Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Do you feel like you owe Daddy and me when we help you?” Sophie asks gently, and she swallows as she turns to her mom.
“I…” She shakes her head. “You guys do a lot for me.”
“No more than we’ve done for any of your siblings when they have needed us over the years.”
“Yeah, but they came into the family with a clean slate.” She instantly pales, the admission obviously catching her by surprise, while Nico’s head jerks back and Sophie gasps.
What the fuck.
“You didn’t come into the family owing us shit.” Nico’s gruff voice breaks through the heaviness that has filled the silence of the room. “We didn’t do you a favor by adopting you or your brother. Neither of you were some kind of charity case to us.”
“Can we talk about this another time?” she asks with her voice shaking. It kills me to stay put and not walk across the room and pull her into my arms when I hear it, but it’s obvious to me that this is a conversation that is long overdue, and I don’t want to intervene.
“No.” Nico’s jaw clenches. “How long have you felt like this?”
“Dad.”
“How long?” He clips, and I tense.
“I don’t know.”
“Jesus.” He drops his head back to his shoulders. “We didn’t have to sacrifice anything for you, Nalia, not happiness, not time, not money, but we would sacrifice everything we have for you and your siblings.”
“Dad.”
“It kills me that you’ve felt like we did you a favor by bringing you into our family and that you never told us.”
“I’m sorry.” She looks between her parents. “I’m just grateful for everything that you’ve done for me, for the life you gave me and…” She swallows. “And I know that I will never be able to pay you back for that.”
“There is nothing to repay us for.” Sophie reaches for her daughter’s hand as tears fill her eyes. “You have given us so much more than you could even understand, and we are so lucky to be your mom and dad, Nalia. You and Sage made our family whole.” She pulls her into her arms. “And like your dad said, we didn’t do you a favor by adopting you or Sage; we adopted you both because we wanted to add to our family, and the stars aligned and brought you two to us,” she whispers as Nico wraps his arms around both women.
“We love you.” The pain in Nico’s voice is hard to hear as a dad, but it’s also hard to hear as the man who has come to care about the woman standing in front of me, who obviously needs to work through some shit that she hasn’t dealt with. I had assumed that her childhood could have played a role in why she is so guarded, but hearing that she thinks that she, in some fucked up way, owes her parents for adopting her guts me.
Wanting to give them a minute alone, I step out of the kitchen and almost bump into Zuri, who is hidden around the edge of the doorway.
“Hey, kiddo, you okay?”
“Umm, yeah.” She shifts from foot to foot. “Coop was wondering if you have some extra batteries for his controllers.”
“Sure, come on.” I start up the stairs, but stop when I notice she’s not following.
“Zur,” I call, and she drags her eyes off the kitchen doorway and steps towards me.
“Is Nalia okay?”
“Yeah, sweetheart,” I assure her softly. “Come on,” I urge, and she follows me back upstairs.
“All these are dead.” Coop looks up at me as I walk past him on the way to the closet in the game room.
“I told you to toss the used ones after you take them out of your controllers.”
“I know, I just forgot,” he mutters as I grab the extra batteries I keep tucked away in the top of the closet.
After hooking up both controllers with new batteries, I take a seat in the oversized beanbag chair in the corner of the room and watch him and Zuri while they play some game called Phogs, where two players share the same dog body and have to work together to complete tasks. It’s obvious in the beginning that Zuri’s mind is elsewhere, but before long, Coop distracts her, and the two of them are laughing. Looking to the doorway when something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye, I watch Nalia enter the room. It’s obvious that she’s been crying, but she’s attempted to hide that she has.
“Grandma and Grandpa took off.” She stops at Zuri and leans down to kiss the top of her head. “They said they’ll see you Saturday for your game.”
“Are they okay?” Zuri asks while Coop pauses the game.
“Yeah, they just needed to get home.”
“Okay,” she says quietly, and Nalia moves past Coop, ruffling his hair, making him grin. Holding out my hand in her direction, she comes to me and falls onto the beanbag with me.