Page 9 of A Moon Lake Christmas Hero

I waited. Because getting her response was somehow important at that moment. Usually, I didn’t care much about that. I was known for my ability to steamroll people.

To get my way.

And I wasn’t sorry about that either.

The ability to decide on what I wanted and pursue it until I reached that goal was the reason for my professional success. The reason I had enough money not to need to work another day in my life. The reason I could step back and take care of the twins, now that their mother was gone.

Trish and I hadn’t exactly been a love match. We’d had fun, a couple of easy hookups. Not even an affair. She’d been attracted by my wealth, and I’d been attracted to her body.

Shallow as it was.

We’d never planned for the pregnancy to happen, but when it did, I didn’t even think twice about marrying her. I didn’t love her, but she deserved the stability I could provide. And we liked each other well enough despite not knowing each other.

It was easy.

Until it wasn’t.

She was so radiant throughout the pregnancy, loved the girls even before the realization of having kids had fully settled in for me.

She’d made our house a home for them, for us.

Made it perfect.

And in the end, all her enthusiasm, all my money weren’t enough. I didn’t know she’d been an addict before. Probably didn’t want to see the signs.

Didn’t know the pregnancy was her last-ditch attempt out of it, her enthusiasm an almost manic attempt to escape her past, and her addiction.

The first time she came back high on drugs, I was livid. And I never left her alone with the girls again.

The second time, we checked her into rehab immediately—a cycle we repeated god-knows how many times before she told me she was done with rehab, me, and the girls.

Our divorce was quick. She didn’t even fight for custody. She just wanted out.

She broke our family, even if it hadn’t been perfect in the first place. She left our babies without a mother. And she broke my trust in women. Because if she could fool me for the duration of an entire pregnancy, how could I ever trust another woman again?

“Okay, I’ll be downstairs in a few.”

I nodded, got up, then ushered the girls out of her room.

Time to get back to reality from memory lane.

It’d been three years. The sharp pain of betrayal had morphed into a dull aching. The girls were growing up healthy and happy. And I had settled into my role as a single dad.

Thanks to my parents, I didn’t need to quit working, though I cut back on everything non-essential.

The handful of real estate deals I’d made since then hadn’t taken me farther away than Whitebrook. I kept my job as the mayor and as a firefighter because I needed to be of service. Needed to give back to the community that helped raise my daughters and stepped up and came together when I needed them most.

But other than that, I spent my time with my kids, making sure they had everything they needed.

Everything we needed.

Each other.

ERIN

The moment I stepped into the kitchen, I stopped.

I’d heard the laughter on my way down, but the perfect picture of a happy family presented before me caused my heart to sting.

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