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“I won’t bedealing with you, Millie. You don’t need dealing with. You are a bright, headstrong young woman. You’ve lived without a real parent almost all your life. He might have been in the background, pulling our puppet strings, but it’s been me and you all this time.”
She stares at me, absorbing my words.“What about Maria?”
“I’ve already put everything in place to ensure she’s going to be okay. She can stay in our lives if she wishes, but I’m not tying her to us. She’s been under Dad’s control for long enough, don’t you think?”
“I guess.” She swallows, absorbing everything I’m saying. “Did she know about any of this?”
I shake my head. “Only Christian Beckworth and Fiona Brown knew. I couldn’t risk getting anyone else involved. If it went wrong, then…” I trail off. The words don’t need saying.
Her sad, tired eyes hold mine, making guilt tug at my insides.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you or give you any kind of warning. I wanted to, I really did but—”
“I get it, Theo. Last night was a shock, I’m not going to lie. But I understand why you did it the way you did. He needed the entire town to witness that. His shame is probably worse than anything else right now. And it might be wrong, but that makes me weirdly happy. I just wish they could see everything else he did to us.”
“Me too, Mills. Me too,” I say as I wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull her in for a hug. “We’ve got this. We’re going to be so much stronger from here on out, I promise you that.”
She sniffles into the crook of my neck, but I quickly discover that she’s not the only one getting emotional because when I look up, I find Raine standing in the doorway to my bathroom with a towel wrapped around her and tears clinging to her lashes.
“Come here, sunshine,” I command, holding one arm out to bring her into the embrace.
She hesitates but after a couple of seconds, she moves closer.Her clean scent fills my nose and I instantly feel more settled knowing that she’s close.
Her arms wrap around both of us, and we fall into a comfortable silence. It’s exactly what I need to confirm that I’ve done the right thing.
Our embrace is only broken when someone's stomach growls loudly.
I chuckle. “I guess I should feed my girls, huh?”
“I’ve got it,” Raine says, standing from the bed and walking over to my dresser to find one of my t-shirts.
Seeing her here in my space is so right. I’ve never wanted a girl up here before, but suddenly, I don’t want her to be anywhere else.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes again,” Millie warns.
“What look?” I stupidly ask, my eyes locked on Raine while Millie averts her gaze when the towel drops.
She leans closer so only I can hear her response. “You’re in love, Theo.”
I cough, choking on my own saliva. But I don’t argue.
How can I?
Instead, I watch Raine as she pulls my t-shirt over her head, hiding her curves from me.
“It suits you,” Millie muses, sounding happier than she probably should given the situation. “And I think she’ll make an epic sister.”
All the air rushes from my lungs as images I really shouldn’t be seeing appear all too vividly in my head.
“Come on, Mills. Let’s go and see what we can find to eat.
“Okay,” she hops up and rushes over to Raine as if her world hasn’t just been flipped upside down around her. “Can we make pancakes?”
“You think Elliot keeps flour and eggs in his kitchen?” Raine asks in amusement.
“He’d better or we can make him go out to get them for us. Chocolate chips too.”
“Jesus,” I mutter, more than aware that given a chance, Millie will wrap my boys around her little finger even more than she already has.
