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SIXTEEN
“Where’s your baby?”my mom asked, her eyes trailing over the living room. There were still a few toys on the ground, and there was a stack of diapers on the floor beside the couch.
“Sleeping.” I stepped slightly closer to Elliot. “I’m not moving back in with you guys. I have a life here, and a family.” I paused for a moment, and then swallowed slightly roughly. “And a pack.”
Sorrow filled my mom’s eyes. “I know we messed up, Lizzy. We were confused, and hurt. And we just wanted you to have a good life—we were worried you’d be sacrificing everything.”
I had sacrificed everything. But I would do it all again for my baby in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t tell them it was alright. What they’d done hadn’t been alright. They’d stolen the money from the trust fund my grandmother had left me, they’d told me I was a monster, and they’d said they never wanted to see me again. Everything I’d told them had to have been overwhelming for them, but that wasn’t an excuse for what they’d done.
But they were apologizing.
They were there, and it seemed like they were trying to make things right.
“We put the money back in your account,” my mom added. “A few weeks after we took it, when we realized what we’d done was wrong. We hoped you would come home, give us a chance to apologize.”
My stomach clenched.
If that was true…
All the hours I’d nearly killed myself at work, ran food orders after a full day of workout classes just to feed my baby, all the time in his life that I’d missed because I was working when I wanted to be holding him, playing with him, watching him discover his world.
If they’d really put the money back, I hadn’t needed to suffer through any of it.
The rage that tore through me was fierce enough to have me shaking in fury, my wolf pushing at my spine, trying to get free.
I held my tongue, though.
The relationship between us was already in shambles, but I didn’t want to set it on fire. My baby deserved a family—he deserved grandparents to dote on him, and talk to him, and spoil him.
So I forced out the words, “We’re having dinner with our pack tomorrow. You can come, if you want to talk more and meet my son. Right now, I need time to think about all of this.”
Hope flooded my mom’s eyes, and when I glanced at my dad, I saw the same emotion in his too.
“We’re staying at a hotel about thirty minutes away—we’ll be there. Can you text us the time and location?” my mom asked.
I could. I just needed to unblock their numbers, first.
Jerking my head in a nod was the best I could do as far as an agreement went.
My mom threw her arms around me again, hugging me tightly, before stepping back. She was wiping at her eyes again, and the action seemed genuine. But after everything that had happened in the last few years, I was pretty damn skeptical.
My parents left after another apology, and Elliot locked the door behind them.
Suddenly, my hands felt very shaky.
Elliot strode back to me, and his arms wrapped around me. He gently pulled me to his chest, his grip on me firm and comforting.
I let out a breath as shaky as my hands. “Can’t say I saw that coming,” I mumbled.
One of his hands dug into my hair until he was cradling my head. “Everything’s going to work out,” he murmured back.
My eyes stung.
It was good to hear someone say that, even if neither of us really knew whether or not it was true.
“If they really put the money back years ago…” I trailed off.
