“She took it,” Lulu whispered. “The painting. Mom took it after I left. She didn’t know why I ran, but she wanted me to have it. Pierce had been selling everything, her parents’ artwork, her jewelry, and she didn’t want him to sell that as well, so she took it. Sara had no idea.” She gripped my shoulders, fisting my tee. “She wanted me to have it.” A tear streaked down her face. “It was there the whole time.”
Well, shit. I didn’t have the words to make her feel better, so I pulled her in tight and held her.
She lay against my chest. “Do you think she knew? About Pierce, what he did?”
I kissed the top of her head. “No. She may have suspected he was the reason you left, but not what he did, what he was capable of. What I do know? She loved you, more than anything.”
Lulu nodded. Sniffed. “Yeah. She did.”
We sat like that for a while. I’d stay like this with her for as long as she needed me. Someone tapped on the door. “Yeah?” I called.
Neco opened up. “You two got a minute?”
I looked down at Lulu and she nodded. She was good. So damn strong. “What’s up?”
He held the door open and motioned for us to follow. I carried Josh, Lulu at my side.
Neco shut the door behind us when we entered his office. He walked around behind this desk and pulled a file out of the drawer. “Been doing some digging. Thought you might like to see this.” He slid it to me.
I flicked it open with my free hand. Pierce’s name was at the top of the paperwork. I looked up. “Not now, man. Lulu’s been through enough already today.”
“I think she’ll wanna see this.”
Lulu rested her hand on my arm. “I’m okay, really.”
I frowned. “What is this?”
“Medical records,” Neco said, leaning forward and pointing to a section near the bottom. His gaze lifted to Lulu, eyes going soft but still intense. “I know you both said you didn’t care either way, that you didn’t want to know. But I think you’d want to know this. Pierce . . . he had a vasectomy, before he married your mother. He couldn’t have kids.”
“What?” she whispered, swaying a little on her feet.
I reached out to steady her and pulled her into my side, feeling a little weak at the knees myself. We’d decided not to get DNA testing done. I didn’t care who made him, Josh was mine. But, fuck—yeah, this news. Knowing Josh would never have to go through the pain I had, of learning that he was created in violence. I couldn’t describe the joy I felt right then. Relief was too small a word.
“He’s yours,” Neco said to me, a grin damn near spitting has face.
I turned to my boy, wrapped my hand around the back of his head, soft curls against my palm, and kissed the top of his head. “Always was.”
Neco gave me a chin lift, knew what this would mean to me, knew all too well what it had done to me when I’d found out the truth about my own twisted beginnings. That Josh would never have to suffer that heartbreak meant everything.
Lulu curled into my side, arms wrapping around my waist, and buried her face against my shirt. Neco left the room without a word, giving us privacy. When she leaned back, tears were running down her cheeks. I sucked in a breath at the fucking sheer joy on her lovely face.
Fuck, I loved her.
“You wanna get married?” The words came out of my mouth before the question fully formed in my head, but they felt right, more than right. Way fucking overdue.
Her mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut and blinked up at me, which sent more tears down her cheeks. “What?” she whispered.
I swiped the tears away with my thumb, but more replaced them instantly. “I love you, Lulu. I wanna be with you forever. Let’s make it official. Marry me?”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
She nodded, smiling and crying and being her fucking adorable self. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I slid my fingers into her vibrant hair, fisted it lightly, and leaned in to kiss her, slow and sweet. Josh squirmed and giggled, then started demanding lunch.
I tickled my son then handed him to his mother. Then, slinging my arm around Lulu’s shoulders, I led them to the door. “Fine, let’s go eat, and then we can go ring shopping.”
I was rewarded with another of Lulu’s killer smiles.
EPILOGUE
Lulu
Two weeks later.
Butterflies assaulted my belly as I opened the door to the apartment. Nerves and excitement all rolled into one.
The place was quiet, but then I heard Hunter’s voice coming from Josh’s room, low and deep. I took off my jacket, slung it over the back of the couch, and walked across the living room, down the little hall to Josh’s door. It was ajar and I stood there for several seconds, listening to Hunter read a bedtime story to his son. My heart squeezed. Sometimes I didn’t know how one woman could handle this much happiness. Be this lucky. I eased it open and Hunter glanced up.