Page 149 of Keep This Promise
“No.” She shakes her head before hoisting her daughter in her arms. “But we have met before, and while I hadn’t been sure why I was sent here, now it’s a bit clearer.”
“And when did we meet exactly?” I ask.
“It would be a little over three years ago.”
Three years.
I glance down at Eden, doing some math because this little girl has the James nose. And the way she’s looking at me, it’s . . .
Dear God.
“Where?” I ask quickly. “Where did we meet?”
“Las Vegas.”
ChapterFour
SOPHIE
We walk into a back room, my legs feeling like jelly, and I already screwed up. As soon as I spoke my name, I mentally slapped myself. I can’t be Sophie Pearson any longer. Eden and I both have new names and passports. Our old lives are no longer, and we are now Sophie and Eden Peterson, which I will do my best to remember from here on out.
When Zach Barrett, an employee of Cole Security, drove us out here, he explained it was imperative I be cautious of who I trust and always use my new name. However, who could blame me for this one slipup? I am gobsmacked at this entire situation.
Oh, Theo, what have you done?
He sent me to a tiny town to find Eden’s father, and I have more questions than anyone can ever answer.
Holden and I stare at each other. He is very handsome, and I chide myself for even thinking that. But his hair is dark, tousled, and the scruff on his cheeks is very appealing. I barely remember him from that night, but something familiar is in his eyes. The ones that look like Eden’s.
“I have a lot of things I want to know but no idea where to start,” Holden says, pushing his dark brown hair back. He sighs and then looks to me. “First, I need to ask, are you all right?”
“That’s a rather hard question to answer at the moment.” I spin my wedding rings and pace a little. “No. I’m not. It’s been . . . well, everything is confusing, and I feel as though I should tell you, in case you haven’t figured it out by now, after our night in Vegas, I became pregnant.”
Holden swallows and nods. “I surmised as much.”
“Right. Being a doctor and all, you’ve probably already done the math. Still, she is yours.”
“And after all this time you decided to find me?”
I didn’t. “I had no idea that I was coming here to find you. My husband arranged all of this.”
“You’re married?” he asks.
This definitely is not going well. I am mucking this up left and right. “I feel as though I should start at the beginning because I’m cocking this up.”
“Mummy?” Eden calls from the little table, where she’s been colouring in a book someone had given her. “I want Daddy.”
Of all the things she could say. I move to her, crouching and placing my hand atop hers. “I know, darling. I want him too, but that’s not possible.” I push her blonde hair back. “I need to talk to our new friend, can you colour for a bit while I get things sorted?”
Asking a three-year-old to colour for more than a minute is a losing game, but I need as much as she will give me.
“Okay, Mummy.”
“That’s a good girl.”
She runs off, and I turn back to a man I never thought I’d see again. “I can’t say much until we’re alone, but I’ll give the abbreviated version.” I rise to my feet and prepare to say three years’ worth of backstory as quickly as possible. This should go over well. “I wasn’t married when you and I met, but two months after . . . Vegas, I found out I was pregnant. My father had just died, and my mum wasn’t kind during her grief. Well, she wasn’t kind before that either. She demanded I get rid of the baby to ensure that my future husband, who she and my dad had chosen, would still go through with it. I refused. She threw me out. Theo and I were childhood friends, and he had a very serious genetic heart condition that we knew he would die from. He offered to marry me, raise her as his own, and give us a life he could never share with another. I was young and had been raised to believe a child out of wedlock was a death sentence in our circle. Theo saved me from all of it.”
“Wow, that’s a great friend, and I’m not sure what to say.”
