Page 122 of Haunted

“I’m a big girl,” she says stubbornly with a jutted chin. “Tell me what Daddy lied about.”

“Do you know how Jules was asleep for a lot of years?” She nods. I look at Jules for a brief moment then back down to Aria. “Well, she had a baby while she was asleep. The baby was mine and hers.”

Her eyes turn wide. “But how did she have a baby? Don’t you have to be awake to have a baby?”

Aria looks at Jules when she’s the one to answer.

“Most of the time you do, but the kind of sleep I was in, I couldn’t wake up. My brain wouldn’t let me.” She releases my hand and lifts up the bottom of her shirt until the scar on her lower stomach shows. “You see this line right here?” She pointsto the four-inch silvery line and Aria nods. “To get the baby out, they had to cut my stomach open.”

Her mouth drops open. “Didn’t it hurt?”

Jules smiles and pulls her shirt back down. “No, sweetie. I didn’t feel anything because I was asleep. But even if I was awake, they give you medicine so you don’t feel anything. It numbs you.”

“Oh. That’s good.” She shudders, then her eyes turn curious. “Did you have a girl or a boy?”

“A little girl.” Jules’s voice cracks, and I snatch her hand back in mine behind Aria’s back.

“Oh, wow.” Aria’s face lights up a million watts with a look of wonder. “Can I meet her?” she asks in excitement. “How old is she? Maybe we can be friends!”

“Aria, you’ve already met her.” Her eyes swing back to mine.

“I have?”

“Yes. You wanna guess who she is?”

Her lips purse out, another one of Jules’s expressions, as she thinks over the possibilities. “I don’t know.”

I shift my eyes to Jules once more. Love and affection shine in her eyes as she gazes down at Aria, our daughter. As if sensing my stare, they lift to meet mine. She smiles nervously at me, and I return it.

I look back to Aria. “It’s you.”

Aria straightens, her blue eyes as wide as saucers and filled with confusion. “Me?” she squeaks.

“Yes. You.”

I watch and wait as her little innocent brain thinks over what I’ve just told her. I know she’s perplexed, anyone would be, but more so her because she’s so young. Her eyes leave mine to look across the living room, staring off at nothing. I want to grab her and haul her into my arms, but I force theurge back.

What seems like forever later, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, she looks back at me.

“Does that mean you and Jules are my momma and daddy?”

“It does.”

She frowns again. “But what about my daddy? Is he not my daddy anymore?”

This is the part I was dreading the most, because no matter how much I hate Theo, I won’t hurt Aria by telling her Theo isn’t her father.

“Theo will always be what you want him to be. If you still want to think of him as your daddy, then he’ll always be your daddy. But Jules and I created you with our love, so I’m your daddy too and Jules is your momma.”

She ponders that for a moment. “But everyone says I look just like him.”

“That’s because Theo and I are twins. We look just like each other, so in the ways people say you look like him, you actually get from me. Even though Theo didn’t help make you, you still have some of his blood in you. To everyone else, he would be your uncle.”

“So, he’s still my family?”

Hell no. A portion of his blood may run in her veins, but he’ll never be considered my family again.

I keep that to myself, and instead say, “Yes.”

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