“How is my favorite little girl today?” Kian asked Lily.
“I want to go home,” Lily told him with a bit of a stubborn tilt to her chin that clearly showed she was most certainly Kian’s child.
“Guess what?” he said.
The hope in Lily’s eyes had Roxie’s heart breaking all over again for this precious child.
“What?” she said.
“You get to go home today,” he told her.
She smiled as she reached out for him. He didn’t hesitate as he gently pulled her into his arms and lightly squeezed. Roxie couldn’t have spoken in that moment, even if her life were in danger.
“And I get to see my mommy?” she said as she looked around the room, her eyes connecting with Roxie’s. Kian looked over at her, his smile quickly falling. There was a question in his eyes, and Roxie knew she had no choice but to talk to Lily about this.
“Sweetie,” Roxie began, and Lily looked at her with sadness. “Remember how I told you your mommy couldn’t be here right now?”
Lily nodded as her eyes filled with tears. There was a huge lump in Roxie’s throat, making it impossible to continue speaking. Kian reached out with his free hand and rested it on Roxie’s leg as he looked at Lily.
“Your mommy needed to go be with the angels,” Kian said gently as he squeezed Roxie’s leg. As much as she didn’t want to lean on this man, she couldn’t reject his comfort in this moment. She had no one else.
“But why?” Lily asked as her first tears fell.
“I don’t know why,” Kian told her. “Sometimes we don’t get to know the reasons, but we do get to know she’s watching out for you, and she misses you so much.”
Lily was silent as she looked from Kian to Roxie, sadness in her expression. Roxie’s heart was completely broken as she tried to figure out what else to add.
“No one can make you stop hurting, but we will be here for you always,” Roxie told her.
Lily continued to cry as Roxie joined her. This moment was too much, and yet there was nothing that could be done to take the pain away from a child losing her parent, especially a child as young as Lily, who just couldn’t possibly understand why her mommy didn’t want to see her again.
“I want you both to come home with me for a few days,” Kian said, and Roxie instantly tensed. This was something he should have discussed with her first, not just sprung on her, especially with Lily so vulnerable. His tone might have been calm and soothing, but that didn’t help her at all.
“I . . . uh, don’t know about that. I was thinking we’d just go to my sister’s place,” Roxie told him, keeping her own tone calm.
“It’s not ready yet,” he said, giving her a look. For a brief moment, Roxie had forgotten that’s where the crime had happened, had forgotten that it might be a crime scene.
“I didn’t even think about that,” Roxie said slowly. “We can figure something out.” It was more than obvious that Kian didn’t like that idea at all.
“I’m off work now. Come home with me and get a shower and a decent night of sleep, and then we can go from there,” he insisted. She didn’t want to argue in front of Lily, but she in no way wanted to go to his place.
“I really think that’s a bad idea,” Roxie told him. Lily wasn’t saying a word during this exchange.
“We need to talk about what happens next,” he said, his voice firmer.
“I will be caring for Lily. There’s not a lot to talk about,” Roxie said, deciding there was no further discussion on the matter.
“Come home and speak with me tonight or . . .” He stopped. Maybe he was smart enough to realize ultimatums might not be the way to go at the moment. “The choice is yours,” he finished.
“Is that a threat?” she whispered, not wanting Lily to feel the tension. Kian sighed before he shook his head.
“No,” he finally said. “It’s not, but we do need to talk,” he told her.
Roxie gazed at him with suspicion, but exhaustion was making her not want to fight, and she really didn’t know where else they were going to go for this night. Maybe after a solid night of sleep, she’d have a clearer frame of mind.
“Please, Roxie, we need to talk,” he told her. It was more than obvious he wanted to monitor Lily as well. She’d been given the all clear, but that didn’t fully abate their worry over the child.
“For tonight,” she told him and looked at Lily.
“We get to leave now?” Lily asked.
“Yes, baby girl, we get to leave,” Roxie told her.
Her tears dried up as Kian stood and walked from the room to finish the paperwork that would allow Lily to go home with them. Roxie just wasn’t at all sure what was coming next. Was it a mistake to go to his place? Would she be able to take Lily away again once she stepped through those doors? She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Chapter Five
Lily was fast asleep when the three of them pulled up to Kian’s place, and Roxie was grateful. What had she been thinking? Maybe it had been a few years and she’d somewhat forgotten the wealth of the Forbes family. That had to be the only explanation for the awe she felt looking at the mansion Kian called home.
She didn’t live in this world in any way. She was used to eating ramen and living on four hours of sleep so she could pick up extra shifts. Sure, she was a nurse, but that meant she had a lot of school debt to pay off, and she’d been on her own for a long time.
Maybe one of the reasons she’d left Kian had been resentment. Everything came so easily to him. It wasn’t his fault he’d been born with money and respect, and it wasn’t her fault she envied him a little for it. It was just how life worked out.
“Shit,” Kian mumbled beneath his breath, startling Roxie.
“What?” she asked, afraid to wonder what he could possibly have to worry about.
“It looks like my brothers are here,” he told her with a sigh.
“Why?” she asked. She in no way wanted to run into any of his family members, not with their past together, and certainly not with this newfound knowledge circling in her head. She never had been much of a liar.
“I’ve kept my family informed about what’s happening, and they want to meet their niece,” he told her. “It won’t take long to get rid of them.”
“Just take Lily and me somewhere else,” she pleaded.
“Not gonna happen,” he said as he opened the garage door and pulled inside.
Roxie looked around and felt herself growing sicker by the second. She counted twelve car bays—and all of them were filled. She didn’t want to think about the price tag on each vehicle. Kian certainly didn’t mind spending money. That was for dang sure.
Kian was out of the car and around to her door before she could undo her seat belt. He stood there waiting, as if he had all the time in the world. Roxie wished she could find the same confidence that had gotten her through college right about now. When she’d gone away for her education, she had left the pathetic Roxie behind. Somehow the second she’d crossed the city-limits sign, all her insecurities had come roaring back. She hated herself a little for feeling that way.