Lahat ng Kabanata ng Mommy, I found us a Daddy for Christmas : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

"Are you gonna open it?"Jaxon's voice cut through the silence, his eyes on the letter in my hand.I hadn't moved since picking it up, my fingers wrapped around the edges so tightly the paper had started to crumple. My stomach twisted, the sound of my heartbeat loud in my ears.Lauren Grant. A name I hadn't seen-or wanted to see-in years."I don't know." The words were barely out of my mouth, my throat parched.Jaxon let out a sharp puff of air. "Isabel—""I just need a second." I turned away from him, my mind a complete mess. Lauren wasn't one to contact people for no reason. If she was reaching out to me now, after all this time, it wasn't good.The tension in Jaxon was palpable, but he bit his tongue. I felt his gaze on me as I slowly opened the envelope with deliberate care.### Inside, there was just one slip of paper. No lengthy explanation. No greeting. Just one sentence, in precise, deliberate handwriting.The truth about Hazel's future is in my hands. If you want to keep her

Isabel, what's wrong with you?"Jaxon's voice cut through the silence, sharp but with an edge of concern. I lifted my eyes from my untouched cup of coffee, my fingers clenching around the ceramic. The heat had leeched away, like my ability to hide the maelstrom inside me."Nothing," I said, too fast.His eyes narrowed. "Don't do that.""Do what?""Shut me out.I let my breath out and looked away, my head spinning once more on that photograph and those words beneath them: Hazel, Jaxon's true heir. It sounded like a dead weight pressed upon my chest. I wanted to tell him. Wanted to ask him if he knew what that meant. Yet something was keeping me back, whether fear or uncertainty or perhaps doubt.Jaxon leaned forward, his elbows on the table. "You've been distant. Ever since that night, something changed. You barely look me in the eye, you barely sleep, and don't think I haven't noticed you jumping every time your phone buzzes."I swallowed. "You're imagining things."His jaw clenched.

"Where the hell were you?"Jaxon's voice cut like a razor through the strained atmosphere of my apartment the second I stepped inside. I had barely turned to shut the door behind me before he was standing in front of me, his green eyes blazing with anger.I swallowed hard, still rattled from my encounter with Lauren. My hands shook as I clutched my bag tighter, trying to steady myself. "What are you doing here?" I deflected, moving past him toward the living room, but he caught my wrist, halting my movement."Don't do that," he said, his voice lower but no less intense. "I asked you a question, Isabel."I yanked my hand free, heart hammering. "You don't get to demand answers from me, Jaxon. Not anymore."He let out a harsh breath, rubbing a hand down his face-the frustration etched in every move. "Damn it, Isabel. I went to the office, and they said you left early. Then I find out from my mother that you were at the estate? Why?I turned away, my mind a whirlwind of emotions. "It's no

"You don't have to stay." My voice was barely above a whisper, but in the quiet hospital room, it carried.Jaxon didn't even glance at me. He was sitting on the opposite side of Hazel's bed, his fingers gently stroking her tiny hand. His thumb moved in slow, rhythmic circles, like he was grounding himself in her presence."I know," he whispered, still staring at our daughter. "But I'm not leaving."I sighed and shifted in the chair I'd hardly moved from in the last several hours. The doctors reassured me Hazel was stable now, but that weight in my chest wouldn't lift. It was the thought of her laboured breathing and the panic in her big brown eyes that just wouldn't clear my mind.He had been silent, steadfast, and unshakeable through the whole thing.I had expected him to explode in a rage, to let his anger at me override anything else. But instead, he had remained. He'd fought for her as fiercely as I had.And now, as I watched him sit here in the dim glow of the monitors, I saw som

"Are you kidding me right now?" I flung the towel onto the counter, my anger bursting to come out. "I can't believe this is happening."Jaxon leaned against the door frame, hand outstretched to rest on it, eyes set intently on me. Now I could see the concern in them, the flicker that would return to the baby monitor on the table where Hazel slept. He was trying to be patient, but this situation was just as much of a headache for him as it was for me."I'm just trying to do what's best for Hazel," he said, his voice even, but the strain audibles in it.I shook my head and ran a hand over my messy hair. "I didn't ask for this, Jaxon. I didn't ask for any of it. I didn't ask for your mom to waltz in here and demand her place in our lives. I didn't ask to be threatened, either.""Don't say that; you don't know for sure it's her," Jaxon said, entering the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter now, arms crossed, as if he could somehow make it all right that easily. It was much more co