Chapter 282: Do not call me again
Kayden
Why the hell was he calling?
"Is everything alright?" Rhys demanded beside me, his brow furrowing instantly as he tracked the sudden shift in my expression.
I shook my head in response, lifting a hand to point at the screen. "It’s my father."
His eyes widened in sheer shock. "Your father? What the hell does he want from you?"
I offered a hollow half-shrug and switched the call to the speaker. For a split second, every instinct screamed at me to hang up on him, to sever the connection before he could even breathe into the line. But I was so tired of running away from my past. I was long past that now.
My future was finally filled with good promises, and the absolute best thing I could do was face the music and find out exactly why this miserable man was reaching out to me now.
"Hello? Derek, are you there? It’s your father," he began.
The immediate, unsteady tremors in his voice made it obvious he was in agonizing pain, just like Rami Calder had mentioned.
Was he actually dying? Was this finally his karma? His ultimate doom?
"This is Kayden Vale speaking," I finally responded, keeping my tone as cold and dripping with sarcasm as humanly possible.
"I know, son. You go by that name now," he chuckled lightly, a weak, raspy sound.
Beside me, I could hear Rhys murmuring viciously under his breath. I looked toward him; his face was contorted into a fierce, dark scowl, his jaw clenching so hard it looked like he wanted to reach through the network and smash the man’s face in.
"What do you want, Kelvin? If you don’t speak right now, I am hanging up immediately," I told him flatly.
Dr. Bennett’s stern warnings about keeping my cortisol levels down and completely avoiding stress flashed vividly in my mind. This conversation was a minefield my endocrine system didn’t need.
"It’s so nice to hear your voice again, son. It’s been what... twelve years? Or more?"
Rhys let out a frustrated groan and reached out to grab the phone, but I quickly shook my head, silently stopping him. I needed to hear what he had to say. I needed to figure out what was going through Kelvin’s twisted mind and exactly why he had chosen this moment to resurrect himself. I didn’t care how he got my number, and I would never lower myself to ask him, but now that it had come to this, I wanted to see his cards.
"As you may have heard, I am dying. They say it’s cancer, and I only have a few months left to live," Kelvin pleaded, his voice breaking, laced with a heavy, desperate layer of sorrow. "But the way things are going, I don’t even know if I’ll make it as long as they say. Derek... imagine the happiness I felt when I saw you become such a great star. Ever since that man visited me in the prison, I’ve watched every single one of your games. I see your name on the news, trending everywhere. I even heard that you helped omegas have a voice in the sports world."
I clenched my fist tightly against the frame of my phone as I listened to him speak. The faux innocence and sudden, unearned pride in his tone absolutely irritated me. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone could possess such a thoroughly manipulative voice.
How could someone genuinely think they had the right to act like a proud parent after completely ruining their own flesh and blood’s life?
"You know, Linda came to visit me too," he continued smoothly.
At the mention of her name, my grip grew so white-knuckled and violent that it felt as if the phone might literally crack under the immense pressure of my palm.
Why the hell did Linda meet him?
Sensing the dangerous spike in my tension, Rhys placed a firm hand on my shoulder, squeezing down gently to anchor me. I looked up to meet his eyes.
Months ago, if I had been put in this situation, I probably would have broken down and cried over the overwhelming weight of the trauma.
But now? I didn’t care. Not anymore.
"Please, son... I want to see your face one last time," Kelvin begged, his voice cracking with emotion. "I am so sorry for everything I did. I am full of regret, and that is why I just want to meet up with you one last time. Just to look at you, son."
I heaved a deep, steadying sigh and looked toward Rhys, who was visibly vibrating with anger, actively fighting himself to keep from shouting into the speaker.
"Will you come visit me?"
Silence stretched through the SUV.
I said nothing for several long seconds, letting the quiet hang heavily between us until I had finally had enough.
"No, Kelvin. I won’t be seeing you. I don’t care if you die, and I don’t care if you stay alive. You never reached out to me for years. The exact same goes for Linda, who just moved on with her life and forgot all about me," I paused for a brief moment to catch my breath, keeping my voice low and controlled.
My baby was my absolute priority now, and I wasn’t going to let this monster raise my cortisol levels.
"Tell me, Kelvin—if I hadn’t become a famous player, if I hadn’t turned out successful and had instead become a broken, messed-up child due to the horrific way you abused me for years... if I had ended up destroying myself on the streets, would you have ever reached out to me then?"
I waited, expecting my so-called father to defend himself, but the line remained entirely silent. That silence confirmed everything for me.
He never cared about me. He had only called me now because I had become a household name. If I had turned into a criminal or died in an alleyway, he wouldn’t have given a single damn.
"Never call me again, Kelvin Hamilton. I don’t care what happens to you, and even when you die, I still won’t care. So never call me again."
I heaved a massive, cleansing sigh as I aggressively tapped the screen to end the call, finally looking over at Rhys.
"Are you alright?" he asked softly, searching my face.
I shook my head, a bitter edge entering my voice. "A part of me wishes that I could see him—just to watch how much he is suffering. He spent my entire childhood abusing me, making me the sole subject of his cruelty, and I had to carry that weight for so long. But I am just so tired of the baggage, Rhys. I can’t go on living with this ghost over my shoulder anymore."
Rhys pulled me into a tight, fierce embrace, running a soothing hand through my hair. "I am so incredibly proud of you for standing up for yourself, Kayden. And honestly... whenever you are ready, you should probably go see him."
I pulled away slowly, staring at him in confusion, wondering what the hell he meant by that.
Rhys sighed, his eyes turning fierce. "I am not asking you to go because I want you to accept his apology or grant him forgiveness. I want you to go so you can see how weak and pathetic he is now while he’s suffering. Say everything you need to say right to his face. Let him look at you and realize that you are now the bigger person, and that he completely failed to break you."
The bigger person. The concept actually sounded empowering. And truly, a dark part of me wanted to see the look of absolute defeat on Kelvin’s face when he realized he had no power left over me.
"I will visit him," I responded, placing a hand over my stomach and rubbing it with a gentle, protective stroke. "But not now. I have to make sure the baby is completely safe and out of harm’s way first. The baby comes first."
Rhys nodded in firm agreement, and I rested my head back down onto his broad shoulder, actively trying to erase the conversation from my mind. But the fragile peace shattered a second later when my phone beeped loudly with an alert.
Except it wasn’t just my phone. At the exact same time, Rhys’s phone chimed with the exact same alert tone.
"What the hell is going on?" I muttered, lifting my head.
We both looked down.
It was a high-priority message from Elton and Coach Reddick simultaneously. They had sent a direct link, and the moment we both clicked on it, our blood ran cold. It was another catastrophic problem.
EXCLUSIVE: THE HOCKEY ROMANCE SENSATION—RHYS CALDER AND KAYDEN VALE ARE EXPECTING!
Right beneath the bold, glaring headline was an attached paparazzi photograph that made my heart drop straight into my stomach.
It was a candid shot taken just outside the medical building’s private perimeter. The camera angle was zoomed in tightly on me.
I was wearing my oversized hoodie, but the fabric was pulled taut because my hand was resting unconsciously against my lower abdomen, cupping my stomach in an undeniably protective, distinctly gesture that no casual observer could mistake for anything else.
"What the hell!" I whispered, a wave of pure panic crashing over me.
