He was adamant that if he couldn’t be present to protect me himself, then the entire Sentinel arsenal, including their top-of-the-range security system in his building, must be at my disposal.
At least the bedsheets still smell like him.
Hayles pops her head back in the door, rolling her eyes heavily. “Carter’s car blew out a fucking tyre. He’s calling a tow, but I’m going to nip out and grab the dress, because we might need to have the designer come and refit it.” Her eyes glance down over my curves, narrowing as they amble back to mine. “You’ve lost weight this past week.”
I hold my hands up on either side of my head.
“In my defense, it’s not like I haven’t been eating plenty. Ford’s mom is what I’d call afeeder. The woman cooks all day, and when she’s not cooking, she’s baking.”
Hayley smiles brightly. “In that case, I look forward to meeting her.”
We both chuckle as my sister moves to leave, but my low question stops her. “Would I be insane to give it all up?”
Her understanding eyes find mine in the mirror, instantly knowing what I mean, having been there through it all. Thick and thin.
“Youcanhave both, you know. It’s a woman’s world, right?”
My chest pangs as my words tumble from my lips without ever having thought them through.
“But I only wanthim.”
She tilts her head to one side. “There’s your answer, Em.”
Then, as my sister leaves to meet Carter and solve the impending dress dilemma, I stare at my reflection for the longest time until visions of a ranch house surrounded by a myriad of colorful wildflowers appear in my mind’s eye.
I blink them away, shaking my head as they expand to include a handsome cowboy with intense blue eyes and a dancing smile sitting on the porch step.
A baby boy swaddled in blue lies in the curve of his arm as a little toddler with golden pigtails, grasping a burnt orange peony in one hand, runs past him as she chases a butterfly.
The scene unfolds as though it’s happening before my very eyes. As though I’m right there. I can almost smell the sweetness of the blooms and taste the sticky heat of the Texas summer sunshine as it warms my skin.
Until the horn of a passing car jerks me back to reality, and I blink sharply, wondering what the hell just happened. And as I look back at my flushed face in the mirror before me, I know what I want for the rest of my life.
It’s what I’ve always wanted, deep down. What I’ve known for a long time but always been too scared to make that leap of faith.
We can aspire to make our parents proud. We can want to bejustlike them, but at the end of the day, we all only get one life to live. And we all deserve to chase our dreams.
To be happy.
My lips draw up in a broad smile as I whisper to the universe, grateful to her for bringing me to where I needed to be. “I see it now.”
FORD
I pace back and forth across the narrow space they’ve given me to meet my father.
Despite being a maximum-security prison, I was surprised when I arrived to discover I’d been allowed into a one-on-one space with my father instead of the glass partitions usually afforded to someone else of a similar status.
I instantly put it down to Vaughn’s connections, thankful once again for the man who has guided me through some of the hardest times of my life.
Best make sure Sia’s birthday gift is exceptional this year.
I snigger to myself, thinking of Vaughn’s daughter, his pride and joy, who utterly owns him, and I’m filled with thoughts of making my own Sia with Emmy. Something that has gripped me since Rebels earlier this week, and I can’t fucking shake it, no matter how hard I try.
The buzzer sounds, and my stomach bottoms out as a security guard enters the room, followed by my father.
Nausea fills my stomach, seeing the man I’d idolized all my life—the one I’d aspired to be just like—shuffling into the room with hands and feet bound in chains, clad in the inimitable orange jumpsuit associated with his crimes.
He takes a seat, his hands unlocked and his feet fastened to the table beneath him before he raises his eyes to mine. It takes a beat before the guard takes a step back, giving us space, and my father whispers, “I didn’t think you’d ever come, Fordy.”
