Chapter Seven

Evie still wasn’t sure that her going to this birthday party was a good idea. The formal invitation had been brought up to her room, along with a garment bag. It was a white dress, with green stilettos. She had sat in her room, staring at what, to her, looked like a peace offering or an olive branch from her brother to her. Ethan, or Rich as he was known to his family and friends, had welcomed a complete stranger into their fold. Evie wasn’t sure that she would have been capable of that. Before the accident, definitely, but this person she was now…she was too afraid to open her heart, even to herself.

Elizabeth’s pestering had pushed her to go. For a couple of days, they had been arguing about Evie’s decision not to take the money. Evie didn’t know the value of it, at least not in her mother’s eyes. However, when it came to family, she knew it was priceless. She wanted to belong, and she had found her place. It didn’t matter that she had to share it with Dennis. She desperately needed her brother and this group of people to keep her from getting lost within her guilt, her grief and her fears.

Evie got dressed, pulled her hair back in a Dutch braid and got into the back of a town car. She wasn’t sure where they were going, but she didn’t expect a two-hour drive outside the city. Evie’s neck craned to the side as she leaned her head outside the window when they reached two large iron gates. Her invitation card was presented by the driver, then they drove up a long driveway. The car door opened when they reached the pillars of the pristine white house. It looked more like a country club than it did a home.

Nervous, she worried her bottom lip as she walked up the front steps behind the others. She spotted Rosalinda and Adrian at the door, welcoming their guests, and in that moment, she was overwhelmed by shame. She wanted to get back into the car and get away from this place. She probably would have if the car hadn’t disappeared and there weren’t a bunch of people behind her.

“Bon après midi.” Evie stretched out her hand. Rosalinda only used it to pull her in close for a hug. It was like the woman sensed how deprived she was of motherly love and had made it her mission to make sure Evie got her fill of it.

“Muy linda.” Rosalinda cupped her face and kissed her cheeks.

“Hallo, dear.” Adrian greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. He turned her around and introduced her to the guests still lingering around the front door. “This is my son-in-law’s younger sister.”

Evie was glad and a little disappointed at the same time, although she could hardly expect the man to lie to his friends and introduce her as his daughter. Evie was still happy that she stood beside them, though. Their other children weren’t there so, for a moment, she was able to live out her fantasy. Evie was just about to walk away when Rosalinda pulled her back.

“Issadora!” Rosalinda called out to a beautiful woman with jet-black hair forming waves around her face. “You have to meet DJ’s young lady.”

“What?” Evie choked out, stunned. The last thing she needed to be known as was ‘DJ’s young lady.’

“This my dear, is DJ’s mother.” Rosalinda pushed her forward and Evie stumbled into Issadora’s arms.

“I’m sorry.”

Issadora smiled at her and touched her face with the back of her hand. “Bella, you are just as he described, except that your hair is held back. We shall talk later, you and I?”

Evie nodded. How could she refuse her? Now she knew where Dennis got his enchanting expression, the one that she could never say no to. For a moment, as Issadora and Rosalinda rushed away, Evie was left on her own. As she looked around the room, it was a sea of white attire. There were beautiful women and equally attractive men there. When Evie’s gaze met Dennis’, her heart ceased to function. He was walking toward her, parting the White Sea, quickly approaching and, at the same time, taking what seemed like a lifetime to reach her.

Dennis cupped her elbow and led her through the crowd of people. They walked up the spiraling stairs and stopped in the hallway. “I apologize for my aunt Rosalinda and my mother. They mean well.”

“What?” Evie asked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“The way they announced that you were my girl. They were making a point to the other men in the room.” He forced a smile and looked away.

“It’s all right. They seem like lovely women.”

“The best. Rich and Cat wanted to speak with us.” Dennis opened a door and gestured for her to go before him.

It was ludicrous how right it felt being next to him. Evie wasn’t sure of what she had seen at his apartment anymore. Right now, if anyone was to make a case on his behalf, say that he hadn’t been cheating on her, she would believe them.

“What would they like to see us about?” Evie asked once she swallowed the huge lump in her throat.

“I’m glad you could make it.” Ethan walked across the room to her and hugged her. She hadn’t spoken to him in days, hadn’t known him for years, and here he was acting like she was the sister that he had always wanted.

“Thank you for inviting me.”

“Evie, welcome.” Catalella didn’t make an attempt to hug her or anything.

“She’s just like you, guarded,” Dennis said. “She’s dealt with more than one person should in a lifetime.”

“I can relate,” Evie whispered.

“Well, the difference is, I didn’t betray you,” Dennis stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Not today.” Catalella pulled Dennis to her side. “Today we celebrate our family, the people in our lives, the old and the new. A few years ago, if you had told me, I would be here, about to renew my vows, baptize and celebrate my children’s lives with the man I love, his sister and my best friend, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Ethan, Dennis and Catalella stood there in front of her, their eyes glistening with unshed tears. Evie got the feeling that Dennis hadn’t exactly told her Everything when it came to Catalella. Of course, her curiosity was piqued, but she wasn’t about to pry. She would just wait and ask Dennis about it later.

“So, Eyvette, you were going to be part of this day one way or the other, even if you didn’t turn up in New York with all that drama, because, for my best friend, I named my little girl after the love of his life—the love that he had lost—only to remind him that we would never forget you, even though we had never met you before.”

“Why?” It was Evie’s turn to choke up.

“Because we needed to let DJ know that love is real, that he shouldn’t give up on life and that he should never abandon his memories of you. It was a little touch and go for a while, but he pulled through.” Catalella jabbed Dennis’ side with her elbow.

Dennis simply stared at her in disbelief. It was like he was still trying to reconcile the fact that she wasn’t dead. That she was alive and standing right in front of him. It was dangerous, the way he gazed at her, and Evie’s heart beat a mile a minute. She needed to distance herself from that emotion immediately. “I’m engaged. I’m not DJ’s girl.”

“We are allowed to make mistakes once in a while.” Reno Kent spoke, the man she had bumped into at Dennis’ office. Evie had later learned he was Dennis’ big brother. He had told her about him—Reno was one of the reasons that Dennis had felt so lost.

“She doesn’t want to be DJ’s girl, so I can still be the twins’ godmother.” Lisette walked in, a baby in each arm.

Looking at those two babies, sitting quietly in their aunt’s arms like little angels, grief hit Evie like a freight train, right in the chest. She wouldn’t have that, not again, not ever. She inched closer to them. They were like magnets, pulling her to them. She picked up their tiny hands and held them in hers. They stared at her with as much awe as she did at them. They smiled at her instantly, and she couldn’t help but smile back. This was more or less what their baby would have looked like if it had lived. A look at Dennis, and she could tell that he was probably thinking the same thing.

Ethan took his little girl from Lisette and placed her in Evie’s arms. “DJ told us about the baby you were going to have. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. They are not meant to replace your child but, as my only sister, I would like you to be their godmother.”

Evie’s gaze rose from the little girl’s gentle curls to her brother’s face. “You don’t even know me.”

“I feel like I do, not as my sister but as DJ’s girl. The one who climbed through his window to cook him and Ava dinner., Ethan smiled.

“I can’t believe you told them about that,” Evie shied.

“By the way, I would have used that steak knife for a different purpose,” Lisette said.

“You have three children around here somewhere. Shouldn’t you go find them?” Reno asked.

“You mean we have three children.” Lisette gave Dennis the baby boy, then grabbed Reno’s tie and dragged him behind her. “Congrats, guys. And, by the way, Cat, I’ve got dibs on AJ’s baby. I can’t believe the miracle babies were stolen from me, from right under my nose,” Lisette said as she closed the door behind her.

Catalella rolled her eyes and shook her head. Evie took that to mean that she shouldn’t take anything Lisette said to heart. “Miracle babies?”

“Long story, not enough time. Let’s just say it was a one-night stand that led to the rest of my life,” Ethan said. “So, will you be their godmother?”

Evie nodded, afraid that, if she spoke, her emotions would betray her. How could she say no to a genuine offer to be part of two little lives, and the family she had longed wish to have? Evie held onto too little Eyvette. Even though her first name was Camellia, the little girl would always be Eyvette to her. She could hardly believe that Dennis had told them about her. It didn’t seem like something a cheater would do.

When they spoke about her climbing through Dennis’ window, it felt like they were speaking about a completely different person. Sure, there was some familiarity and nostalgia, but Evie wasn’t sure she could ever go back to being that girl, or if it was even possible.

Evie and Dennis sat side by side as Ethan and Catalella renewed their vows. It was hard, sitting next to the love of her life, holding babies and knowing that she would never have that with him. It was soul-crushing. When it was their turn they stood together, promising to take care of those babies, a vow they hadn’t been able to uphold for their own child.

* * * *

It was heartbreaking for DJ to watch Evie as she hovered around the twins while their grandmothers showed them off to the guests. It was obvious that all she wanted to do was grab them and run. Lisette walked past him with baby Kono in her arms. He wondered why they would name the little girl Kono Issadora after the two women in his father’s lives. She was supposed to symbolize second chances, for some reason. It didn’t make sense, but Reno was good with it. He had to be too.

“Give me the baby,” DJ said as he reached for Kono.

Lisette swung the baby out of his reach. “No, my daughter is not a puppy meant to make your engaged former almost dead ex-girlfriend happy.”

“Lisette, give her to me.”

Lisette narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before handing the baby over. DJ cuddled the little one in his arms. She was wide awake, her fist completely submerged into her mouth, slopping drool all over.

“I would like you to meet my niece, Kono Issadora,” DJ held the baby out to Evie.

Evie stared at her then back at the twins. It was as if she couldn’t decide what to do. Finally, she took Kono into her arms. “She’s beautiful.”

“That she is. Her sister and brother are here somewhere, probably causing problems. Would you like to take a walk with me outside? The baby needs some fresh air. She’s been a bit under the weather.” It pained DJ to have to clarify that he wasn’t trying to make a move on her. The last thing he needed to hear was that she was engaged to Philippe. His mood balanced precariously on a knife’s edge, and that kind of reminder was sure to tip him over, and the mention of that man probably would.

“Sure, for the baby.”

It was hard for DJ to look at the tiny marble basin the twins had been baptized in and not think about the loss that he and Evie shared. Their baby would have been here by now, probably a couple of months older than the twins. She would have been happy and likely look just like Camellia.

“Your family is great.”

“They are your family, too. We owe that to Rich. If he hadn’t knocked Cat up, we wouldn’t be celebrating today.”

DJ spotted Harold and his father and steered Evie in the opposite direction. The last thing he needed was for the two men to interfere and claim that it was for his own good. Right now, all they saw was a woman, who came with the lecherous Elizabeth in tow, with the intent to swindle them out of money. All DJ could see was a broken woman who needed him more than he needed air. DJ wanted his Evie back, the girl who had climbed through his window, who had followed him into a club, and the one who had marked his life for eternity.

“What do you mean?”

“Catalella had cancer and she was married to someone else. He left her when they found out that her chances of having a child were slim to nothing. Michael Mathews was a subject that this family was happy to say was long forgotten. “She tried to kill herself. She couldn’t handle the loss. What she didn’t know was that he did her a favor. Two years later, she met Rich at a club, and a night of nasty fun gave us our godchildren.”

“They married for the children?”

“No. They were in love with each other but too stubborn to see it. Catalella never wanted to get married again, neither did Rich.”

“His ex-wife was Ava?”

“Yes.” DJ looked away from her. “Anyway, there was a complication with the pregnancy. Rich had to face the fact that he could lose his children and the girl he loved. So, he proposed and I helped them get married, one year ago today. Besides the fact that Catalella almost bled to death at the church alter, it was a great day.”

DJ’s phone rang, stalker, he shook his head and put his phone back in his pocket.

“What?”

“A whole lot of medical stuff I didn’t understand. I spent my time at the church, asking God not to take her. I couldn’t lose her, not after losing you. That would have sent me off the edge.” DJ could still remember how desperate he’d been that day. The concrete floor had bitten into his knees, but he hadn’t moved, not until he was told that Catalella and her babies were all right.

“That’s why they are a miracle?”

“Yes.”

“It seems like everyone here has a story.”

“We do. It’s the reason why we are strong as a unit. We all know we can’t win this game called life without each other. So, we tag-team it and, when one disappears into the darkness, there is always someone to pull them out.” Catalella and Reno had been his someone’s. There was a time that DJ had doubted his future, in that moment when the pain had become too much and the guilt a heavier load. He had thought about it, about ending it all. But Catalella and Reno had been there for him, holding his hand and refusing to let go.

“Your brother and Catalella…they helped you when you thought…”

“I was told you were dead. After a few months of trying to drown myself in alcohol, they came to get me. They brought me back home and haven’t left my side ever since.” DJ caught sight of Rich and Catalella dancing on the beach. They were incredible. “They saved me.”

“Philippe was there for me.”

Like a pin scratching through the record, their moment came to an unexpected halt. The air between them grew tense and awkward. It was a good thing little Rhyne picked that moment to rush into his legs.

“Hey, watch where you are going little miss,” He lifted her up and covered her tiny face with kisses. Rhyne squealed as she tried to get away from him.

“Stop! Stop!”

“Why are you running so fast?”

The little girl pointed an accusing finger at her brother, her nose scrunched up in annoyance. “RJ has a froggy.”

“He does?” DJ set her down on her feet and rushed to grab the little boy. He tossed him in the air and caught him. “Where is it?”

“It’s gone,” he giggled.

“Both of you, come here. I want you to meet someone.” DJ lifted them both in his arms so that they could be at the same eye level as Evie.

“Hey, that’s my sister,” Rhyne announced.

“You have a pretty sister,” Evie said.

“She’s okay.” That statement made Evie and DJ laugh. “Are you and Uncle DJ getting married?”

“Eeew gross!” RJ yelled.

“It’s not!” Rhyne yelled.

“It is too!” RJ yelled back.

DJ set them on the ground and watched as Rhyne marched after RJ, obviously thinking that, if she was louder than her brother, she would be right. If only life was as simple as Rhyne saw it.

“They are a handful.”

“Rhyne is just as commanding as her mother,” Evie pointed out.

“Yes, she is. But she has her cute moments. We need to head back for dinner.”

* * * *

As fate would have it, Dennis was her ride back to the city the next day. They had sat in silence for a while and Dennis had received some calls. It didn’t matter whether he wasn’t talking to her or talking to someone else, it was still awkward.

However, Evie thought it was a good thing his full attention wasn’t focused on her. There had been this thick air of indifference surrounding them ever since she mentioned marrying Philippe. He was the fiancé that she hadn’t called in a couple of days, the one she wished would somehow sort himself out like he was a problem she didn’t want to deal with. It was hard for her to think about any other man when she was this close to Dennis. DJ…she had to get used to calling him that. Dennis was his father; one he didn’t get along with very well. He was DJ. Maybe differentiating the two, Dennis Rogers and DJ Kent, would help her to either let go of him or forget the past and move on with him. It didn’t matter how she chose to address him; she was his and he…well she could only hope that he was hers.

“I’ll be right in. Give me thirty minutes.” DJ talked into his earpiece. He then turned his Bluetooth off as he pulled up in front of her hotel. He got out of the car and walked to her side, opening her door and holding out his hand for her.

Evie didn’t know if he noticed her hesitation, but he didn’t remark on it. His eyebrow arched, his hand still stretched out to her, waiting. It was symbolic in a way. It was like he was telling her that he was waiting for her, for as long as it took. That was almost laughable. Dennis Kent had every single woman in New York and Nice pining after him. There was no way he would be waiting for a silly girl who didn’t even know who she was. Evie took his hand and he escorted her into the hotel. The lingering looks that he got from the women on the streets and in the hotel, lobby affirmed what she had just told herself. If she wanted Dennis Rogers or DJ Kent, she would need to make her mind up fast. He wasn’t going to wait forever, and there were millions of women willing to help him move on.

Moving on…that should be the theme of the year.

DJ walked her to her door. He stood there silently as she used her key card to unlock it. She stepped inside and held the door open for him. “Would you like to come in?”

“I would love to, but I better not.” He held on to the doorknob as if he was about to pull the door shut. “You have chosen to forget everything we had, but I can’t. Those memories kept me alive when all I wanted was to die. I was numb after I thought you had died. I guess I only got my feeling back when I walked into that conference room and saw you sitting there, alive and well. Then I was angry when I realized you didn’t care enough to let me know you were alive. Hurt when you told me you were marrying Philippe.” DJ laughed then, but there was no light in his eyes. “Confused when I realized you still love me, and right now I am suspended in limbo. I want you, and our baby, but I guess you have to want me too.”

Evie took a step forward, about to say something. But the man standing behind DJ seemed to have curled his fingers around her throat, preventing any sound from coming out.

“What is this?” Philippe asked.

“This is me giving you a choice,” DJ said to Evie. “Meet me for dinner tonight and we can discuss our future. If you don’t come, I will know that this is goodbye.”

“DJ, I—” What was she exactly supposed to say…stay, it’s you I want to be with? Philippe, get your ass back to France? She still had doubts in her mind, so she said nothing. She leaned in when DJ leaned toward her and kissed her cheek. Slice of heaven. It always was with DJ…well, Dennis. But he was one and the same, here in New York. They always had that spark between them, he made her insides spark.

Evie was about to step out of her room and watch DJ until he disappeared into the elevator. however, her unwanted fiancé, Philippe, had other things in mind. He pushed her in and banged the door shut behind him.

“What is this?”

“I think you asked that already,” Evie said, infuriated. This wasn’t his fault, though. It was hers, for giving him false hope and thinking that she could ever forget the only man she had ever been in love with. “Forgive me. Welcome to New York. What brings you here?”

“You, my fiancée, or did you forget?”

“Nope.” Evie stared down at the ring she had forced herself to wear to remind herself that she was no longer free to make foolish, rash decisions. She had given her word to Philippe. He had helped her heal the past year. She owed him more than just polite conversation. She also owed him the truth. “I cannot marry you. I am in love with him. It will never go away, no matter how angry and hurt I am. And I hope it never goes away.”

“You cannot say that to me.”

“There is something only he can give me, something that you can’t.”

“Love?”

“No, I know that you love me.” Or at least think you do. “But only Dennis can give me the child I lost.”

“I, too, am fertile.”

“I know. It’s not just about being able to get a woman pregnant—”

“Speaking of which, how do you think you will manage doing that? Or did you forget that you cannot carry a child to term?”

Evie reeled back from the impact of Philippe’s words. That was a reminder that she didn’t need, especially after spending a weekend with babies. It had been hard for her, all weekend, to play with her nieces and nephews, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to carry any children of her own. However, she had researched other methods, and had always prayed for a miracle. Catalella had her miracle, so why couldn’t Evie? “I am going to suggest surrogacy to DJ.”

“A test tube baby?” Philippe laughed. She had never seen this cruel side of him. “Then what?”

“I haven’t thought about that yet.”

“What about his other women? Or did you think that he was a monk while you were playing dead?”

“Leave, please.” Evie took off Philippe’s ring and handed it to him. “I am sorry this didn’t work out.”

“It is you who is going to be sorry.”

“I already am,” Evie said once Philippe’s mumblings were muted by the sound of the door being shut.

“You are an idiot,” she said to herself. “You are still that girl who climbed through his window.” It was good to know that, deep down, she had survived the crash. Now she just had to figure out what she was going to wear.

* * * *

“Yes?” DJ answered his phone as he gathered his things from his desk. He was going home to change, then hopefully to meet Evie at the restaurant at the hotel. He had high hopes for the night. He needed some sort of sign that he wasn’t going to be stuck in a rut for the rest of his life. He also had something else in mind. He needed to somehow talk Evie into having a baby with him. He couldn’t replace the image of the baby girl in his dreams. In his heart he felt like his daughter was still alive, and the only way to make that true was to actually make a baby with Evie. “Reno, I am on my way out. What? I’m on my way.”

DJ dropped his belongings and ran out of the door with just his phone and car keys. He knew how this would feel—the grief, the pain and the anger. His sister needed him. He rushed to the Henry’s New Jersey home and, just as he expected, there was a swarm of paparazzi at the front gates. He also spotted Daniela’s car. Security let him in after ten minutes. He noticed Reno’s car was absent. He got on the phone with his brother and discovered more disturbing news. Katherine had gone into early labor when she heard the news.

DJ ran into the house and, just as he got into the foyer, he heard loud, hysterical screams coming from the living room. He knew who that was, and he recognized the pain in the cries. Danny’s short hair whipped side to side as a man identical to Christian—Christopher, his twin brother—tried to calm her down. Mr. and Mrs. Henry sat side by side, a stoic expression on both their faces. Duke, their eldest son, paced back and forth, barking into the phone. DJ noticed another woman…she wasn’t Duke’s wife. She stood far from the family, almost looking in, her eyes fixed on Duke. She looked Hawaiian but he couldn’t be sure. There was also something very familiar about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. A wail from Danny led him to abandon his thoughts.

“Danny.” DJ crossed to kneel on the floor where her sister lay curled into a ball. He gathered her into his arms and rocked her back and forth. “I’m here. I’m here.” He held onto to her as tightly as he could, hoping he could keep the broken pieces of her heart from shattering completely. All of a sudden, the cries stopped—there were no sobs, and Danny wasn’t moving at all.

DJ pulled back and stared into the unconscious face of his little sister. Panic gripped him. It wasn’t odd that someone died from a broken heart…he had thought he would, too. He got to his feet and rushed Danny to his car. He put her in the back seat of his range rover and sped to the city. He was taking her to Lennox Hill…there was only one doctor he trusted with his sister, and he hoped AJ was in a fit state to take a look at her.

He was, but barely. AJ’s son, Adrian Christian Ross, had been born big and healthy on the day his uncle had died. It was Katherine’s health that had AJ in knots. She wasn’t responsive and lay staring at the white walls, the shock of the loss of her brother turning her into a marble statue.

Danny had come round an hour after they arrived at the hospital, but fresh waves of cries and wails had forced AJ to sedate her. Three men capable of handling life and death situations, capable of leading successful empires, didn’t know what to do with two grieving women. They didn’t speak, just looked at each other, probably grateful that, as brothers, they were still together. DJ couldn’t imagine losing Reno or Danny, and he knew that AJ would barely survive without his sisters. They weren’t the best people to help Katherine. However, Reno could, having lost a sister.

“Take Danny to your place. You are the only one who can help her,” Reno said to him before following AJ into Katherine’s room.

But Reno was wrong, there was no way that he could help Danny. It was like Reno had forgotten that he was the one who held DJ on this earth.

* * * *

“I can’t believe he stood me up.” Evie was beyond pissed. She regretted letting Philippe go. Although his parting words had been cruel, Philippe had always been there for her. She went back to her room, changed into her pajamas and watched television. It was around two a.m. when Evie was startled out of her sleep. She padded, barefoot, to the door. DJ rushed at her, grabbing her into his arms and holding her painfully tight. She was just about to fight him off when she heard his quiet sobs. With her foot she reached for the door and kicked it shut. For a while she stood there in his arms, his tears soaking into her flannel top.

“I can’t,” DJ finally gasped out.

He can’t be with me. He came all this way to tell me he changed his mind. Evie thought she would break down and cry, too. In a cloud of colorless, odorless smoke, her dreams disappeared.

“He’s dead, and I can’t fix it for her.”

That statement had her in a panic. Evie led DJ to the sofa, hoping that whoever he was, it wasn’t someone she knew. She knelt at his feet, rubbing his thighs in an effort to soothe him. “Honey, tell me what happened.”

“They think I can help her with this, but I can’t.” DJ’s red-rimmed eyes shocked her. She had never seen a man so broken. “You came back, and he won’t.”

“Who are we talking about?” Evie’s breath hitched in her chest, her heart beating out of its cage as if hanging onto his every word.

“Danny’s boyfriend. He was a Marine or in the Navy or something.” DJ wiped his tears. “I was on my way here when Reno called to tell me that he is missing in action and presumed dead.”

“Oh no!”

“Danny is my little sister and, ever since she was born, I would make sure she would never hurt. But I can’t fix this, I can’t take her pain away. They think just because I survived your death that I could show her how to survive Christian’s. But I didn’t…I was barely living. I didn’t want to live without you, without our baby. I could barely breathe.” Evie cupped his cheeks, guilt curdling and rotting at the bottom of her belly. She had caused him this anguish before. She felt ashamed.

“I’m here now.”

“But you weren’t then. I was lost.” DJ stood up and paced the room. Evie just sat there on the floor. What could she do, what words could she offer that could free him of his pain and her of the guilt?

“I slept around this past year.” Evie didn’t think getting hit by a train could hurt more. “I was afraid of the dark, terrified of falling asleep and waking up. The nightmares, the guilt, wouldn’t let me be free, so I drowned myself in women and alcohol. Am I supposed to tell my baby sister to do the same thing? Hop from one bed to the other, suppressing the grief until one day it stops hurting. I can’t do that because…Christian won’t come back. I don’t think this family is allowed more than one miracle at a time.”

A miracle…that was what Evie had thought she would need when she woke up in the hospital with no Sophie, no Dennis and, worst of all, no baby. “I overdosed on morphine…when…when they told me that Sophie was dead, that the baby…and you weren’t there, so I gave up.”

“What happened?” Disbelief marred his face, but it quickly vanished.

“I was in a hospital, so they fixed that. I had to learn how to walk again, regain my speech, my body. Rage drove me back to life. I was mad at you, for abandoning us.”

“I didn’t cheat—”

“I never mentioned that.” Evie got up off the floor and walked over to him. “Ava was the last thing on my mind. I felt like you abandoned me. I needed you the most at that time. You weren’t there.”

“I’m here now.”

“So am I.” She took his hand in hers. “So, cry with me for a while—for Sophie, for our baby, and for Danny and Christian’s love. Then you have to be at your sister’s side. She needs you.”

“I need you.”

“And that is why I’m going to be by your side.”

Evie wrapped her arms around DJ and held onto him tight. She listened to his breathing, to his heartbeat, and to his cries. And, just like that, the weight of the past year fell off her shoulders and she knew freedom.