He Comforted Their Child While I Recovered Alone Chapter 03

He Comforted Their Child While I Recovered Alone Chapter 03

Inside, they were still laughing.

Piper’s eyes were red by the time the video ended.

“Mom, Dad. Thank you.”

“If it weren’t for you two, I don’t know how I would’ve raised Beckett alone overseas.”

Mom grabbed her hand immediately.

“Don’t be silly, sweetheart. After everything you went through, of course we’re going to make it up to you.”

Dad sighed too.

“These five years, you had it the hardest of anyone.”

Piper wiped her eyes, then suddenly asked, “Is Addie really coming tonight?”

Mom hesitated.

“She didn’t say yes last night. But she’s soft-hearted. If she thinks it through, she’ll probably show up.”

Piper instinctively pulled Beckett closer.

“What about him, though?”

“If she sees Beckett, will she hate me all over again?”

Mom rushed to comfort her.

“Have the nanny take him out before she gets here. If we really can’t hide it, we’ll just say you adopted him overseas.”

Dad let out a cold snort.

“What’s there to be scared of? Her leg’s like this now, she can’t even have kids. Where’s she going to go if not back to Grayson?”

“Even if she finds out, she won’t dare do a thing.”

I looked down at the leg the car crash had ruined.

They weren’t wrong.

For five years I’d needed a cane to walk.

On rainy days the ache kept me up all night.

On the bad days, I even needed Grayson’s help just to shower.

I used to think he stayed because he loved me.

But to them, my injuries had always just been the chain that kept me locked in place.

They were certain I was disabled, couldn’t have kids, and couldn’t survive on my own.

So even laying the truth out in front of me, they knew I’d have no choice but to swallow it.

Piper still wasn’t satisfied.

She turned to Grayson and asked, quiet. “What about you? Do you still love her?”

The room went silent.

And against my own will, my heart hung there, waiting.

The same way it had for five years. Waiting, small and desperate, for him to give me some proof.

Grayson finally spoke.

“She lost the baby. Her leg’s disabled now. If I abandoned her at a time like this, she wouldn’t survive.”

“That crash happened because of you. I can’t let her carry that alone.”

He said it so calmly.

It felt like getting hit by that car all over again.

So all this time, when Grayson rubbed my aching leg and held me and promised he’d never leave, none of it had been because he still loved me.

It was only because I was the consequence Piper’s mistake had left for him to clean up.

Mom breathed out, relieved.

She smiled at Piper. “Did you hear that? Grayson’s heart belongs to you. And you’re the one who gave him a son.”

“All your sister’s got is the title of Mrs. Sinclair. What else does she have to compete with?”

Laughter picked back up in the room.

The photographer called for one more shot.

The five of them turned to the camera, not a shadow on any of their faces.

“All five of us together.”

“Right here, everyone.”

The shutter clicked.

Their happiness, locked in forever.

And I was curled up in the corner outside the door, hands clamped over a leg that was shaking with pain.

The glass threw my reflection back at me.

Eyes bloodshot. Body hunched over.

Like I’d just watched a happiness that had nothing to do with me.

My phone screen lit up.

My flight information sat at the top.

[8 hours until departure.]