AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do we get the story now?” Jesska asked.
Megan nodded, flopping onto Cameron’s sofa facing the large picture window. “I guess it’s time, huh?”
“Does Sophia know anything?” Cameron asked.
“I haven’t really told her much, although she’s smart, so she might have figured out more than I’m guessing,” Megan admitted. “That being said, however, she’s never really asked about her father. There were questions when she was little, but I just told her that her daddy couldn’t live with us. I’ve been putting her off for more than ten years.” She frowned. “I don’t know why Ari’s suddenly made this an issue. Where the hell has he been for the last sixteen years?”
“Wait,” Jesska said. “I thought he was dead.”
“She lied,” Cameron said.
“I had to.” Megan rolled her eyes. “Not that you believed me, apparently.”
“No, I didn’t believe you,” he said. “But when I couldn’t find any information out about the guy, I assumed you’d left him and changed your names so he couldn’t find you.”
“You looked for him?”
“Hell, yes, I looked for him. What kind of bastard just lets his woman walk out the door with his baby daughter and not scour the earth looking for her?”
Megan nodded. “I get it. But, I’m not mad that he didn’t come looking for us back then, I’m just confused about why he is now.”
“Was he that horrible?” Jesska asked.
“No. He was wonderful.”
“What? Seriously?” Cameron asked. “Why did you leave, then?”
“It’s complicated,” she said.
“Megan,” Cameron warned.
“Look, I was young and stupid. Obviously. I would have followed him anywhere. But all of a sudden, things between us changed, and it frightened me. We’d been to hell and back, but he was different. I had to leave. He was just... so... intense. I can’t explain it.”
Cameron studied her.
“What?” she asked.
“What do you consider to hell and back? What aren’t you telling us?”
“Cam.”
“Tell us, Megan.”
“Sophia has two sisters.” Megan’s eyes filled with tears. “I gave birth to them several years before her.”
“What?” Jesska squeaked. “You had more babies?”
Megan nodded, reaching for the tissues.
“Where are they?” Cameron demanded.
“I don’t know. I had two really difficult deliveries and lost a lot of blood with each of them. I was hospitalized for a week with the first and four days with the second. With the first one, when I woke up, Ari was in a rage and the baby was gone. He’d taken precautions with the second, but she disappeared as well right after I gave birth.”
“Where?” Cameron demanded.
“I don’t know,” Megan said. “For a while, I forgot. Literally forgot I had ever been pregnant before.” She shook her head. “Somehow Ari was able to protect us this time, I don’t know how, but Sophia was in my arms when I woke up. I was really out of it, because I’d lost a dangerous amount of blood again. But soon after I had her, he changed. I remember it really well, because it was on my twenty-fifth birthday, which he managed to ruin spectacularly.” She shuddered. “I had to leave him, but it took me three tries before I succeeded. A lovely woman helped me get out of Iceland, and then I managed to get home.”
“I still don’t quite understand why you had to leave him,” Jesska said. “Was he abusive?”
