Page 149 of Back to Willow

I stutter and trip over my words, not being able to form anything. His touch, his comfort, only propels me to sob harder. It’s intense, crippling.

“Hey, look at me. Come on.” His thumbs make quick work of wiping underneath my eyes. “There’s no reason to be crying, Willow. Look at me, baby. What did we agree on?” he asks.

“No matter the outcome, it won’t change anything,” I mumble between a couple of hiccups.

“Exactly,” he mutters. “No matter the outcome…he’s ours.”

“He’s ours,” I repeat, trying to sink those words into my mind.

“Are you done talking? I’m bored,” Dylan interrupts us.

We both laugh, and without wasting time, Liam picks him up and carries him to where I am standing. His free hand wraps around my waist, bringing me to his chest, face to face with Dylan. He smiles wide at me, and I can’t help but return it and wrap both my arms around them.

“That’s it,” he hums in contentment. “A family hug.”

We stand there in silence, hugging tightly, enjoying the feeling of being together and the warmth and love that oozes out of us. When we finally slightly let go, Liam looks at me with an emotional glaze in his eyes before turning his attention to Dylan.

“I know I wasn’t here before, and I’m sorry for that, but I’m here now, and I won’t go away ever again. I love you,son, so much.”

Dylan’s bottom lip trembles, and he latches himself onto Liam’s neck.

“I love the both of you, too,” I add before hugging both of them.

After that, our son tries to usher us to the living room to watch the movie with him. However, looking at the torn paper pieces in my hands, something jabs at my heart.

“Go ahead, boys,” I mutter nonchalantly.

They both nod, and Liam gives me a knowing look before directing Dylan out of the kitchen. I rush to the opposite end of the kitchen, hiding from the hallway. As my hands slowly open the envelope and unfold the papers, it heats my skin as if those light sections of the letter had the biggest secret of the world burning their way to freedom.

He wouldn’t be mad, would he? If I took a peek? It ismychoice, after all—those were his words. It doesn’t matter who his father is, and the fact that Liam doesn’t care either makes my heart swell with love, but there’s still this little fly who keeps close to my ear, nagging me about it.

Not being able to fight the urge, I place both halves together and look through them in search of the part that has the information I yearn for. It’s silent here—with both of them no longer close by—and it’s deafening as I see the words I’ve been wanting to see for years now.

Words that, even though they change nothing in our hearts, can define everything in court—if needed.

From left to right, my eyes keep going, reading on and soon, they unfocus for the thousandth time today with the emotion of knowing after so many years of doubt, of wondering. After so many years of hoping to have one specific outcome and now being able to read the scientific proof, to see the truth with my own eyes, it’s liberating.

It seems unreal, but it’s pretty much real. That I have my entire heart—and family—here with me. I am completely happy because I am home.

Because home is where your heart is.

EPILOGUE

Liam

Funnytothinkhowmuch four years can change one’s life.

If someone had told me all those years ago that I’d find her again and gain a family from that encounter, I would have laughed in that person’s face. But here I am, still wrapped around Willow’s little finger and doting on my nine-year-old.

From an empty walking corpse, finding them was like having the breath of life blown straight into my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean it was easy. There have been a few bumps on the road.

From Johanna’s incessant attempts to get together at the beginning—even after my rejection—and my father’s futile attempts to get my brother off the hook when the man himself admitted to his wrongdoings…it’s been a rollercoaster.

At first, Willow didn’t want any problems with my parents, knowing they had the money to overpower us legally, but the law states that when a minor is sexually assaulted, they can only report it until their twenty-third birthday. After that, the statute of limitations applies. For a moment there, I thought we would never have closure from this or have my brother pay the consequences of his actions.

But with her therapist’s help, we did it. And before my father could even swallow us whole with his power, my brother admitted to everything and said he’d accept any sentence that the judge thought fitting. The bare minimum.

John Davis has not stopped harassing us, though. It’s a never-ending cycle that—according to him—will only end when he’s sure Dylan is not my brother’s. It makes me insanely mad because Iamhis father.

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