Page 80 of Stolen Dreams

Her eyes light up.“You can pick whichever ones you want, and we can put them up.You can even put a couple in your room.”

“I want to do that,” she says, and I look over to the schoolyard, seeing that people are going inside.

“Do you want to finish that, or do you want to head into school?”I motion with my chin toward the sandwich.

“I’m good.”She hands me the sandwich, and I put it on the passenger seat, then get out of the truck and meet her on the other side.

I hold out my hand for her, and she slides it into mine.“Okay.”I squat down.“You have the best day.”I smile and kiss her cheek.“I’ll be here to pick you up.”

“Can we all go riding tonight?”she asks.“It’s been forever.”

“Um, let’s see how Lilah feels,” I say, knowing full well that Lilah can’t ride a horse yet.“We can go, me and you.”

“Okay,” she agrees, turning and walking away.

“Love you, Lucy,” I say, and she turns and smiles big.

“Love you too,” she returns before turning and running toward the door when the teacher calls her name.She stops and waves over her shoulder before running inside the school.

When I return to my house, Lilah is outside in the chair she was sitting in yesterday when she got out of the hospital.“Are you okay?”I ask, worry in my question as she nods.I sit in the chair beside her before reaching out and pulling her chair close to mine.

The sound of her laughing now fills the quiet morning.“Did she get to school on time?”I nod, looking out at the forest.

“We had a conversation about her mom,” I relay to her, and she immediately puts her hand on her chest while I tell her how the conversation went.

“We can put pictures in every single room if she wants,” she offers softly.

“Not every room.”My eyebrows pinch together.“Our room is ours.”She laughs.

“She wants to go riding after school.”I look over at Lilah, whose lips part.

“We’re going to have to tell her about the baby,” she says softly, and I nod.

“How do you think she’ll take it?”She closes her eyes and puts her hand on her stomach.“It might be too much too fast.”

“Baby.”I lean forward, putting my hands on my knees.“Before Lucy, there was very little I was proud of,” I admit.“But then I found out about her.I was instantly scared out of my ass, but I was fucking proud.She was so tough to go through all of that and still be the amazing kid she is.Now I’m going to be a father again, and I couldn’t be more fucking proud that this baby was created in love.This baby is going to know how special they are every single second of his or her life.I’m so fucking proud you love me, and we are going to have a baby, and one day in the very near future, you are going to marry me.”

She sniffles.“You can stop being all perfect right now.”

“If I can, then get your ass over here and kiss me.”I lean back as she gets up and comes to me, sitting on my lap.

She places one hand on my cheek.“Thank you, Emmett, for showing me the dreams stolen from me a long time ago were finally found.”She kisses my lips.“You.”She puts her head on mine.“You are my dream.”

“No.”I shake my head and smile.“Loving you, it’s my dream come fucking true.”

Two Weeks Later

“Happy birthday, Sierra,”Lilah’s answers her phone putting it on speaker with a cheerful voice.

“Lilah.”Her voice breaks.“Lilah,” she sobs.

“Sierra,” Lilah says her name in almost a whisper, “what’s wrong?”

I move to stand by Lilah, “It’s a lie,” she blurts between sobs, trying to catch her breath.“It’s all a lie.”

“What is?”

“My life.”The words in a whisper, “I just found my adoption papers.”

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