’d informed their friends that there had been an accident and their baby had died. Sean had gone to Silk and asked him what William had done. Silk told Sean that William took the baby and was taking care of her. Within seconds of hearing that, Ivy had grabbed her wooden cane and left the apartment that was, thankfully, on the first floor.

The spring breeze caressed her cheeks while she firmly held the cane in her right hand and pursued her path to the street.

“Excuse me. Excuse me,” she said while she stood on the pavement, not knowing exactly where the street began.

“Can I help you?” a gentleman to her left asked.

“Yes, can you hold a carriage for me?”

“Of course, ma’am. There’s one coming right now. Shall I help you in?”

It pleased Ivy how helpful people were on this side of town. She wasn’t used to it. “Yes, please.”

“I’ll help her,” she heard Sean, who had obviously followed her out, say and he took her hand. “I guess we’re going to William.”

***

Before Ivy reached the doorway of William’s gaming hall, she gave her cane to Sean. “Wait here while I talk to him.”

With her hand on the doorpost, she sensed William’s gaze on her.

Would he send her away?

Or would he come to her?

She waited without breathing.

Eventually, someone neared her. And she recognized his smell. “William.”

“Ivy.” His voice sounded different, deeper somehow. He stopped close in front of her.

“I need to talk to you. Sean told me that you have the baby?”

It seemed to take an eternity for him to answer while she heard other people bustling around.

“I do. I’m taking care of our daughter.”

She noticed that he didn’t say ‘my daughter’ but ‘our’.

Did she have to tell him that she was blind? But just then, William took her hand in his.

“Come in, Ivy.” And he guided her around the hall while instructing others to leave the club.

William sat her down on a padded couch. “We’re alone now.”

She reached for him but hit his chest. William took her hand in his and rested it on his lap as he sat right beside her.

“How long have you been blind?” he asked directly.

“A few days. But I didn’t come about that. William, I-I…” Ivy scratched her brow in discomfort. “I don’t like the way I never got the chance to explain my actions properly. I’m not here to defend myself, but if you could just listen to me.”

Silence. But the hairs at her nape pricked, and the tension was excruciatingly tangible.

“Fine,” William said eventually.

Ivy inhaled an encouraging breath and spewed everything she’d wanted to say to him, “I know you didn’t have a good childhood. I’ve seen your scars, and I always respected you by not asking about them. That was our problem; we never talked about ourselves or us, William. We were so close yet so far apart from each other in the months that I was in your apartment. Our relationship was tainted with lies from both of us. And you have to understand my reasoning when I escaped. I ran thinking that you would kill me. A mind can make desperately rash decisions when backed into a corner. How was I to ever know that you’d step up and take care of her? As far as I knew, you were some playboy who never wanted to settle down and wanted to end me.” She expelled a loud sigh. “When you found me again, you had moved on. You’d changed. But I’d been in the same scary place for six months, William. I was a wreck after I had to give her up. And I finally came to terms with the fact that I had to forget about you and the entirety of last year. But then you came back, and hearing you say the words that I’d been longing to hear forever stopped me from spilling the truth. It was wrong, and I’m so sorry.” Ivy felt the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Ivy, you’re an orphan yourself. Don’t you always think about your roots? How nice it would’ve been to grow up in a normal household with parents?”

Ivy nodded slowly.

“This is why I can’t understand why you chose to give her away? You knew damn well, deep inside, that I would want her. She’s my blood, and I will always take care of my child. Furthermore, I can’t trust you. You lie too much about important matters, Ivy.”

Ivy didn’t have a retort and wanted to inquire about the baby before he threw her out. “I’m being punished enough by not being able to see my own child, ever. I only saw a glimpse of her when she was born. Can I please hold her, William? Is she okay? Is she healthy? Please tell me…”

Suddenly, Ivy felt a palm on one cheek and a thumb on the other that followed the path of her tear, wiping the wetness away. There was a tremble in his tone when he spoke. “Even though I’m so fucking mad at you for giving her away, I still can’t stand to see you cry… She’s healthy and she’s fine.” His palm left her cheek, and she felt him get up from the couch.

“I’ll be right back,” William said. “Stay here.”

So she sat there and waited until she heard footsteps inching closer again. “Ivy, sit back.”

She scooted back.

To her left, the couch dipped a bit.

“I’ve laid Eva, our daughter, on the sofa next to you.”

Ivy angled her body to the left as William took her hand in his, and her skin tingled from their palms touching.

“Eva? That’s a lovely name,” Ivy whispered.

“It reminded me of Ivy,” William replied. He must’ve been kneeling down next to the couch because his voice drifted up to her. “I’m going to show you your baby.”

William placed his palm over her hand and his fingers between hers, guiding her fingertips over soft strands, rounding an even softer cheek.

Ivy heard the baby splutter and make noises. And she felt a tiny kick to her thigh.

“Tell me what she looks like, William.” He kept guiding her fingertips over the baby. Ivy thought she felt her little hands and down her chubby legs.

“She’s beautiful, Ivy. Her hair is the same as yours. And she has the cutest nose. Here”—he let her feel a tiny, soft round nose—“feel how cute. And she has my eyes. Do you know my eye color?”

“Silver-grey,” she said instantly, and the movement stopped.

After a moment, William continued. “She’s laughing at you now, Ivy.”

“Oh, she’s so soft.” Ivy smiled, drawing her baby in her mind.

“She is soft. Her skin always feels this velvety. My god, Ivy, she’s adorable. I have so much love for this tiny person that I can’t stand to be apart from her. I just want to hold her in my arms forever and take her with me everywhere.”

Ivy’s heart filled with joy as he said such caring words.

“Lean forward so I can brace your arm on the sofa cushion. Then you can keep her caged on the sofa so she won’t roll off, and you can have a moment alone with her.”

“Thank you, William,” Ivy said as she bent forward, smelling the soapy scent of her baby.

William did step away but not far.

Smelling and hearing and feeling her Eva made Ivy an emotional mess. Guilt consumed every cell in her body nowadays, but she found a little comfort in knowing that her baby was with her father, even if she didn’t know what kind of role she might possibly have in Eva’s life.

Ivy lowered her mouth and found the top of Eva’s head to place a kiss on her. “I’m so sorry for giving you away. I-I…Just know that I am sorry.” Then Ivy wept and wept, the pain of not being able to see Eva crippling her.

Ivy felt someone taking the baby, and she was pulled against a familiar chest. William held her to him while she cried. “I’m sorry, William.”

William didn’t acknowledge her words, but he did stroke his fingers soothingly through her curls, like old times. And the way he comforted her now, while she could feel his anger still dominating, she felt a twinge of hope burst free.

She whispered, “I miss you so much. The heart knows what it needs. And my heart needs you. Tell me you still feel the same way.”

Ivy felt his lips pressing on top of her head. “Ivy, my heart chose you a long time ago. But my mind can’t forgive you for keeping my child from me.” And he pried her from him, standing up.

She reached for him but couldn’t feel anything in front of her.

“Can I visit her, William?” Ivy asked loudly, not knowing if he was already walking away.

“I’ll think about it.”