Page 57 of Forever Mine

“Could you repeat that? I'm not sure we heard you right,” he said cautiously.

“No, sir, you heard me correctly. I found Madelyn. She's alive and doing very well. I brought her home to San Marco with me. She has a son. You have a grandson. It's our Maddie, Zach.”

I could hear Cora crying through the phone. “Maddie?” she wailed. I feared she might become hysterical from the news. “Maddie's there? Zach, we have to pack, we need to go to her.”

“No,” Maddie said aloud, shaking her head with eyes pleading me to stop them.

The line went quiet. “Madelyn? She's there? She's listening in? Right now?”

“She is,” I confirmed.

“Madelyn, we love you so much. I am so sorry. I'm so very sorry. Just come home. Please, come home,” her mother begged.

I heard some noise in the background and could make out that Zach was trying to comfort his mate. “Shh, Cora, it's okay.”

“Zach, it's Maddie, that was our baby girl. She's there, right now.” Speaking directly to Maddie, she spoke a little louder. “Baby, please, talk to us. We need to hear your voice. Are you okay? Please, I just need to know you're okay.”

“I'm okay, Mama,” Maddie finally said. “I miss you guys.”

“Oh, Madelyn, we miss you too. So much, every day. Not a day goes by we don't think of you,” her mother assured her.

“I'm okay. I'm okay,” she said, as if trying to convince herself as much as them.

“When will you be home?” Zach asked.

“I'm not coming home, Daddy. Not yet at least. This hasn't been easy on me. I'm still trying to adjust to being around wolves again. I'm not ready to come home.”

“Then let us come to you!” Her mother was practically begging. “We can be there tomorrow if we drive through the night.”

“Mama, please, no. I'm sorry. I just need some time. Please, just know that I'm okay. I'm safe, and I love you.”

Maddie turned and walked out the door. I knew her parents could hear the click behind her. I didn't know what to do. Should I run to her, or console her grieving parents?

“Liam? Liam, please?” Zach begged.

“I'm here, Zach.”

“Tell me she's okay. I want your word that she's truly okay and no harm will come to her.”

I pulled out my phone and texted him a picture of Maddie on the boat ride over to Alcatraz. She was smiling in the sunshine and looked truly happy.

“Oh my God. Thank the heavens, it's her. Look Zach, it's really her!” Cora exclaimed, telling me they received my text. Next I shot off a picture of me and Oscar we had taken on our outing the day Maddie and Lily caught up.

The line went quiet and I knew the questions were about to come.

“That's Oscar. Your grandson,” I informed them.

“H-h-how old is he?” her mother stuttered.

“He's seven.” I heard the gasps of astonishment.

“Is this why she left? She got pregnant and thought what? That we wouldn't care? That we wouldn't take care of her and our own grandchild?” I could hear the anger and hurt laced in Zach's tone.

“Zach, I promise you it's not what you think.” I battled internally on what to tell them, and decided it was best they knew. “The night Maddie disappeared, you know she snuck out of the house and went to a concert and that she was separated from her friend and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. What you don't know is that she was assaulted that night, brutally so, and left for dead. You don't need all the gory details to understand what I'm saying. She survived, but in a lot of ways it killed the Madelyn you knew. She's been living with humans under a different name. They took her in when she found out she was pregnant with Oscar.”

Her mother was openly crying through the line. It made me sick to have to share Maddie’s story, but it was better than for her to go through it all again.

“She's been through a lot, but she's strong, and beautiful. She's a wonderful mother. I'm telling you, that kid is the best. You'd be really proud of her. And I don't know exactly why she never called to let you know she was okay. She told me once she thought it was best if you all just thought she was dead and moved on. I don't think she realized how impossible that would be for any of us left behind.

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