Page 51 of Saving Jared

Russ hugged Laurel close and rubbed his cheek over her hair, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes. Then he opened his gaze on Willa. "We’d decided to run away together when we knew your mom was close to having you." He turned his lips into Laurel’s hair. "You were so brave. Just fifteen years old." He focused back on Willa. "She had you in the back seat of my car that summer night. Such a beautiful baby. I remember holding your tiny, wet, squirming body in my hands and thinking I would do anything for you. Give anything to make you happy."

"I didn’t even know you were pregnant," Hart added, sitting hard on one of the hay bales.

Laurel let out a slight laugh. "I was able to hide it." She shrugged. "You remember I used to carry quite a bit of extra weight. It’s why no one knew. Not even Father until that night."

Russ’s expression turned bleak, his eyes on Laurel reflecting the fear he must have felt that night. "When you started bleeding, I didn’t know what to do. We were close to your home, so I drove there as fast as I could." His gaze touched on Willa. "It was a mistake."

"He took me away from you, didn’t he?" Jared’s arms tightened around Willa as she shuddered, imagining the two frightened teenagers they must have been in those moments.

"He did," Laurel said on a whimper as Hart muttered, "Son of a bitch."

"No daughter of mine is going to have a bastard child, and certainly not with some…" Whatever the memory, the woman clearly remained shaken by it. "Let’s just say Father didn’t approve and couldn’t have my bad choices damaging him politically. I had barely held you. But I had to let you go. If I hadn’t, Father would have had Russell arrested for statutory rape." Her mother gazed up at Russ. "Within the hour Father had a lawyer there with papers for me to sign our daughter away. Then you were both gone."

"He threatened to send you away if I stayed." His sorrowful eyes meeting hers pierced Willa’s heart. "You were crying your head off in the next room—"

"Oh, god. I remember that now too." Hart raised his eyes and smiled at Willa. "You had a set of lungs on you."

"If I left, he’d said he would make sure that baby would have a good home and Laurel could live her life, here, the way she was supposed to. If not, he would have you taken away from us anyhow and shipped Laurel off to Europe. I’d still never see either of you again."

"I can’t begin to imagine how hard that must have been for you," Jared’s hold tugged Willa in front of him where he surrounded her with his heat. "To make a choice like that. To know you would lose the woman you loved." Then he whispered into her hair so low no one else would hear but her. "Like I have."

"But I didn’t leave right away," Russ said, while Jared’s whispered admission had Willa’s emotions rioting even more than they already were. "I waited. And it wasn’t long before a man left with you, and so I followed him. That’s when you ended up with the Taggerts."

"Mom always said they’d gotten the call in the middle of the night that a baby had been found for them."

"They seemed like good people. But I had to make sure. So, I stayed close. I was watching when they introduced you to your brothers." A lone tear tracked down Russ’s cheek. "You were loved."

"And you’ve been here all this time…" Willa had passed by this man so many times—said hello. And she’d never known. "Why didn’t you say something when my parents died?"

"I wanted to. God, how I wanted to. But you’d lost so much. Finding out about me—your mother—wouldn’t have done you any good. Besides, your brothers are good men, and I knew they would raise you well." He wiped away another tear. "And they did."

A solemn Laurel nodded. "You did the right thing."

"But our father has a lot to answer for." Willa could almost taste Hart’s palpable anger that softened when he looked on his sister. "Why didn’t you ever tell me?"

"You were five years old when it happened. And after a while I had to put my daughter and Russell and everything I had lost out of my mind. If I hadn’t, I think I might have gone insane."

"So, you had no idea Willa was just a few miles away?" a subdued Kinsley asked. Her friend had been awfully quiet during all the revelations.

"None. My father had said he’d sent her far away." Laurel shook her head, then gazed up at Russ. "But why didn’t you come back to me later? I don’t understand."

"I thought it was too late."

The beaming look of love she gave Russ left Willa in no doubt about the woman’s feelings.

"Oh, my love, it’s never too late."

Those words struck Willa as she squeezed Jared’s wrist around her waist. His pulse raced under her fingertips. Maybe it wasn’t too late for them either. But first they had to clear up a lot of misunderstanding—forgive a lot of hurt.

Could she do it? Her gaze fell on her parents. Twenty-four years had been a long time to be without the one they’d loved. A love that still looked as strong regardless of the heartache and decades that had passed.

Jared had hurt her, and she’d been ready to walk away. But the longer she stayed in his arms like this, the more she realized she didn’t want to be anyplace else. What if she never tried to work things out? What if she looked back one day and regretted not following her heart? She couldn’t leave things the way they were. But first she needed to understand why Jared had been quick to believe something so untrue about her. Although one name would probably answer her question.

Macy.

But even that didn’t excuse his lack of trust in her. He’d need to do some serious groveling. But right now…

"I have no idea how to even begin processing this."

"I know you don’t," Laurel said, staying in Russ’s arms, but moving against his side. "But…" Her lips trembled as she held her free arm out to her. "Could I please hold you? Just once more?"

Jared didn’t ask. She found herself released as she flew into her parents’s arms. They held each other tight as their bodies quaked and the sounds of quiet weeping filled the air.

"This is the most—"

An alert from her phone cut off whatever Kinsley was about to say and sent Willa scrambling away from her parents’s embrace while quickly pulling her phone from her back pocket. She opened the message and read the text, while her heart beat wildly in anticipation and dread—all of it mixed with a healthy dose of fear.

She sought out Jared, saying low.

"There’s a fire. And it’s bad."

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