“Days.” Her mother released a heavy sigh, holding a hand to her chest as if she struggled to breathe. “Your birth mother left you there in the neonatal unit. You were such a tiny little thing. I held you in the palm of one hand.”
“How?” Emily couldn’t speak in full sentences. She could only manage single words.
“As a physician for some of the most powerful and influential in New Jersey, it wasn’t difficult to call in a few favors and arrange your adoption. That way, we could bring you straight home from the hospital as soon as you were strong enough. We wanted to keep you out of the foster system.”
“But my brothers?” It wasn’t like her parents had been childless. Had they cheated the system and bought them too?
“Your five brothers are not adopted.” Her mother huffed with a sad laugh. “I love my wild boys, and they’ve done your father and me proud—and as far as they know, you are their biological sister. With all of you so close in age, it was easy to help them remember what we wanted them to remember.” She slowly shook her head while holding Emily’s gaze. “But a year after your brother Henry was born, I had to have a hysterectomy to remove a large mass.” Another heavy sigh left her. “Your father and I…well…mostly, me I guess, had always wanted a little girl to level out the playing field in our testosterone saturated home.” She sniffed before pulling a tissue out of her purse and pressing it to the end of her nose. “I was so depressed after my surgery. Felt like I was not only less of a woman, but knew I had lost any hope of holding my very own little girl in my arms.” She blew her nose, then rummaged for another tissue. “And then your father called me while doing his rounds at the hospital. About this sweet little girl that barely weighed a pound and needed someone to love her.”
Emily risked taking a sip of her tea, thankful that it had cooled to a tepid level. With her hand pressed to the base of her throat, she shook her head. “Of all the things you could have said to me today, I never expected this.”
“I am still your mama. Papa is still your papa, and Rob, Terrance, Jack, Miles, and Henry are still the greatest irritants and most loving brothers you could ever have. They would’ve come to Scotland with us, but we asked them not to this time.” She pulled in another deep breath, blew it out, and sat taller in her chair. “And Mairwen told me everything. I now know why you and Jessa can never return to New Jersey, and how all of us can only meet and visit here in Seven Cairns.”
“You’re not supposed to know all of it,” Emily whispered as a chill shot through her. They had made a vow, and Mairwen had broken it. “It’s so…dangerous. None of what you know can ever be repeated—and you definitely can’t tell the boys.”
“I know. But Mairwen took pity on me because she understood my pain of losing my daughter.”
Now, Emily understood. “Mairwen recently lost her son. He was murdered.”
Her mother gave her a sad nod. “I know. She told me as we shared tea and tears.” She reached for Emily’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Can you ever forgive me for lying all these years? Papa and I were so afraid to tell you. We were afraid we would lose you.”
“Lose me? Are you insane?” Emily dove into her mother’s arms, not caring that she nearly knocked her seat backwards. “I love you, Mama, and I love Papa too—and that’s that.” She pulled her chair closer and settled into it while still holding tightly to her mother’s arm. “You and Papa need to retire and move here to Scotland. Buy a cottage from Mairwen. Right here in Seven Cairns.”
Her mother wrinkled her nose. “We’ll see. Your brothers may be scattered all over the East Coast, but they find their way back to Jersey on a regular basis.”
“They’ve all got good, solid jobs. Maybe they would finally learn to cook if you and Papa moved over here.”
Mama patted her hand and squeezed it. “Are you truly happy, Emily? Truly happy? Because that’s all I have ever wanted for you.”
“I am, Mama. I really am.”
“Then that’s all any mother can ask for.” Mama shared another sad smile. “You’ll understand when your babies reach their age of independence.”
Emily just smiled and nodded. Mairwen might’ve told Mama all their secrets, or maybe just the few instrumental ones, but either way, Mama had no idea about her grandchildren’s ancestry and what they might be capable of. Even Emily struggled to wrap her head around it. She pulled her mother into another hug. “I am so glad you’re here.” She locked eyes with Mama. “But I really want you to buy a house and stay. I think you’d love it here, and I know Papa would.”
“We’ll see,” Mama said, but her tone implied that the we’ll see was more of a we will.
Chapter 18
“I am bigger than your biggest Highland cow,” Emily said through clenched teeth. She waddled around the solar, rubbing the sides of her enormous belly. “If I don’t have these two soon, I am going to split open like an over-ripe watermelon.”
All Gryffe could do was smile because, in his opinion, she was absolutely exquisite in every way. “Ye are the most glorious woman I have ever seen, my own. Yer beauty is beyond compare.”
She stopped pacing long enough to throw a pillow at him. “Stop patronizing me! I am not a child!”
No. She was not a child, because children weren’t nearly so dangerous when their tantrums overtook them. Most children didn’t accidentally set fire to their surroundings because their anger caused their magic to spark and flare without being summoned.
He fell in step beside her. “What can I do to help ye, my own?”
“You can never have sex with me again!”
While he wasn’t about to agree to that, instinct advised he best choose a reply with care. “What might I do to ease yer misery at this particular moment?”
She threw herself into his arms and crumpled into tears as she had done throughout the pregnancy after being uncontrollably surly. “I’m sorry to be such a bitch. I feel so much worse today. My belly keeps spasming into a rock hard pyramid, and my lower back is killing me.”
“Spasming?” He was no expert on women giving birth, but he’d tended many a prized Highland cow, and their sides sometimes did as she described when they were trying to bring forth a calf. “Describe yer spasming, my love.”
“Here.” She grabbed his hand and pressed it atop her rounded middle. “It’s doing it now. Feel it? One of the babies must be stretching—either that or building a brick wall.”
