Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
I sucked in a breath. “But… but she told me. She said she had her lawyer try to find you in case you wanted them. She tried to make sure you were in the loop and had every opportunity to be with your children if you wanted it.”
As he looked at me, I could see confusion on his face. “What’s all this about? Did I do something to hurt you or Cherry? Carnage told me to tell the truth, but I’m not sure what the question here is.”
“If Calliope has your children, Chase, we need to discuss how much, if any, involvement you want to have in their lives,” Cain explained. “You should know that Calliope adopted those boys at birth and has raised them as her own.”
“Wait,” Chase said, waving me away like I’d been the one to speak. “You’re telling me that at sixteen, you, a minor, adopted your sister’s children?”
“Well, I was seventeen by the time they were born, but I was emancipated. I had my GED and was working a full-time job. We were poor kids. Kids nobody wanted. With the help of Cherry’s lawyer, I got custody instead of the boys going into foster care. Since Cherry had custody of me before her lawyer helped me get emancipated, all three of us would have had to go into foster care. The way the judge saw it, by giving me, their closest relative, custody, it saved the state money. I was self-sufficient with a job of my own, out of school, and practically begging to keep the kids. So, yeah. I kept my sister’s children and raised them as my own. I adopted them so it was all legal. The only question was you. Which was why the lawyer tried to find you. Cherry told me she told you she was pregnant before you left. She said her lawyer tried to find you after the boys were gone. I honestly didn’t care, because I had bigger problems at the time.”
Chase sighed and sat heavily in a nearby chair, scrubbing a hand over his face. He seemed to be weighing what he needed to say, but he didn’t look at Cain or Carnage. He kept this between the two of us.
“Callie, your sister did tell me she was pregnant before she left. She told me I was the father. But there was no way I could have been the father of those boys. I always, always, used a condom. Also, to erase any doubt, I gave blood for a paternity test when she was about ten weeks along. Once the negative test came back” -- he shrugged -- “I left. There was nothing left to talk about at that point. She’d been unfaithful for whatever reason and gotten pregnant. What was I supposed to do?”
I nearly lost it then. Tears leaked from my eyes, but I managed to hold it to just a couple. “So you’re not the boys’ father?”
“If there had been any question, I’d have stayed. Hell, had I known she had cancer, I’d have come back to make sure she was taken care of. Understand me, I didn’t love her, but I could have. I certainly would have made sure she had peace of mind about her children, even if they weren’t mine.”
“Did you change your phone number after you left? She said you had. That her lawyer got a disconnected number.”
“No, Callie. I have the same cell number I’ve always had. If she’d wanted to get a hold of me, she could have.”
Since our mother’s death, my life had been a desperate struggle to just survive. There had been moments of joy, but mostly it had been struggle, pain, and fear. Now, for the first time in longer than I could remember, I felt hope blooming in my chest.
I looked up at Carnage, needing reassurance from him. Needed it with all my might. “So I get to keep my boys?” My voice broke when I asked the question.
“You thought I’d take two kids away from the person who’s been with them since their birth?” Chase sounded horrified.
“I thought they were your kids,” I said, the tears coming now in an uncontrollable flood. “I thought you might want custody after you found out their mom was dead since you never had the choice.”
“Honey. Callie. If they’d been mine, I’d want to be a part of their lives. I’d help you any way I could. But I’d never just… take them. You were just as special to me as Cherry was, just in a different way. Like a little sister I adored. So, I’ll still help you, honey. Any way I can. But I’ll never hurt you or your kids. Never.”
I reached for Carnage, and he lifted me into his arms and I just lost it. I cried so hard I couldn’t process anything else around me other than Carnage’s strong arms and the wide chest I sobbed into.