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Angel eased her hand from her mother’s, then leaned closer and kissed her brow.
“Angel.” Chaya breathed out her name, love filling her weak voice. “My baby. I love you. I have always loved you.”
Another tear eased from her mother’s eyes and ran slowly down her cheek.
“I always knew that.” Angel nodded, realizing that the knowledge of that love had always sustained her. “And I’ve always loved you. Always.”
She rushed from the room to Duke as he stood outside the door. And he was waiting for her, his arms enfolding her, his strength and his warmth sinking into her.
“Come on, you two,” Bliss announced as she pushed through the door. “I’m hungry. Can we please find some food? I’m a teenager. I need energy.”
Angel couldn’t help but laugh. Pulling her sister close for a hug, she knew finally she had hope.
No, not finally. She’d always had hope; it had just taken Duke to remind her of that, and to give her a reason to reach out for it. For her dreams.
• • •
Natches turned his gaze back to Chaya’s, her hand still clasped in his, his battle to hold back his tears hard fought.
There hadn’t been many times in his life when he’d actually cried since he was too young to remember. He’d shed tears with Chaya the day she watched that hotel explode with her daughter inside. Holding her, rocking her, loving her, those tears had fallen.
The birth of their daughter. God, he’d had to go hide that night when he’d actually lost the battle with the silent sobs that had welled from inside him.
And when he’d held Chaya, her blood staining the grass in their backyard, certain he was going to lose her, his sobs hadn’t been quiet. They’d torn from his soul, shook his body, and spilled as unashamed as a child’s.
Now, watching the tears dampen her face, her eyes filled with so much hope, he found himself close to losing the battle again.
“Remember the first time you met her, you said she had too many secrets and too much pain?” he asked her as he dried her tears with his free hand. “And I agreed, and said she reminded me of someone else who once watched the world the same way?”
Her lips trembled and more tears fell. “I was cruel to her. . . .”
“You were scared. And you knew she was hiding things from you that were far too important to remain hidden. Logic said it wasn’t possible, but you knew, inside, and you weren’t going to tolerate her silence.”
“My baby . . .” Her breathing hitched on a smothered sob. “She’s too stubborn.”
He snickered at her, causing her to frown, causing a bit of fire to burn in her pretty brown eyes.
“She’s your daughter.” His brow arched. “You couldn’t deny it if you wanted to. And from what Duke says, she might be a little better with that knife than you are now.”
“Trying to piss me off . . .” she accused him with a little sigh.
“I succeeded.” He flashed her a grin, the one he knew she secretly loved, though she often chided him for it.
“I love you . . . so much. . . .” Her words caught him off guard. “With all my soul . . .”
Hell, there went that fucking tear.
Sniffing, he turned his head, wiped it away discreetly, then turned back to her. And she knew. The knowledge of what he’d done was there in her soft brown eyes, in the love that filled her pale face.
“You’re my soul,” he told her simply. “All that I am is in you, Chaya. Without you . . .” He inhaled sharply. “Fuck!”
“Bad word,” she murmured, her eyes drifting closed, but her lips were soft with the beginning of a smile. “My naughty dream . . .”
She drifted away, the weakness, the pain medication slipping past that incredible will she possessed.
She should be dead.
How many times had Doc Marlin and the surgeon, Ben Hart, repeated that phrase?
