F uck the rules .

Fuck whatever Helen wanted to throw at me. I’d fight it, and I knew the second I got upstairs and got the kids into bed that I wasn’t going to just give up like that.

I wasn’t some dog that would roll over for her.

For the first time in a long time, I was goddamn happy. I was beyond happy with Bella, actually. She brought out something inside of me I thought I’d lost, and I’d be damned if was going to let that go.

Not without a fight.

I strode down the hallway towards her room. I needed her. Physically, yes, but I just needed her in my arms. I needed her smell, I needed the way she lifted something inside of me.

I needed to tell her everything that was about to come down on us and tell her that I’d protect her from that storm.

Most importantly, it was time to just tell her exactly what I was feeling. No more pussyfooting around. No more hiding it in raw lust and games. It was time to lay the cards on the fucking table and tell her what she meant to me.

I paused outside of her room, taking a deep breath.

I felt elated. I knew shit was going to come down on us for this, but I didn’t care. Besides that, I had the best lawyers money could buy.

Helen could go fuck herself.

She wasn’t taking my children, and she sure as hell wasn’t taking my Bella.

I brought my hand up and knocked.

Only silence.

I knocked again, and again after that, before finally, I just used my own secondary key to unlock the door and step inside.

“Bella?”

The room was dark, and it only took a cursory walkthrough to tell she wasn’t there.

I frowned, glancing at the late hour.

This was weird.

It was late, she’d been out for a long time, and part of me started to worry. I pulled out my phone and tried the international cell I’d given her on the plane over here, but I got nothing.

Straight to voicemail.

The frown crossed my face again as I took the elevator down to the lobby and strode up to the concierge.

“Bonsoir, monsieur.”

“Good evening. Has a Ms. Wilder checked in with the desk at all today? Younger woman, blonde? She’s my employ—” I shook my head. “She’s with me.”

The man looked up at me quizzically. “But of course she has, monsieur.”

My eyes narrowed. “When?”

“When she checked out.”

I froze. “What? ”

“Yes,” the man said, quickly calling something up on his computer screen. “She checked out, monsieur.”

“When ,” I snarled at the man.

“Two hours ago.”

I whirled, my heart shattering and my hands tearing at my hair before I spun back on him. “Where did she go?”

“She had us call up a taxi, monsieur. To the airport.”

I staggered back, whirling in a daze.

And suddenly, there she was, standing in front of me, grinning that wicked smile.

Helen.

My eyes narrowed as I bared my teeth at her. “What have you done?”

“What needed doing, Colin,” she spat.

“What have you done? ” I screamed, turning every eye in the lobby.

Helen just smiled that ice-cold smile of hers and held her phone up. “Here.”

I yanked it from her hand and looked down.

Fuck.

Pictures.

Pictures of me and Bella from the night before on her terrace.

And I  knew what she wanted with this. I knew this was her big guns — what she was going to try and use to level me and take what was mine.

Fuck that.

I wasn’t going to just give up. Not like this.

I’d fight it.

Me seeing Bella was bad, but it was nothing I couldn’t get past. This woman had driven our children into a bar while drunk and high. That was leagues worse than me seeing someone I loved—

I froze

And that’s when I realized the feeling I’d been trying to figure out all day. Hell, for weeks.

Love.

I loved her.

I slowly drew my eyes up to Helen. “I love her,” I said out loud.

She bristled. “Fuck you, Colin.”

“I love her,” I said through gritted teeth. “And you can’t hold that over me to steal our children away.”

“Watch me.”

“I will ,” I  snarled savagely, shaking my head. “I’ve got the best fucking lawyers money can buy ,” I spat, advancing on her as the rage just erupted out of me. “You almost killed our children, you fucking bitch.”

“I did nothing of the sort!” she hissed. “It was an accide—”

“You drove them into a building! Drunk with a bottle of pills in your stomach!”

She froze, her lip quivering. “Not true.”

“Entirely true.”

“They’re my kids, Colin!”

“Drop this bullshit, Helen. Drop this and I’ll allow supervised in-home visits.”

“Fuck you, you asshole” she spat.

“Take the deal, Helen,” I said evenly. “It’s the best you’ll get. Delete those pictures, drop your fucking bullshit case, and I swear I’ll allow it.”

She laughed bitterly. “It doesn’t matter anyways, Colin.”

“What doesn’t?”

“Any of this.” She smiled thinly at me. “She’s gone , Colin.”

My eyes blazed, my muscles tensing. “What did you do, threaten her?”

“I was real with her.”

“Fuck off, Helen.” I whirled to go to back upstairs.

“Pity about her mother.”

I stopped, a chill creeping up my back as I turned. “What did you say?”

“Ovarian cancer,” she said with a sigh. “You know my good friend Dr. Peters who runs the board over there at Mass General don’t you?”

“The one you were fucking while we were still married. Yes, it rings a fucking bell.”

Her lips curled into a smile, and I felt my heart freeze. I strode towards her, gripping her wrist as the rage erupted inside. “What did you do?”

“I made a promise,” she hissed. “To get that little slut out of your life and make sure she stayed out.”

“You threatened her?”

Helen smiled. “Yes.”

“With her mother? ”

She sneered, looking away. “Forget it.”

And just like that, I was done.

Just like that, I was done with all of it when it came to Helen. No more bartering. No more offering anything to her.

She was done , and I was done playing games with her.

“Forget it. No deal.”

She frowned. “What?”

“Delete the picture, or bring them to court, I don’t care. I’ll beat you either way. But now?” I shook my head. “There’s no visitation now.”

Helen’s face crumpled into a harpy sneer. “You just try and—”

“You disgust me, Helen.” I shook my head as her mouth snapped shut. “You disgust me.”

I glared at her, unblinking, until she looked away.

I turned and strode for the elevators.