Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
A tear slipped down my father’s face.
“I’m so sorry,” he looked away.
“I hope you have a nice life, Dad, but you’re not a part of mine anymore. I don’t have a dad. I have a mom who loves me enough for the both of you. I have a brother who took over your spot. And I almost have a husband who’ll be there for me when you never would be.”
My father took the higher road and left, but I didn’t feel good about that.
I probably never would.
Some part of me would always love my dad. Yearn for his love and attention.
But the other part of me, the logical part, would remember what he did to me. What he didn’t do for me. What it felt like when he wasn’t there when I needed him most.
I wasn’t the better person here.
I was thinking about myself, pure and simple.
I clenched my hands, looked up to find my mom, and realized she was crying.
My belly rolled as anger assaulted me.
“Did Bowe tell you he’s not my biological son?” Marcus asked, interrupting my thoughts.
My mouth dropped open.
How could he keep something like that from me?
Marcus grinned. “Before you start having a coronary about it, let me tell you, likely, why he never told you.”
I snapped my mouth closed.
His grin widened, and he repositioned Elise on his shoulder.
“When I was twenty-nine, I met Gianna.” He grinned. “I’m sure you can tell by my coloring that I look different than them.”
I had noticed that, but I’d just thought that Gianna’s genes had been dominant. It’d never occurred to me that Marcus wasn’t really Bowe’s father.
“Bowe was three at the time. He knew, just as he knows now, that I’m not his birth father. But the difference is, I’ve never treated him as anything less than my own. From the moment I met Gianna, she was mine. Bowe was mine.”
I swallowed.
That sounded like him and Elise.
My eyes went down to her sleeping face.
She looked like me.
But she also looked like him. Could easily pass as Bowe’s flesh and blood child.
Would we one day tell her that she wasn’t Bowe’s biological child? Yes. But would she harp on it? No. She’d be okay with it.
Why? Because Bowe was a better father than her real father ever could be.
“It’s a shock, I’ll agree. But I’m not upset,” I said. “I just wonder why he never said anything. Our situations aren’t likely similar, but he’s raising Elise just like you did for him.”
“Because in his eyes, dear, he is her father. Marcus is his father. There’s no other variations. He just is,” Gianna smiled as she came closer. “And you managed to snag Elise a good one. My Marcus taught him everything he knows.”
I smiled for the first time since my father chose to leave.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging her tightly.
Gianna returned the hug.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered. “Now, let’s get you married before my son decides to come searching for you and sees your dress before the ceremony.”
I looked down at my dress, spread my hands down the front, and closed my eyes.
Once I had myself composed, I lifted my head, and then started walking to my future.
We were married twenty minutes later.
I got a new husband who I knew would never leave me and would always be there whether I wanted him to or not.
And Elise got a father. One who would ensure that she would never cry alone. One who would be there for her graduation and the birth of her first child. He’d also be there to walk her down the aisle and to dance with her at the father daughter dance.
My Bowe, he wasn’t the perfect man, but he was perfect for me. Perfect for us.
Epilogue
I’m not a helicopter mom, a crunchy mom, or a soccer mom. I’m just a regular mom trying not to raise assholes.
-Angie’s secret thoughts
Angie
“No, Sir,” I argued through gritted teeth. “I’ll hold for a more informed party.”
The annoyed man’s voice was impatient as he said, “One moment.”
I set the phone down on the counter and leaned over it, my body plastered to the large kitchen island.
We were in our new house.
I loved this house.
I loved it so much that sometimes I hugged it. Like now.
Although, hugging it now might have something to do with the fact that Elise hadn’t slept through the night for three damn days due to an ear infection.
Her seventh ear infection in three months.
I sighed and dropped my head down to the counter.
I didn’t bother to move, either, when I heard the laundry room door open and close, signaling Bowe’s arrival home from work.
“What did the doctor recommend?” Bowe asked, coming straight to me and running his hands down the length of back to rub my lower back.
I’d had a long damn day.
I’d been doing the float nurse thing for about six months now, and every day was a new adventure to me.