I nod as I silently digest what he's saying. We would be breaking the law in probably a dozen different ways. But what legal provision would there be for her anyway? They'd send her to her next of kin, no matter how unfit that person is. We'd be throwing her to the wolves. And honestly, we would be telling the truth if we admitted that Sophie showed up here claiming Isabella was Cash's and then she disappeared. That's technically 100% accurate.
"Or maybe it would be better to leave things alone. Her name, her status. She can be the child of Sophie Marks who brought her here and left her with you, her father. That way there are no stories to get straight, less lies to be told. Hopefully no one will ever bother asking anyway. And we could always talk to Marissa. See if she has any advice."
Cash gives me a dry look. "You forget that I graduated law school, too. She won't be able to tell us anything that I don't already know-we're operating outside the bounds of the law. But sometimes, that's the only viable option."
"And you're okay with that?"
Cash takes time to really think about my question before her answers. "To help that little girl," he says, nodding toward the wall behind my head, the wall that separates us, "yes. I'm okay with that."
I can the protective light in his eyes, a protectiveness that a man might have for his child. Bold. True. Fierce. And I love him for it. Partly because Isabella is innocent in all this and she deserves someone to protect her this way, and partly because one day he will be this way over our child.
I reach up to cup his stubbly cheek, sinking into the midnight of his eyes. "You're already a wonderful father, Cash Davenport. We're gonna have the best family in world!"
He smiles. I know my words please him. "Hell yeah, we are!"
With that, he pulls me into his arms, kisses first my lips then my eyelids and then my forehead before snuggling down in the bed and dragging me along with him. With my ear pressed to his chest, I listen to the steady beat of his heart as I wait for sleep to claim me. I'm still mulling over the incredible events of the last few hours when I hear the tiny voice from the doorway.
"Hello?" Isabella whispers.
I sit up, grateful that Cash and I didn't decide to … celebrate our decision in any dirty, naked kind of way.
I'm mindful of the little stab of heartbreak I feel because she doesn't have a parent to go to in the middle of the night when she wakes up feeling scared or lonely. I push it aside and strive for a normal voice.
"Isabella, are you okay?"
I can make her out pretty clearly in the bright moonlight streaming through the skylight and bathing the hardwoods in liquid silver. She shuffles into the room, head bowed, fingers fiddling. I swing my legs out from under the covers and scoot to the edge of the bed and she makes her way around to me. She doesn't stop until she's close enough that I feel the material of the shirt Cash gave her to sleep in brush my knees.
"I woke up and I thought … I thought … " Her breathing is rapid and shallow and I think for a second that she might hyperventilate, but then she throws herself against me and more or less crumbles.
I hold her close, stroking her hair until her nearly-violent shivering stops. When she seems somewhat calm, I slowly lean away until I can look into her face. I tuck a strand of platinum hair behind her ear and tell her, "You're safe here, sweetie. I promise we won't let anything happen to you. Cash is one of the strongest guys I've ever met. He'll take good care of you, okay?"
She nods, a small and sad dip of her little head.
I release her and slide back in the bed, closer to Cash, and I pat the expanse of mattress between Isabella and me. "Will you stay in here for a little while? Just so I know you're okay?"
I make it more about me than her so that she doesn't have to feel any shame or embarrassment for sleeping with us. I don't know that much about nine-year-olds, but I imagine that's frowned upon normally.
She hesitates for only a few seconds before she climbs up on the bed and stretches out beside me, her nose only a few inches from mine when we both get settled. She watches me with her big black eyes. I watch her right back, so glad that, in the end, I didn't let my feelings for Sophie cloud my feelings for this child.
"Mom is … something happened to her, didn't it?" Her eyes glisten like black diamonds in the night. My throat constricts.
"Yes."
"I won't ever see her again, will I?" Her chin trembles with tightly-controlled emotion. Such a brave little girl.