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“Mr. Donovan, we need to meet. We have a friend in common. If I help you, you can help me. I can't talk on this line, it isn't secure.”
“Mr. Smith, I doubt we have friends in common. I need you to stop helping Jonathan so I can end him and find the wanker holding his leash.”
“Mr. Donovan, I'll be in touch shortly. As for the evidence, if you give it to me, I can end a lot of Jonathan's plots. Congrats on the new baby.” He clicks off.
“How the bloody hell did he know about Isabella?” I yell to the room.
“We have to have a breach,” Timothy says without missing a beat.
“Lock down the property,” Maya says to him.
I watch as he does some clicking on his laptop and Duncan stands to call the gatehouse. The flurry of activity has me distracted until I hear her voice.
“What's happened?” she says quietly, but I hear her, and stand to walk to her. I take her and our daughter in my arms.
“We are securing the estate with today's breach at the hospital. I'm just trying to protect you both.” I look down and see the truth in her eyes. She was listening to the phone call.
“How did that man know about Isabella?”
“I don't know, darling, but I'll find out.”
“Okay.”
I lead her to the sitting room where she puts Isabella in a bassinet and sits with me on the sofa.
“Angel, I'll protect you with my life, you know that right?”
“Joshua, if something happens to you I won't survive it. I'm sorry for all I've put you through. I love you.”
“Ana, you will need to survive for our daughter. I'm the one who isn't perfect, I hurt you by not picking you up in that pub and leaving with you that day. You never would have married Jonathan, and you'd have been mine this whole time. Also, I'm the reason Nathan is after you now. If I'd killed him when I had the chance, we wouldn't have to worry about him.”
“I'm yours, and I have been yours. Jonathan would have come into our lives no matter what. I've been thinking about this for a while. If his boss has been in my life since before I was born, and Jonathan became involved with me even after I told him I wasn't interested, I think he was planted in my life by that man.”
“I agree, but if I had claimed you, then I could've protected you. Now I have the chance, and I'll do it with my dying breath. Okay, Angel?”
“You can’t ever leave me, Joshua. Nathan’s your father, you shouldn’t want to kill him.” She leans into me, and I pull her onto my lap and just hold her. I won't hesitate to protect her. I don't correct that I could and should've already killed Nathan. I need to tell her, but I worry she will judge me for what I did.
Maya walks in and looks at us with a guilty look. “I had the construction crew add some things to the floor plans of your house without you knowing, Ana. There's a safe room in the spare room across the hall and a fully functioning sniper's hide upstairs in your attic.”
“Why did you do that?” Ana asks her.
“To keep you safe. I have the means, and I will use it to protect my family. Like I just told everyone else, every house on the compound has a safe room. The new office, when it is completed, will have a complete bomb shelter under it. I know I'm paranoid, but it's to keep my family safe. For your safe room, only a few people can open it once it's locked. There’s a double procedure for that, and to unlock it from the inside, you'll need a triple procedure with negative life signs from myself, Duncan, and Joshua. I will protect you and Isabella with my dying breath,” she states without even batting an eyelash. She can be so cavalier about her life, but when it comes to my girls’ safety I'm glad.
The team and family leave, and it’s just me and my little family. Ana is upstairs taking a nap when I notice on the monitor on the wall that my little girl is getting restless. I smile and think about how much my life has changed in a few months, and more drastically in the last couple weeks.
I enter the nursery and lift my little girl in my arms. She cuddles into me, and I notice it's a little early for a feeding, so I change her and walk downstairs to the family room off the kitchen. I turn on the tele to watch some sports and lay down with her on my chest. Ever since the first time I Kangaroo Cared her I love the feel of her on my skin. I have her laying on my bare chest in only a diaper on when my girl walks in.
“I was worried until I noticed her sleeper sitting on the top of her hamper.”
“I love feeling her right here.”
My hand gently pats her bottom, her little fists are clenched against my collar bone. I notice Ana is quiet for a moment and look up to see her sketching. Her charcoal moves fast across the paper, and her other fingers smudge the lines. She bites the tip of her tongue as she continues to draw the image. She looks at me for a moment, and I smile at her. I love that she’s drawing more and showing us her work. She is a truly talented artist and shouldn't hide her drawings.
“It's just a preliminary. I'll expand on it in the studio, but do you want to see it?”
“Of course, Angel,” I whisper so I don't wake Isabella.
She turns the sketchpad, and I see the image of myself with a dreamy look on my face. Isabella sleeping on my chest, my tattoo on display with my left arm under my head and my right hand on my daughter's bottom. Seeing the sketch shows me the peace I've searched for.
