Page 73 of Vengeful Lies

“I wish Gabby was my mommy,” Essie said with a wistful sigh.

His chest tightened at his daughter’s innocent declaration. A part of him wanted to ask her to take her words back and tell herthat she had a mother who loved her enough to delay possibly lifesaving medical treatment so that Essie could grow inside her and be born healthy. But the other part, the bigger part, knew that Gretel would be thrilled that Essie had a mother figure who loved her the same way she would have if she’d lived.

“That’s another reason I brought you here today. I thought we could put some flowers on your mom’s grave, but I also wanted to talk to you about Gabriella.”

Essie gasped. Looking at him with horror. “Is Gabby dead? Is she under the ground, too? Like Mommy?”

“No, sweetie,” he quickly soothed. “Gabriella isn’t dead.”

“Are you sure?” Essie asked, not looking convinced. “You said people can be dead because they getted hurt, and the bad men hurted Gabby.”

“They did,” he agreed. “But they didn't hurt her badly enough for her to die.”

“You made Gabby go away,” Essie accused, and he sighed, unable to refute her.

“I thought I was doing the right thing, but now …” Now he was pretty sure he hadn't done the right thing at all. The opposite in fact. He’d done the wrong thing and hurt all of them in the process. “Let me come get you out and we can talk more as we walk to your mom’s grave.”

Climbing out of the car, he helped Essie out, then grabbed the bouquet of colorful flowers they’d gotten from the florist on the way there. Then Cade took his daughter’s hand and they headed through the quiet cemetery toward Gretel’s grave. One he hadn't visited as much as he should have over the years.

“I need to apologize to you,” he told his daughter.

Essie gasped and looked up at him. “That means say sorry. Why do you need to say sorry to me, Daddy? Did you do something bad?” Essie sounded absolutely scandalized by the idea.

Cade chuckled. “I didn't do something bad, I was actually trying to do the right thing, but I did make a mistake. I shouldn’t have asked Gabriella to leave. That hurt you and it hurt her, and I'm sorry.”

Tugging her hand free from his, Essie wrapped her arms around his leg, hugging him with all the strength in her little body. “I forgive you, Daddy. Gabby says everyone makes mistakes, and if you make one you have to say sorry and try to fix it. You saided sorry, so nows all you got to do is fix it.”

That’s what he intended to do.

Or at least try.

There was no guarantee Gabriella would want anything to do with him, and he couldn’t fault her if that’s how she felt. What he’d done was unforgivable even if he had truly been trying to protect her.

“I’m going to try to fix it,” he promised. “I want Gabriella to come back home to us, but I don’t want it to be the way it was before.”

“You want it to be different? What kind of different?”

“I’d like to ask Gabriella on a date, and then hopefully, one day, I’ll ask her to marry me, and she’ll say yes.”

“Then she can be my mommy!” Essie squealed, clapping her hands and jumping up and down excitedly. “That was what I was going to wish for my birthday when I blowed out my candles. I wished it last year, too.”

He was pretty sure it was his daughter’s constant wish that Gabriella would become her mother and never have to leave her. While he’d love nothing more than to promise her he’d make her dreams a reality, he couldn’t.

Because, in the end, he didn't have the final say.

Gabriella did, and while she loved Essie, he was sure that right now she hated his guts.

“Daddy, when you go see Gabby, you have to say to her that you're sorry and you maded a mistake,” Essie said, so serious that he smiled and ruffled her hair.

“I’ll do that. Now go lay out the flowers for your mom, that’s her grave right there,” he said, pointing to the one they’d stopped beside. “Then tell her about you. Tell her all the things you like and all the things that you don’t like, what makes you laugh and what makes you sad.”

“Can I tell her about Gabby?” Essie asked uncertainly.

“Of course you can. Your mom would love Gabriella and be so happy that you have someone in your life who loves you so much.”

As Essie took the bouquet and skipped over to the headstone, chattering away, sounding more like herself than she had since she was abducted, he followed her to Gretel’s grave and began to talk. Cade told Gretel how grateful he was to have been loved by her, and that she gave him the most precious gift. He told her all about Gabriella and how much he liked her, how he’d fought his feelings for so long but couldn’t fight them a second longer.

And he asked for any magical otherworldly help Gretel could give him to at least secure a chance at convincing Gabriella to forgive him.

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