Hannah’s here?” asked Hayden. He felt calm for the first time in days as Emma wiped away his tears. Finding he had a sister and sitting in the small room where Giovanni had locked him had left him in an uncomfortable limbo. In so many ways he had lost his place, or at least started to question his place, within his family. It was a new experience.
“I don’t want to push you, but she’s waited so long to see you. Hannah’s never met you, true, but she talks about you and Cain all the time. Do you think you can forget you’re mad at me for just a little while and give Hannah a chance?”
The look in Emma’s eyes reminded Hayden of the loving mother he had lost. His last conversation with Cain came back to him. She had asked him to try and see Emma in a different light.
“You won’t leave me again, will you?” His tears started again, and he felt desperate for something to hold on to other than Cain.
Emma placed both of her hands on his cheeks. “I made the worst mistake of my life when I walked out this door.” She cocked her head toward the oak surface they were still leaning against. “It’s something I can’t ever take back, and it’s something that will forever haunt me, but I’m here now. There will never be another day of your life that I won’t be here. I love you, Hayden. You’re my son and I love you.”
“What about Mom?”
“I can’t speak for Cain, but I can promise that we’ll find a way to share in your and Hannah’s life. Your sister needs to get to know you and Cain as much as I need to get to know you again. You’re a wonderful boy, but I’d like to believe that I can offer things Cain can’t.”
He pulled away from her, but Emma moved with him. “Mom has given me everything.”
“I’m not saying she didn’t give you what you needed, but you need both of us. With Cain you’ll find your strength, but I think with me you’ll find—”
“My safe haven,” he said.
“Yes.” She pulled him forward, and for once he didn’t hesitate. Hayden accepted the comfort Emma so freely offered. As she took in his warmth and presence, she sent her ex-partner a silent thank you. She owed the moment to Cain’s generosity.
“Mama.” Hannah’s voice sounded small. She stood at the back of the foyer with her finger in her mouth, swaying like she was afraid of being sent away.
“Come here, sweetie.” Emma kept one arm around Hayden but held a hand out to the little girl. “This is your brother Hayden.”
“Really?” asked Hannah. Her mother’s nodding head got her to break out into a run into Hayden’s arms.
Emma bit back a sob when she saw Hayden’s teary blue eyes as he held his sister tight. The size of his smile was one Emma saw only in her dreams.
“Hi, Hannah, how are you?”
For the rest of the afternoon the youngest Casey sat on Hayden’s lap on the floor and rambled. She would reach out every so often to touch his face or his hair, as if to verify he was real. Hannah’s experiences were limited to the farm and their neighbors, but Hayden listened to her stories with rapt attention.
In his heart, just like Cain, he knew he would spend a lifetime loving and protecting the little charmer sitting with him. It was exciting to have someone to look out for like Cain did for Marie. Hannah sounded like she had inherited the Casey smarts as well as their mischievous streak. But maybe giving Cain all the credit wasn’t fair anymore. Both of the Casey children had become who they were because of Emma as well.
“You two want to go visit Cain at the hospital?” asked Emma.
“She’s awake, you said?” Hayden’s question sounded a little shaky.
“Mom has eyes like you, Haygen, and she let me sit on the bed with her,” Hannah chimed in.
“She’s awake, buddy, but I think she’s still too weak to do any serious groundings,” teased Emma, trying her best to ease any concerns he had. Cain was generous with her family, but what had happened with Bracato made it hard to gauge how she’d react.
“You must not know her well at all, then,” he responded.
They piled into one car but were escorted to the hospital by two other vehicles full of Cain’s men. Hayden’s silence grew with each block they traveled, and he held Hannah’s hand as she sat between him and Emma.
Merrick opened the door after studying the street and walked them into the lobby. As they rode up in the elevator, Emma made eye contact with the top Casey guard. Understanding, Merrick escorted the children to the waiting room so Emma could go in alone. The fact that neither of them had called to relay the news would not be lost on Cain.
She was sleeping when Emma entered, providing the perfect opportunity for her to study the face and body she missed so much. Growing up on a farm with no siblings hadn’t prepared her for sharing space with another person, especially in her bed. But with Cain she had never had any awkwardness or adjustments. She had moved in shortly after they had consummated their relationship, walking on what felt like thin ice, trying to do nothing that would make Cain regret her decision to invite her.
The last of the moving men tipped his hat in her direction and started toward the front door of Emma’s new residence. She didn’t have much furniture or many knickknacks, considering the frugal way she had existed in school, but Cain had hired a crew anyway, not wanting her to have to worry about anything.
Emma walked around the master suite studying the various pictures, smiling when she found more than one of the two of them. In the closet she ran her hand along the row of suits and shirts that hung neatly alongside her own things and wondered if she and Cain would have a long adjustment period.
Cain loved her—she was sure of it and had never doubted from the first time Cain had said it—but no woman had shared Cain’s life this way either. When she stepped out of the closet, the object of her thoughts was sitting on the bed smiling at her. Across Cain’s lap lay a bouquet of sunflowers, which seemed almost as out of place in the space as Emma felt.
“I remember you telling me when you lived with your folks you grew these outside your bedroom window so
