NOVGO.NET Chapter 66: BECAUSE OF HIM
Chapter 66: BECAUSE OF HIM
LAURA
Control slipped from my fingers and I kept trading words with my mother, lost in the throes of betrayal and the broken relationship I shared with my family.
I wasn’t sure how long it was, until Mara burst into the room and a look of shock crossed her face upon seeing my mother.
"Mrs. Hayes...I didn’t think you were—"
"Shut up, Mara." My mother scoffed as she ran a haughty gaze down my shocked best friend’s face and body. "No one asked you to speak."
She never approved of Mara, and it was because of how much my sweet best friend fought to protect my interests.
I turned to Mara with a tight, pacifying smile. "Who let her into my company?"
"I can take you to them," my mother snapped from behind me, "and you can punish them later, for all I care. But you would have to give me the money I’m here for before anything else."
I’d just opened my mouth to retort when a sharp ringtone cut across the room. I recognized it as mine and quickly dipped my hand into the jacket pocket, pulling out my phone. It was Eli’s homeroom teacher calling.
It was odd to get a call from her by this time of the day, just nothing short of a few hours after dropping off my son at school.
I would have ignored it, but a gut feeling told me it was important. So I walked briskly away from my mother and Mara, and took the call.
"Ma’am, please this is—"
"Ms. Hayes, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to come to the school right away."
"What? Why?" I glanced at my wristwatch and back at the duo in the room. Then I whispered. "Everything okay?"
"Your son has just suffered an allergic reaction."
My blood ran cold and my vision blurred.
°°°
Fifteen minutes later, I was caught in traffic and absolutely losing my shit. My hands were clammy and slippery around the wheel, and the cars ahead of mine were crawling at this point.
I wasn’t sure how I was still able to sit here without bashing my head through the glass in agitation. It coursed through me in reckless waves, leaving me a pathetic mess.
It was what love did to me.
Both father and son had what it took to keep me in the chokehold.
Apparently, Eli had eaten nuts from his friend’s snack at lunch break, and he’s been catapulted into a violent reaction. He was currently at the school’s clinic, unstable, wild and refusing treatment.
They needed me there.
Most importantly, my son needed his mother.
Whose fault was it that he ate the nuts in the first place? Not mine, because I told his teacher about his allergy.
I wasn’t blaming his teacher either, but I needed to vent. I needed someone to blame.
Maybe I should blame my mother.
The cars in front of me had not moved for the last ten minutes, and I was forced to slam my hands down on the horn in frustration, repeatedly. "Get the fuck out of my way, assholes!"
Thankfully, my window was rolled up and shut, and no one could hear me curse at them.
But right in the next instant, a loud engine roared from behind, closing in on my left. I looked in the direction just in time to see a black powerbike pull up next to my Escalade.
I blinked, mouth watering at the sight of the sleek body striding the powerful automobile in a leather jacket and pants.
That body was too familiar to not recognize it, but even as the helmet came off and dark hair was swept around in loose curls, my breath disappeared down my throat.
This man...Tristan Pierce...was whoever the fuck he thought he was.
It was what I realized as I sat there, staring at him, jaw wide, my son forgotten for the briefest moment.
Until I also realized that he’d just showed up out of nowhere. On a motorbike.
At the same moment of that realization, he turned and stared directly at my tinted window. Even though he could not see me exactly, I could feel the heat of his gaze all the way through it.
God. How did he manage to look so hot on a motorbike, even hotter than he did on his feet and sitting in the driver’s seat?
Most importantly...what did he want? Why was he staring so intensely at my vehicle?
Before I could process the answers to my questions, he leaned forward and rapped gently on my window. It was easy to do because we were stuck in traffic.
Curiosity got the better of me and I rolled the window down.
He instantly hit me with that charming grin. "Fancy seeing you here, partner." Like it was a normal thing to run into your partner in traffic...
How did he know it was my car? I mean...he would not go around knocking on random windows, right? He was not that obsessed with me. Or was he?
I shook the thoughts off and heaved a sigh. I had to think of my son.
"Everything okay?" he called to me, his brows pinched. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."
I rolled my eyes and gripped the wheel tighter. "I need to get to my son, but the traffic..."
The honking in the background did not let him hear me, and he had to yell. "What?!"
"I have to get to my son!"
He raised a brow as he studied me, and I wondered how he could do that so easily. "I assume it’s something urgent?"
I nod weakly, my chest constricting. The longer I sat here without seeing my son, holding him in my arm...the higher the dread climbed inside me.
"I can give you a ride."
Tristan’s offer shattered a fraction of the dread and pulled my head to his face. "B-but how? We’re stuck in traffic."
He shrugged. "You might want to hop on and see how. There’s no time."
He spoke like he knew the urgency of the situation...like he understood it so much to care.
I did not stop to think for a moment that I wouldn’t want him meeting my son. This was a different circumstance, after all.
I didn’t stop to think about how my vehicle would be lost alone in the middle of traffic...if I went with him.
I didn’t stop to think about how much of a bad idea it was, hopping on Tristan’s bike and pressing my chest to his back.
I just did it anyway.
Because nothing mattered more to me right now than getting to my son. And if Tristan was the one to get me to my son, so be it.
After all, it was because of Tristan I had Eli.