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“He needed her more. I get that. I totally understand that.” She did. She wouldneverforget finding Oakley and knowing what she had to do. Oakley and Orion were just innocent little kids. They’d needed someone to protect them far more than Pen had. “I get it now, you know.”
“What?”
“Why you always loved me. Fought for me.” She looked at Oakley now, licking her spoon and watching over Orion closely. Protectively. “I would have doneanythingfor her last night. Oakley. I never quite understood why you fought for me so hard. When your life would have been so much better, so much easier, without me.”
Zoey pulled her closer in an instant. “Don’t ever say that again. You listen to me. My lifebeganwhen I got you. Until I got you, Penelope Janine, I had no one to love. And I didn’t know what love was. Without you…I would be nothing right now. Don’t ever forget that. I wouldn’t trade a moment of raising you for anything in the world. Not even Luc’s billionsplusHoughton’s. You are my sisterandmy daughter. In every way that matters. A mother becomes a mother through love. And I will love you forever. No matter what.”
Zoey just held her as she cried.
Not even caring who was watching them now.
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A mother becomesa mother through love.
Bonnie heard what that young woman said. The niece who looked more like Heather’s twin…than Heather’s twin. The niece Bonnie hadn’t had a chance to know…yet.
The words echoed what Bonnie believed down to her soul.
She loved each of her girls so much.
She would have loved the rest of Denita’s children, too. If she had had an opportunity to know them.
Her heart broke for Crispin, and for the girl with blue hair. Blue hair. Crispin had dyed hers blue when she’d been fifteen. She had hated it.
The girl pulled away from her older sister. Bonnie studied them both. The older girl was Heather all over again. The spitting image of Bonnie’s grandmother Francisca in her younger days. The hair was as rich dark brown as Bonnie’s own.
There was no denying this one was a Coleson.
Crispin’s twin, though…she was a bit thinner than Crispin. Maybe a bit shorter. She just seemed smaller. More…fragile.
She was staring at Crispin. Crispin stared at her, too.
They seemed to be shifting closer. Like magnets.
Crispin shot a look of bewilderment at Bonnie. A plea for her mother’s help.
Bonnie pulled herself to her feet.
Her baby girl wasn’t going to do this alone.
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Pen fought turning aroundand running. Hiding. Everything just felt different now. At least what she couldfeel.Mostly she just felt so damned numb.
And angry.
She was definitely angry.
The girl came closer. Her name was Crispin. What kind of name was that?
She had glasses. Pen didn’t.
Pen looked for all the ways theyweren’tidentical. Rafe and Caine had said they were certain she and this girl were identical twins. But it was possible they weren’t. Pen knew they were, though.
She just knew it, looking at her now.
Then the girl stepped closer.
