Page 45 of Vengeful Secret

I always thought I’d never want to protect anyone more than my siblings, but now… Now I have this beautiful little girl with my eyes, and if anyone hurt her…

I’d bury them six feet under.

“You should have told me,” I choke out, and Sutton looks up at me, her blue-gray eyes filling with tears.

“I’m sorry. At the time all I could think about was protecting the little life growing inside me. And that meant leaving you. She was all that mattered. Still is. That is why I am here now.”

“I know nothing about my own daughter. Her favorite food, her favorite color, when she took her first steps, her first word. I missed all of it.”

Sutton swallows visibly. “Her favorite color is green, and her first steps were when she was only ten months old. She’s been running around crazy ever since.”

She steps forward and takes my hands in hers.

“I'm so sorry that I didn’t tell you, Gray. I loved you, but I had to protect her. Please try to understand. I’d do anything for my daughter. And maybe it was the wrong decision, but it was all I knew to do at the time.”

Love, regret, anger, all warring within me as I stare down at the woman who gave me the biggest present in life but ripped it from me in the same breath.

My mind tells me to hate her. To never look at her again. To yell at her.

But at the same time, my heart screams for her. To hold her tight. To keep her by my side forever. Tells me that my protective instincts are now rival only to hers.

In the end, the heart wins out, and I crush her into my arms, hugging her tightly.

“We have a daughter,” I whisper, and she puts her arms around me, rubbing my back as I almost break down.

My shoulders shake, but I manage to keep it together, pulling away from her. “No one’s ever going to hurt her, Sutton. Not ever.”

I mean it, but I’m not sure I can ever forgive Sutton for keeping my baby from me.

13

SUTTON

Gray’s so upset.Rightfully so. But I know I made the right decision, the only possible decision at the time.

I’m trying my best to keep my emotions in check.

“I missed everything. I missed all her firsts?—”

“Her first word was cheese.” I chuckle.

Gray pauses at the absurdity of it, turning to face me. “It was what?”

“Cheese. My mom opened up the fridge, and she saw a block and screamed it.”

Gray chuckles despite the anger on his face, but then he rubs a hand across it.

“You shouldn’t have kept her from me. I should have known the second you got pregnant.”

“Maybe I should have. But you don’t understand what it was like for me. You are here, in a fortress. I was out there in the big, bad world. What if someone got me? Got her? Any tie to you anda giant neon target would have been hung over our heads, on our backs. You know how dangerous your life is. Can you really blame me for wanting her to be safe?” I say quietly, and hurt flickers across Gray’s handsome face.

“It wasn’t like that,” he says quietly, but itwaslike that.

“You were different back then.”

“Different how?”

“Wilder, a bit of a loose cannon. You had a daredevil complex. I couldn’t trust that you wouldn’t get either yourself or one of us in danger. Or worse. Then what? As soon as I found out I was pregnant, my priorities shifted.”

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