Page 161 of Stolen Fate

I ruffled his hair and smiled a bit. “Yes, sweetheart. I am doing wonderfully. And how are you doing this fine morning, good sir?”

He giggled at my bad British accent. There was a kid from his class from England, and he was absolutely smitten with the way the kid and his family spoke. “You don’t do it right, Evelyn.”

“I don’t?” I gasped in mock-outrage and his giggles grew louder and harder in the quiet hospital hall. I couldn’t help but smile at his happiness.

“Evelyn?” he asked when his laugh abated a bit.

“Yes?”

“Why are we at a hospital?”

I tried to gauge the tone of his voice to see if he was worried or distressed in any way. Aside from his routine checkups and vaccinations, I didn’t think he had ever been to hospital, except for that one time, when he was left alone by that bitch of a “nanny.”

Was being at a hospital too hard for him?

“We’re here to see my dad.”

“Your dad? Is he not feeling well? Does he have an owie?”

I nodded seriously. “Yes. He does. His heart hurt, so the doctors are keeping him here to help his heart heal.”

“Why does it hurt?”

“Well, sometimes, your heart works too hard for your body. And there are things blocking the veins inside your body near your heart that make it not work right.”

He nodded like he understood, though I wasn’t sure if I had explained it well enough. Briefly, I wondered how my dad would react to seeing Elliot. Only Ethan knew about the surrogacy—he had found me when I was six months pregnant with Elliot and, at the time, I couldn’t hide my pregnancy from him even if I tried.

I would have to come clean to everyone about what happened six years ago, starting with my dad. If I was right about Jace, that the man I fell in love with was a good man, then I knew he wouldn’t keep Elliot from me, no matter what I decided, which meant Elliot could be a part of my family’s life, no matter what.

And I didn’t want to keep my son’s existence a secret from those who were important to me.

We walked to the end of the hallway, to where my dad’s room was located, and I pulled up short when I caught sight of Ethan and Katie.

It shouldn’t have surprised me that Katie was there, considering she was closer to my dad than she was to her own parents, but what did surprise me was how Katie and Ethan were standing. She had her arms around him, and Ethan had his face buried in her neck, seeking out her comfort. Their touch was familiar and intimate, like how lovers would comfort one another.

I didn’t realize their relationship had progressed this far, especially since I thought Katie couldn’t stand Ethan. She never forgave him for what he did to me or, more specifically, what I had to do to clean up his mess.

Obviously something had changed.

Elliot shifted a little on his feet beside me. “Why are we stopping, Evelyn?”

At the sound of my name, both Ethan and Katie looked up. They looked surprised to see me standing there, and pulled apart quickly, though I wasn’t sure what for. I already saw what I’d needed to see, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about my best friend and my brother together.

It didn’t matter, because they both looked down at Elliot and froze. I wasn’t sure what they saw when they looked at him. There was no doubt that he looked like his dad, but now that I knew, I could see he had inherited some of my features as well.

Simon said he saw those features right away. It was why he always looked at me and Elliot funny, trying to figure out why we look so similar.

“Elliot!” A familiar, happy voice called out from behind us, and we both turned to see Emilia standing there with her arms wide open.

“Milia!” Elliot looked up at me and smiled, as if asking for permission, and when I nodded, he pulled away from me and ran to her. I resisted the urge to pull him back to me. I’d been having problems letting him out of my sight since I found out, and now that he wasn’t within reach, the anxiety was back, which was ridiculous.

It wasn’t like he was running toward a stranger.

I knew Elliot and Emilia had gotten close since her visit, and he had been asking me when she would be back to play with him again.

I watched as my little sister engulfed my little boy in her arms and picked him up, twirling him around a bit until his giggles filled the hallway. Katie and Ethan walked over to me then.

“Is that him?”

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