Page 40 of Taken By My Guardian's Fangs

"Gaël?"

His head jerked up at the sound of his ex-wife's voice.

"How is she?" Laura asked shakily.

Gaël waited for the hatred to come back, but with everything that had happened, he realized all of a sudden that life was just too damn short to waste on pointless emotions like anger and vengeance.

And as his bitterness faded, it was then he saw what he had failed to realize before.

Laura was hurting, too, and the knowledge made him feel even wearier.

"How is your son?" he asked finally.

Laura's eyes glistened with tears. "He's your son, too."

Gaël could only stare at her. What the fuck did she just say?

"I woke up in pain that night," Laura said brokenly, "and I was all alone in the house. All of you were gone. So I knew I had to go on my own. Drive myself to the hospital. But it was raining so hard, and even now, I still have no idea what happened. I can't remember clearly. All I know is that when I woke up, my baby was gone."

Gaël realized where this was all going, and agonizing regret tore him apart. "Oh God, Laura. I'm sorry."

"I needed you to comfort me that night," Laura revealed with a sob, "but instead the man I loved believed I had killed our own daughter. You thought I was so shallow, I'd risk my child's life by d-driving in the rain to party!"

Gaël could only look at his ex-wife, his heart heavy. "I'm so damn sorry."

"I was so angry with you that night," Laura choked out, "I just wanted to hurt you back, and that's why I didn't deny anything. I let you think I did it deliberately, because I knew then you would always blame yourself—-"

"It was my fault," Gaël said bitterly. "I wasn't there when you needed me—-"

"It was nobody's fault, Gaël," she said painfully. "After all these years, don't you think it's time we both forgive ourselves?"

He could only stare at her, with a part of him still reeling from Laura's revelations.

"Callum needs us both."

Gaël's world spun off tangent at the reminder that he actually had a son. "H-how...how did you find out about him?"

"It was a few weeks after leaving you that I went for a checkup," Laura recalled. "I was experiencing what I thought were phantom pregnancy symptoms, and I wanted to get rid of them. It hurt to go through them, knowing that my baby girl was gone."

"And was that how you found out we had twins?"

"Yes." Laura let out a shaken laugh. "And I couldn't believe it at first, to be honest. I thought I had lost my mind, and it took several days before the truth really sank in, and that was when I got scared."

"You thought I'd take him away from you if I found out about him," Gaël said tightly.

"And you would have. Wouldn't you?"

Shame burned through him, but he forced himself to admit the truth. "Yes. I would have."

But Laura only nodded. "That's what I thought. And that's why I went as far away as I could. I was content to live the rest of my life with just Callum, but then Antonio came..."

"Does Callum think Antonio is his father?" Gaël forced himself to ask.

"You don't have to worry about that." Laura's voice was soft but firm, and the conviction in her tone allowed him to breathe a little easier.

"I told Callum that his father was always busy fighting bad monsters, but that one day he'd be able to meet you."

He gazed at her searchingly. "And did you mean it?"

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