Will entered, and I swallowed my nervousness. Fuck, he’d grown so much since the last time I’d seen him hopping into his grandmother’s van four weeks ago. At least, he seemed taller. I recalled the first time I’d laid eyes on him in Dante’s Pass, right after I’d gotten out of prison. Those inquisitive green eyes had stared at me from the back of Nikki’s Toyota, painting the picture of a boy fascinated by the stranger who’d chased his mother down the sidewalk.

Like always, I wondered if he missed her, which was a stupid thing to wonder because I’d missed my mom like crazy after she left.

But Nikki was dead.

How the fuck was he coping? Shit, I couldn’t even be there for him because I was partly responsible for what had happened to Nikki.

An anxious flutter went through me. How would Alex react once she learned I had a son? I already knew she’d blame herself for Nikki’s death, and I had no fucking idea how to deal with that, or how badly she’d self-destruct. And what the fuck was I supposed to say to her? She was partially to blame. We all were.

Letting out an aggravated sigh, Alex squirmed in my arms. “Talk to me.” The pain in her voice cut me deep, and I wanted to kick myself. She didn’t deserve to be shut out like this. Sliding my palms along the backs of her small hands, I tracked the sprinting form of Will with my gaze.

“You see that boy down there dribbling the ball? Number 44?”

She scanned the kids until she found him. “Yeah?”

I entwined our fingers, knowing there wasn’t an easy way to say this. “He’s my son, Alex.”

She went still, and if not for the screeching sound of sneakers on a polished floor, or the joyous whoops from the kids below, I was certain the silence would’ve been deafening.

“What…?” She shook her head, mouth agape. “Huh?”

Brushing my lips over her ear, I whispered the truth. How Nikki discovered she was pregnant after I’d gone to prison. How she hadn’t told me until I’d gotten out. How I’d forgotten that conversation, along with everything else, until after Perrone killed her in front of us.

“I just knew. I couldn’t remember shit about the rest of those eight years, but I knew she had a kid.” I let out a breath that ruffled her hair. “I knew he was mine.”

“How?” Alex pulled her lips between her teeth. “I mean, how do you know for sure?”

“Look at him, babe.”

She did, and her shoulders slumped the longer she studied him. She turned her head toward the exit, and I imagined the wheels turning in her head, figured she wanted through those doors rather than face reality with me.

“Why did you bring me here?”