Page 50 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

If she hadn’t been lying on the bed, she would have dropped like a stone. Everything fell away. Wind seemed to rush around as she plummeted through blurred, empty space.

A cold ghost sat in her throat, turning her voice to crushed ice. “Pinch me.”

“It’s real.” He rubbed her shoulder with enough friction to assure her that she was awake.

She was still afraid to believe, but her body reacted, sweeping back the covers. She slapped her feet onto the hardwood floor and stood so fast, her head swam.

“Easy.” He steadied her. “He only left Santiago a few hours ago. He won’t get here until late tonight. Okay, I know, I know.”

She only realized she was shaking and growing limp, breathing so fast her vision was fading, when his arms went around her, catching her before she crumpled to the floor. The tears came so hard and thick, they made her cheeks ache, but there was no stopping them.

“I know, I know,” he kept saying, rubbing her back and smoothing her hair.

He didn’t know. He couldn’t. But when he eased onto the bed and drew her into his lap, cradling her, she clung to him, weeping out all the loss she’d carried this last year.

When she was weak and wrecked, head too heavy to lift, she only had one thought. “I have to phone Dad.” Her voice was a rusty nail on a chalkboard.

“I’ve sent a car for him. I didn’t tell him why. Listen.” His arms tightened around her. “I didn’t know for sure that Jasper was alive until he was in the air. That was his instruction. They had to sneak him out because somewhere in the REM-ex chain of command there are people who don’t want him alive. He thought it better to let them think he was dead. Otherwise, they might have come after you and your dad.”

She tilted her face up, searching his grim expression, trying to take that in.

“He said he would tell you as much as he can when he gets here, but we have to keep his return secret.”

“Anything,” she vowed.

He nodded. “Good. Get dressed. I’ll dismiss the staff for the day.”

She moved through the rest of the day as though walking through gelatin.

A few times she caught Hunter looking at her. They had so much to talk about, but her mind was consumed by Jasper, by willing his flight to arrive safely. Maybe she was even embracing this momentous occasion to avoid thinking about what would happen next with her husband.

Peyton finally,finallycut her two bottom teeth. Her swollen gums settled and two sharp white lines appeared. She smiled again, but Amelia still held her for her own comfort, pacing restlessly, arms aching, mind nothing but cotton balls.

Her father turned up, and they had a long hug and a good cry, then it was more waiting. Each minute was a ratchet on a torture device until Amelia was utterly, emotionally exhausted.

Finally, when she was yawning because it was growing late, the elevator dinged.

She stood and held her breath.

A man she barely recognized stepped off the elevator. He wore a bushy beard and was thinner than he’d been even in his high school beanpole days. He had a scar cut into his eyebrow, and his clothes were hanging off his wiry frame, but it was him. It was Jasper. Her brother.

She handed Peyton to Hunter and followed her father across the floor into a big hug that nearly broke her in half. Both of the men closed her in so strongly she couldn’t breathe, but she was completely okay with that.

Her father was saying, “Son. My son,” and Jasper was whispering a jagged, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Tobias broke away first, trying to regain his composure by wiping his handkerchief across his cheeks.

Amelia wasn’t ready to let go and wrapped both her arms around her brother. He smelled like he had showered in chlorinated water, maybe on the airplane? She didn’t care. The chemical smell imprinted on her as the best fragrance in the world, one that swelled her heart with joy.

“I can’t believe you’re really here.”

Jasper nearly lifted her off the ground as he squeezed her. “All thanks to that flop of a cake I made for you when you hit puberty.”

“What?” She lifted her wet face, vaguely remembering telling Hunter about that.

“A stranger turned up claiming to work for your husband, but I didn’t even know you were married. It felt like a setup, so I told him he had the wrong guy. Then he told me about the cake. I knew you wouldn’t have shared that with anyone you didn’t trust completely.”

She looked to Hunter, starting to realize exactly what he had done for her. He stood there all gorgeous and tailored, even though his expression was pulled into an emotive grimace while he watched their reunion. He cradled their daughter, always the tender, attentive father he had told her he wanted to be. In fact, his dedication to her and her family was so deep, he had found her brother and reunited her with him.

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