“We’ll get the bastard,” he told her, his voice low and firm. “We’ll take him down.”

“Can we?” she asked, barely able to speak. “I don’t know what to think, what to feel. This isn’t the Matt I know. He could never do that. Never hurt me and Gabe that way. Oh, God, Gabe.”

She fought tears even as her eyes began to burn. “He loves his dad. He can’t get caught between us and I won’t give him up.” She couldn’t imagine life without her son. “I don’t understand. How could Matt do this? I’d always thought we’d come to some agreement. That we’d talk and figure things out together. I thought he wanted that, too.” She’d been wrong.

She knew he was angry, that he blamed her for keeping Gabe from him and…

Her brain slowly cleared. “He’s doing this to punish me,” she whispered. “He wants me to miss out the way he did. He wants me to suffer.”

“No,” Paula said, from Jesse’s other side. “He wouldn’t.” But she didn’t sound convinced.

Jesse covered her face with her hands. Of course, she thought. Everything made sense now. He’d been playing her from the beginning. All of it was a lie. Every second of their time together had been part of his plan. He’d done a hell of a job, she thought grimly.

“I trusted him. I encouraged him to get to know Gabe. I helped him and all the time he’s been setting this up. He put me through all that crap about how I’d taken his son away from him. He made me feel horrible. He made me crawl, all while he knew he was going to try to take Gabe from me.”

There was only silence around her. It was enough to let her know that Bill and Paula feared she was right.

The sense of betrayal was nearly as great as her fear of losing her son. She’d gone to Matt with the incredibly stupid thought that he deserved to get to know his child. She’d been open and giving and honest. She’d exposed her soul to him. She’d confessed her deepest secrets, shown the worst side of herself and, for the second time, he’d turned on her.

“It was just a game,” she murmured. “A game of revenge. He made me believe in him, then he ripped out my heart.”

They’d made love, she thought, humiliated beyond words. She remembered the last time they’d been together. How perfect it had been, how connected she’d felt. Then she remembered how he’d had a condom in his pocket. An amazing coincidence she hadn’t noticed before. He’d planned everything, down to the last detail. From pretending to be her friend to seducing her until she trusted him.

She stood up and brushed the tears from her cheeks. “No! He’s not going to win. I didn’t deliberately do anything wrong and he’s doing this on purpose. He’s not going to get Gabe. I can’t let him.”

“No, you can’t,” Paula said sadly. “I don’t know what to say. This isn’t my son. Matt isn’t like this.” Only she didn’t sound sure.

Jesse didn’t bother pointing out that Matt had obviously changed a lot in the past five years.

“You have us,” Bill told her. “We’ll fight this. He won’t win.”

She appreciated the support and knew she was going to need it. Matt would be a formidable opponent. But what neither of them understood was that he’d already claimed a good part of his victory. He’d stolen her heart for a second time, then returned it broken and bleeding.

He might have done his best to destroy her emotionally, but he wasn’t the only one who had changed. She was stronger than he could imagine. He could do what he wanted to her but Matt was never, ever taking Gabe from her. She would fight him to the death if she had to.

The difference between them was that while he would revel in his thoughts of triumph, hers only made her sad. Defeating her son’s father wasn’t going to be a victory for anyone, especially not Gabe.

MATT ARRIVED AT HIS mother’s house, only to find no one home. He went by the bakery, but Nicole hadn’t seen her sister since lunch. He returned to his office with a vague feeling of unease. Jesse wasn’t answering her cell phone.

He told himself that he would catch up with her later, only he had a gnawing sense he had to talk to her now.

It was nearly two when the door to his office burst open and Bill walked in.

Matt saw past him to Diane’s empty desk. Had the old guy timed his visit when his assistant was out of the way or had he just gotten lucky? Did it matter? One look at Bill’s face told him there was a big problem and Matt could easily guess what it was.

He stood to face the other man, cursing the disaster that couldn’t be undone. Jesse had been served. She’d read the papers, she knew what he’d had planned. She was hurt, confused and probably terrified.

“Let me be clear,” Bill said. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to take you down. When I’m done with you, just lying in the gutter will seem like a step up.”

Matt had to respect the other man’s balls, even as he knew it was all just talk. There was nothing Bill could do to hurt him.

“She got the papers,” he said, ignoring the threat. “She wasn’t supposed to.”

“So it’s a clerical error,” Bill said sarcastically. “Great. I’ll tell her that, because that will make everything just fine. She can sure ignore the fact that you planned all this, that you set her up. What the hell were you thinking, boy? Trying to take away Gabe? Why not just take a lung or a kidney? You’ve seen them together. You’ve seen how much they love each other. They’re a family. You don’t mess with that. Who the hell are you to hurt Jesse this way?”

Matt felt every one of those words as if they were individual punches. They hit him hard in the gut and the chest and the heart.

“I can explain,” he started, knowing it was a feeble attempt at best.

“Explain what? That you didn’t lie? To Jesse? To all of us? It’s too late for that. Whatever it takes, Jesse will win. Your mom and I will make sure that happens.”

Because they were on Jesse’s side. He was oddly comforted to know that she wasn’t in this alone.

“You’re right. I lied to her. I was angry when she first came to see me. No, more than angry. She’d kept my son from me for four years, then she showed up with no warning. She didn’t even seem to understand what she’d done. Telling me she was pregnant, then taking off, wasn’t enough.”

“You think anyone cares about that argument? You think that comes close to being enough?”

“No,” Matt said quietly. “It’s not anything. It’s why I did it. I wanted her punished. I wanted her to feel what I felt. I wanted her to suffer and I was wrong.”

Bill’s gaze never wavered. “I hope you’re not expecting points for that.”

“I don’t. I’m telling you what I was thinking. As I got to know Gabe, as he became more real to me, I was even more angry at what I’d missed. All that time, all those firsts I didn’t get to see. They can never be recovered. They’re lost forever.”

“Jesse should have tried harder to tell you about him,” Bill told him. “She’s admitted that. She made an honest mistake, but that doesn’t justify you sneaking around, pretending to be one thing while waiting to destroy her.”

“I know. I need to talk to Jesse. I need to tell her she doesn’t have to worry. I can fix this.”

“Now that’s the first thing you’ve said that makes me feel sorry for you,” Bill told him. “There’s no fixing this.”

Matt hadn’t actually been worried until that minute. He knew he’d hurt Jesse, that she would be scared and angry and upset, but he believed he could make it right. That he could explain in a way she would understand.

What if he was wrong?

He pushed away the thought. He could get through to her. He’d always had the ability, because he knew her.

“She loves me,” Matt said, more to himself than Bill. “She’s loved me all this time.”

“That makes the situation worse. It sure doesn’t help you. Jesse is never going to forgive you. Just as bad, eventually Gabe’s going to figure out you’re the reason you’ve made his mother sad. A boy doesn’t forget that sort of thing.”

Without wanting to, Matt remembered a time years ago. He’d been maybe seven or eight and had found his mother crying. She’d been stretched out on the bed sobbing that she couldn’t do this alone, that it was too much. He’d been scared and wondered who she was talking to. His father was the only person he could think of.

He’d hated him then, had vowed never to forgive him. It had been nearly twenty years before he’d been willing to try and get in touch with the man.

Matt sat heavily in his chair. The reality of the situation, the potential disaster, weighed on him like the side of a mountain.

“He’s my son,” he muttered. He’d just discovered Gabe. He couldn’t lose him now.

“You should have thought of that before,” Bill said contemptuously. “You had it all, you stupid bastard. Everything you could have wanted. It was all there for the taking. The love of a good woman, a son who only wanted to be with you, a happy family. Everything that matters. But you would rather be right. You’d rather get your revenge. How does it feel now?”

Matt didn’t have an answer. He was too focused on everything that had gone wrong.

“Jesse isn’t alone,” Bill continued. “She has a whole lot of people on her side. People who aren’t afraid of you. People who have resources. I, for one, plan to enjoy every minute of your fall.”

With that, he turned and left. Matt watched him go. When the door closed, he was left alone in silence. He hadn’t felt this alone for a long time. Not since before he and Jesse had first met and she’d changed everything.

He could fix this, he told himself. He’d never found a problem he couldn’t handle. It was just a matter of figuring out the best strategy.

Only, he found it hard to think with the burning emptiness in his gut and the voice that whispered it was possible he’d gone too far.

CHAPTER NINETEEN