Page 9 of Emerald

“There’s tea, coffee, or juice if you like?” Elizabeth asks, fussing over me.

“A coffee is fine,” I answer.

Elizabeth frowns. “You need more than coffee to fuel you for the day. How about a bowl of fresh fruit,” she suggests.

“Mum, stop hovering,” Zoe calls out as she enters the kitchen. Both of her men come over and kiss her good morning. “If you want coffee, have coffee,” Zoe says, giving me a wink.

“How are you feeling this morning, my love?” Mateo asks as he begins to plate up a bowl of fresh fruit for Zoe.

“Little queasy but it passed quickly. I’m starving though,” she says, giving him a big grin.

“Sit, and we will bring you your breakfast,” Tomas adds.

Zoe does as she is told and joins her father at the breakfast table. All the while I stand there surprised as I’ve been assaulted by way too much love for this early in the morning.

“Ellie, come sit, Tomas will grab you a coffee,” Zoe says, fluttering her eyelashes at her man.

Tomas shakes his head at her but does it anyway. “How do you like it?” he asks me.

“Black is fine, thank you,” I answer.

Tomas turns and moves around the kitchen with Mateo while I join Zoe at the table. Her father says good morning over the top of his paper before disappearing behind it again.

“Did you sleep, okay?” Zoe asks.

“That bed is super comfortable. And again, I can’t thank you enough for letting me crash here for a while.”

“You can stay as long as you like. The compound is fully secure. We have enough acres of land that if you want to build somewhere else you can. My parents bought the house next door, so we will be expanding further out, they move in next month which is exciting,” Zoe explains.

“You’re going to miss me,” Elizabeth says breezily as she waltzes around the kitchen, grabbing some breakfast.

Frank pulls his newspaper down a little and gives Zoe a raised brow which has us both laughing.

Elizabeth comes over and clips him around the ears as she places a bowl of fruit in front of me.

“Mum.” Zoe sighs.

“What, this is my job as a mother to make sure her children are all taken care of,” she states firmly. Her comment stills me. “Hope that’s okay. I don’t want to step on your own mother’s toes, but when you said last night that you’re now Ellie Clark, I took that as you are one of my girls, too. And I guess breaking the habit of fussing is a little hard.”

Wow.

Elizabeth has really caught me off-guard, and that is hard to do. I wasn’t expecting it and I’m not sure how to feel. Next thing I know, Zoe reaches across under the table and squeezes my knee, which pulls me from my thoughts. A small smile falls across her face.

“Was that too much? I was too much, wasn’t I?” Elizabeth says, quickly back peddling thanks to my silence.

“No, you're fine. It’s very kind of you to be so nice. But you don’t have to include me because of Maxim.”

Elizabeth’s mouth falls open. “Sweetheart, it’s not because of Max that we want you to be a part of this family. You have our name now, that makes you one of us.”

How the hell are these people so fricken nice after everything that has happened?

“Not sure if I deserve it,” I tell her honestly.

“What happened to us has nothing to do with you?” Zoe says.

I turn and look over at her. “You know that’s not true.”

The room falls silent at my comment.

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