“Daddy?” she wheezes, trying to sit up. “Daddy?”
“Lily, it’s me. It’s okay. It’s me.”
“You came back,” she cries, throwing her hands around my neck. Her blonde hair falls in waves down her back, and I run my fingers through it as she sobs into my chest.
“Hey, I’ll always come back to you.”
She clings to me tighter. “She was telling me no one else wanted me.”
I tense, clinging to her tighter. “She lied. I can’t imagine a world where anyone didn’t want you in their life Lily.”
She pulls back, her lower lip trembling. She tries to compose herself but fails.
My girl.
My sweet, sweet girl.
She places her hand above her heart. “It hurts here. I thought you left me.”
I duck my head to meet her gaze. “You’ll never be rid of me, Lily. Ever. You are mine, remember?”
She nods as she wipes her nose with the sleeve of her pyjama top. “And you are mine.”
I pull her against my chest. “Yeah, princess, I am.”
“Is Mummy and baby Aiden home too?”
“Yeah, and she’s waiting downstairs so her baby girl can meet her brother.”
She pulls back, a small smile tugging at her lips. “He’ll be mine too. She can’t take him either, right?”
“No, baby, she won’t because she’s never coming back. She’ll never hurt you ever again. I promise you.”
“You really, really promise?”
“I really promise.”
She grips my top tighter. “Because I don’t want to leave. I don’t want you to leave. You’re the best daddy in the world and I love you so much. I love all of you. You make here,” she declares, tapping her chest above her heart as tears stream down her cheeks. “You make it stop hurting.”
“Princess,” I choke out, gripping her tightly.
If there are any doubts subconsciously lingering, there aren’t now.
Those words.
She took my heart with those words, and like a balm, they filled in the broken cracks.
“She tells me in my dreams that she’ll take me away, and sometimes, she tells me you want me to leave.”
I sit her up and duck my chin. “Lily, they are just nightmares. They don’t mean anything.”
“I want them to stop.”
“One day, Lily, they will,” I promise. “Now, do you want to come downstairs and meet your new brother and see your mum, because I know she’s worried about you.”
“Yes,” she tells me, her tone brighter, yet her expression is still glum.
I lift her into my arms as I stand and make my way downstairs. Chatter from the living room leads us there, where my wife and our daughter Faith are resting on the sofa, baby Aiden in Faith’s arms.
“His face is all mushy,” Faith declares, and my shoulders shake with laughter.
At the sound, Teagan’s head pops up, and a smile tugs at her lips as she stares at Lily. “Are you okay, princess?”
Lily nods. “Are you better now?”
“I’m getting there, sweetie.”
I lower Lily to the floor, and she rushes over to her mum. “Good, because I really, really missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Teagan soothes, pulling her in for a hug. “You ready to meet your baby brother?”
Lily nods and climbs up onto the sofa next to Teagan. When I see her reach for Aiden, I step in. “I’ll do it.”
She sits back and I gently take Aiden from Faith, kissing her on the head. “Hope you’ve been a good girl for Nanny Joan.”
“I’ve been the best.”
I wink. “Good.”
Taking the seat next to Lily, I watch as her gaze locks onto Aiden’s. She stretches her arms out, attentively reaching to touch his foot. “He’s so small.”
“Want to hold?”
At her nod, I gently place him in her arms. She sucks in a breath, staring at her brother. “I promise to be the best big sister, just like Faith,” she declares in awe.
“Of course we will, duh,” Faith announces, giggling.
Lily’s eyes lock with mine. “It’s stopped hurting again, Daddy.”
I struggle to swallow past the lump in my throat. I can’t form a word, my lips tightening as those words penetrate.
She means the ache in her heart, the one she explained to me earlier. I watch her glance down at her brother, a smile on her face.
I may have been afraid of my father, but my children will never need to be afraid of me, because I’ll make sure no harm ever comes to them.
I’ll make sure her heart never aches again, and hope she keeps smiling through life.
For all my kids.
Because family is everything.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lily
My dad; always the protector. It’s one of the reasons I love him so much. He’s trying to take my mind off Jaxon, off my waters breaking and going into labour, and it’s sort of working.
My dad has always been mindful with words, and strong with his actions. You know when he’s mad or when he’s happy. You know when he’s disappointed, or when he’s proud. But most of all, you know without words that he loves you. He has shown me every day just how much, and not a day has gone by where he hasn’t. But hearing those words, those thoughts and feelings he had before he even knew how I would grow up, it shook me to my core.
He always believed in me.
And he never stopped.
Sweat drips down my temple, down my spine, and even as I cry out through another contraction, my mind can only focus on him, on his words, and on the memory I had somehow almost forgotten.
I don’t remember all of what he told me, but I do remember the ache in my chest, the one that slowly faded away until I finally forgot it ever existed. He did what he promised he would do and made sure it never came back.
Well, until now.
Now my heart aches, but for an entirely different reason.
Jaxon.
What if he is gone? He’ll never get to meet his son or daughter. He’ll never watch them grow. I’ll never be able to walk this life without him. I’ll fail. He keeps telling me I make him a better man, but he’s wrong. He’s already a good man. It’s him who makes me better. He gives me life. He gives me hope.
And right now, more than anything, I have to hope he’s okay. I have to hope life wouldn’t be this cruel and take away a good man, a great husband, and someone who is going to make a fantastic father.
“So, you see, everything will be alright in the end,” Dad tells me. “It will be. I promise.”
“You said you nearly lost Mum,” I question, but it comes out more as a statement.
“Yeah. There were complications with the pregnancy, and she had to be rushed into surgery.”
My heart aches knowing they both had to go through that, but I’m glad they got through it.
“Sweetie, everything is going to be okay,” Mum assures me.
I clench my fingers around the cushion beneath me, refusing to believe her. “Mum, I’m not Dad. I’m not strong enough. I’m not… I can’t live without him. I can’t. I—” My chin hits my chest as another contraction hits, this one stronger than the last. It hurts. Everywhere hurts. Whoever said a contraction is just like a painful period cramp, lied. I can’t imagine anything hurting as much as this.