AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And?” I prompted, waving him along so he would talk faster.
“Fraternal twins, like ours, are created by two eggs.”
Fang shook his head, clearly not understanding where Vaughn was going. Couldn’t blame him because I had no idea either.
“Yeah? So?”
“Two eggs. Two sperm,” Vaughn announced.
I put a hand over my mouth. “No…you don’t think…”
“Two baby daddies?” Kian asked, wide-eyed. “If our twins were conceived during one of the times we were all together, they could have different biological fathers?”
“What are the odds of that happening?” I gripped the edge of Vaughn’s dresser.
Vaughn laughed. “Apparently we’re all in with a shot, according to the doctor.”
Holy shit.
Fang chuckled and caught my chin in his fingers. “You okay with that, Pix? Today has been a lot to take in.”
It had. But as I looked around at the three men I loved, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. No matter which of them had helped to make our babies, they would get the best of all three of the men who would raise them. Fang’s kind heart. Kian’s sense of humor. Vaughn’s fierce loyalty.
I’d found the pieces of my heart amongst revenge and obsession, fear, and greed. I’d picked them up, sewn them together, and made them mine.
The only thing left to do was let it beat for eternity.
BONUS EPILOGUE
KARA
“Want to go for a little stroll in the moonlight?”
Hayley Jade’s eyes shined, her smile wide just because I looked at her. She was so sweetly chubby now and the absolute bright spark in my otherwise quiet and lonely days.
“Everyone is probably inside having dinner with their families. The coast should be clear.”
Ever since I’d returned home with Hayley Jade in my arms, the people I’d once called my friends and family had been cold and distant. They’d looked away when I’d passed them on my way to Sunday morning church and ignored Hayley Jade’s happy gurgles as she’d tried to get their attention from the back pew.
I missed being seen. Becoming invisible had given me a lot of time to relive all the moments Hayden’s quiet gaze had settled on me. What it felt like, and the reactions it set off inside.
I couldn’t imagine I’d ever get to feel that again. Not living here, in the middle of nowhere with my options limited to the handful of middle-aged men. That I was so disgraced was probably a good thing. It meant none of them had the chance to leer at me, or for their gazes to linger for an indecent amount of time when they thought no one else was watching.
But I was grateful to have been given a roof over my head. Even if I had become the commune leper and the subject of gossip. I was sure they were using me as a cautionary tale, warning the other young women of what would happen if they dared to leave and try to make it on their own.
They probably weren’t wrong to do so.
It wasn’t easy to endure though, and maybe it was cowardly of me, but I’d taken to staying indoors when a lot of people were around and only going out when I wouldn’t be noticed.
I put Hayley Jade into her stroller with a beanie on her head that Rebel had sent for her, and then tucked blankets all around her to keep her warm against the chilly night air.
She gurgled happy baby sounds, which mingled with the quiet rustle of the breeze across the fields and the distant hooting of an owl.
I took the same, well-worn path I always did, guiding the stroller over the uneven ground to the commune’s shared gardens. I’d always enjoyed working in them. There was something soothing about having my fingers in the earth and watching food grow from the tiny seeds I nurtured.
I pushed Hayley Jade right to the edge of the garden beds and put the brake on the stroller. Kneeling, I pulled a couple of weeds from around the plants. “This is cauliflower,” I told Hayley Jade, even though she was much too young to comprehend anything I was saying. But some days, the only words I heard were the ones I spoke to her, and it had become habit. “And broccoli. They both grow well here, even in the winter.” I looked around, making sure there was no one watching and then picked a stalk. “We can roast some of this for our dinner tomorrow.”
“You don’t have permission to do that,” a voice said from the darkness.
