Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
“What do you think we should name this one?” he murmured as he stroked my belly.
“Hmm…” I pretended to think on it as I stared out at the bay. “I think we should follow tradition. I was thinking maybe Anna Sophia.”
Ryland pulled my gaze back to his as he stared at me anxiously. “We’re having a girl?”
“Yep.” I grinned.
He crushed me against his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d snuck off to the ultrasound without him this morning because he always got too nervous while we waited for the baby’s heartbeat.
“Christ,” he grumbled. “Little girls are completely different.”
“You’ll do great,” I assured him. “Just like you do with Jake.”
“Speaking of…” Ryland smirked as the front door slammed shut.
Nicole and Matt had taken Jake to the zoo for the day, and judging by the smiles on their faces, it had been a good one. Jake bolted straight onto the back deck and snuggled up between me and Ryland.
“I pumped him full of sugar.” Nicole laughed. “I couldn’t help it.”
Matt shrugged and laughed. “God help our future children.”
He reached out and gave me a quick hug, followed by a handshake for Ryland. The two of them had grown surprisingly close over the last few years, and I was glad to see that Nicole was finally happy. It took her a while to accept that it was okay for her to move on, but Matt patiently saw it through. For the most part, everything in our lives had finally calmed down.
Norma-Jean was living in California now, and she was still sober. Looking at her now, it was hard to remember the woman that she used to be. She had a job and was dating a nice man named Ted, who just so happened to be Ryland’s driver.
As for Brayden, we weren’t as close as we used to be and I didn’t know if that would ever change. In the end, he and Ryland had come together with a common goal. To protect me. They could be in a room together now without wanting to kill each other, but I couldn’t look at him the same way again, and he understood. Just as he’d never been able to look at me the same after that day.
I was no longer the naïve and frightened girl that I used to be. In the end, my blood ran true, and I became my father’s daughter. I killed Alfredo, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Though he never said so, I knew Brayden didn’t like seeing that part of me. It crushed him that he failed me and brought me into that mess. That I was forced to embrace the darker part of myself.
But they lived in unison inside of me, just as they did in Ryland. Just as they did in everybody, really. The light and darkness were always there if you really stopped to look.
“Mama?” Jake tugged on my shirt to get my attention. “Can I stay with Aunt Nicole and Uncle Matt tonight?”
Nicole beamed the same way she always did whenever Jake looked her way. His looks and charm were all Ryland, with the bonus of a cute little dimple in his cheek.
Matt looked like he was about to panic, and I shot him a reassuring glance.
“Not tonight, buddy,” I scooped him up onto my lap. “We have a special surprise tonight.”
“We do?” Jake asked excitedly.
Ryland and I both looked at each other and laughed as Nicole pouted.
She didn’t know it yet, but the surprise was really for her. Because tonight was the night Matt was finally going to propose.
***