change of heart

17

Jacob woke with a smile the next morning, which quickly faded when he found the space next to him empty. He looked at the clock, saw it was 11 AM and frowned. He grabbed his phone from his nightstand and attempted to call Troye, but cursed himself when he remembered deliberately deleting Troye's number, after he was feeling sorry for himself, about two years ago. But, Jacob had to know what Troye was thinking, he had to talk to him.

Quickly he got dressed and decided to drive to Troye's apartment. He was surprised by how shitty of an area Troye lived in. He had to find the boy's address for the court papers he filed, so he knew it wasn't anything great, but he expected better than this.

He found on-street parking by the building and cringed when he thought about his expensive Tesla being parked in such a neighborhood, and he quickly hoped he could get Troye out of there sooner than later. He approached Troye's door and was ready to knock when the door opened. Jacob couldn't help but smile when he saw Tyde standing in front of him. Tyde, who was always on his side when he was moving back into Troye's life. Tyde who was now 16-years-old. "Hi," Jacob said.

"Hey," Tyde replied unenthusiastically, "I was just heading out."

"Can I come in?" Jacob asked.

Tyde looked over his shoulder and sighed, "Troye just got in the shower, Storme is sleeping, I don't know what's going on, but just go sit in the living room or something."

"Thanks," Jacob said and slipped inside. Tyde said goodbye and closed the door as he left. Jacob slowly moved around the apartment noticing how bare it was. Mainly it was filled with toys and books for Storme, but Troye didn't even have a tv, which Jacob thought was crazy.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Troye's phone buzz. He walked over and picked it up and as luck would have it, it was still unlocked. Jacob didn't mean to be nosy and he didn't mean to pry, but he saw Connor's name and couldn't help but scroll up the conversation a bit.

Connor:
You seriously fucked him?!? Why?

Troye:
I just need to keep Storme

Connor:
And again I ask, why did you have sex with him?

Troye:
He's an asshole, Con. A total fucking dick and I couldn't think of anything else to try to get him to let me keep Storme

Connor:
Well that was stupid

Jacob's blood began to boil. Here he was thinking that last night meant something to Troye, like it meant to him, but obviously he was wrong. He slammed Troye's phone down and gripped the counter. He took a few deep breaths and then sighed. He lifted his head and saw a bag from a pharmacy on the table. Jacob opened it and pulled out a package. He saw it was prescribed to Troye and frowned. Jacob took out his phone and googled the name of the prescription, he groaned when he read it was a morning after pill for fertile men who had unprotected sex. He totally wasn't thinking about the consequences of having sex with Troye without a condom last night, but obviously Troye was worried about it. This fact made Jacob even angrier.

"Fuck," he said and slammed his fist on the counter. That was when he heard a small voice say "Dad?" from down a small hallway.

Jacob looked up and walked down the hallway. He pushed open the door and saw Storme sleepily rubbing his eyes, sitting up in his crib.

"Hi," Jacob said putting on a smile.

Storme gave him a confused look, "Dad?"

"He's taking a shower," Jacob answer.

Storme nodded, "Up?" He said holding his arms out.

"Sure," Jacob said and lifted Storme. He moved into the living room with Storme and smiled with how the small boy felt in his arms. Once in the living room, he looked to the front door and an idea struck him. He saw Storme's diaper bag and nodded to himself. He took a paper and pen and jotted a note to Troye.

I took Storme home. See you in court tomorrow. And next time maybe lock your phone before getting in the shower.

"Let's go," Jacob said to Storme, picked up the diaper bag, stuffed Troye's new prescription inside of it, then picked up Storme and grabbed the car seat he saw in the corner, and with that he was out the door.

Jacob moved quickly to get Storme situated and once they were both in the car, Jacob didn't know what to do. He drove to his dad's house for guidance.

"So you're telling me that you took the child without his permission..." Randy said watching Storme who was happily playing with the family dog.

"He's my child too," Jacob argued.

"I wasn't debating that, Jacob. But I'm sure you aren't on the birth certificate, you've no proof right here that he is yours, Troye can easily call the police for kidnapping," Randy explained.

Jacob laughed, "He won't. He's going to be too afraid of losing Storme and he knows that I hold more power here, so he won't go to anyone like that."

Jacob's phone began to ring. Jacob glanced at his phone, saw it was Brett and answered, "Hello."

"Jacob! Umm Troye is here, at the house, he's rather worked up and said that he wants his child back right now," Brett said.

Jacob rolled his eyes as he looked at his dad, "Tell that whore to go home and that he will see Storme when we arrive at court tomorrow."

"Jacob, what are you doing? He's really fucking upset," Brett said softly.

"Teaching his ass a lesson," Jacob responded, "besides he best get use to it as he will be losing custody very soon. Tell him I gave him a chance, but he fucked up."

Brett sighed but must have realized he couldn't argue with Jacob, "Ok, I will let him know."

"Thank you, Brett. I'm expecting packages with a bunch of things for Storme, if anything comes can you direct the boxes to the bedroom closest to mine. Storme and I will likely spend the night at my Dad's but we will be home tomorrow."

"Ok," Brett replied softly, "see you then."

Jacob hung up the phone, looked at this dad and smiled, "I'm going to head to the store with Storme and pick him up something appropriate to wear tomorrow along with some more diapers and other things. I want to walk in there tomorrow and show everyone that this is how my child deserves to be raised, as opposed to living in squalor with an unfit father."