Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“I won’t blame Jay for what I did—asking for the cottage. That’s on me. I … Jen, her daughter, she was in with the wrong crowd. Doing drugs. And we thought if we could afford to move out of the area, she’d have a chance at starting over. When she died, Jay …” Innes’s eyes brightened, and she glanced at Millie. “I’ll never be able to tell you how sorry I am. I should have tried harder with Jay, to get her some help. I knew she was plummeting off the deep end. Please know, it was grief. She’s never done anything like this before.”
I did know that. The police had told me Jay had no criminal record. And I knew that grief was a strange monster. No one knew how it would affect them. I had compassion. To a point. But my daughter was stolen from me and for an hour, we’d all been terrorized by Jay’s actions. “It’s done.”
“I’m not here to ask you to drop charges or anything,” Innes reassured me. “She should do the time for what she did to you that morning, and Jay is remorseful. She agrees she should do the time.”
“Why are you here?” Eilidh asked suspiciously.
“I’m here to be honest with you and to be honest with myself. Seeing Jay fall apart after Jen’s death, to see what a mum’s love and losing a child could do to a person, well, it clarified things for me … I … I wasn’t built to be a mum. And I don’t want you to think I went off and became a mum to someone else. Because I know that’s the picture I painted. But the truth is, Fyfe, I fell in love with Jay and she came with a child. But … I never wanted children.” Her eyes gleamed with apology.
“It’s not that I didn’t love you, Fyfe. I just don’t have it in me to be a mother. And that would be fine. I truly believe some people aren’t meant to be parents and shouldn’t be and shouldn’t be judged for that … but the reality is, I did have a child. I had a child, and I was terrible to you.” A tear slipped down her cheek and she swiped it away. “If I could do it all again, I would never have listened to my mum. I would have given you up for adoption as a baby so you could have had what you deserved. A loving family. If I’d done that, it would have been the best version of my love.”
I swallowed hard around the words, feelings, swelling inside.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I could only nod.
Eilidh leaned her weight into me, her tone uncharacteristically cool. “Fyfe has a loving family. He’s had a loving family since he was twelve years old. And he’s had me. Now he has Millie too. For the rest of his life, not a day will pass without him knowing he’s loved. So if that’s all you came to say, I think it’s time to leave.”
Innes studied her thoughtfully, then nodded. We followed her to the door. Not another word was exchanged, but I stayed to watch her walk to her car. As she opened the driver’s-side door, she looked back at me.
I lifted my hand and gave her a small wave of goodbye.
She pressed her lips together and got in the car as I closed the front door.
“That woman …” Eilidh trembled with anger beside me.
I pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Actually, what she said helped.”
Eilidh jerked back. “It did?”
“It did. It made me understand Pamela better. She told me she wasn’t built to be a mother and that giving Millie to me was giving her the best chance. Some people shouldn’t be parents, Eils. This … this is the best way Pamela can show her love for our daughter. And maybe I can forgive that after all.”
Tilting her head back to stare up at me in awe, Eilidh whispered hoarsely, “You are the best man I know, Fyfe Moray. I’m so grateful I get to do life at your side.”
I cupped her face in my hands and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “Not as grateful as me,” I promised her.
Nowhere near as thankful as me.
I was the luckiest man in all the Highlands.
THE END … ALMOST …
READ ON FOR A SPECIAL SECOND EPILOGUE
Second Epilogue
A YEAR LATER
WALKER
Imissed my wife.
In all the years we’d been together, I’d never missed her quite like this. Moreover, I was worried about her. Sloane had been working overtime at the bakery to cover Callie who was on maternity leave. And when she wasn’t working overtime, her brain was worrying about our daughter, fussing over our grandkids Harley and Xander. Our son Harry was fifteen, obsessed with martial arts and football and uninterested in academics. This concerned Sloane who was spreading herself thin trying to make sure everyone had everything they needed from her.