I dried my hands, then dug my phone out of my pocket and looked at the photo I took at the parade. The girls, side by side, scowling at the camera. I zoomed in on the dark-haired one. There was something in the line of her jaw, the shape of her mouth. So familiar. My heart thudded as I stared. Tash's daughter, yes, but it crossed with another memory.
I pulled the laptop over andfired it up. The family drive loaded as slowly as molasses, but I kept scrolling. Old photos. Christmases, birthdays, vacation shots in grainy color.
I found it. Mom at sixteen, hair wild down her back, all stubborn pride and too-big eyes. I dragged the two pictures side by side on the screen.
It was like staring at a mirror, if one split by four decades. Tash's daughter had Mom's face. She had my mother's face.
The proof crushed the last of my doubts and left me reeling.
Told you.Caden sang the words.
Chance
Once it sank in fully,all the way down, I couldn't sit still. The parade outside and the people coming into the bakery were too much.
I stuck my head out of the back, where Maeve was taking care of customers in the front. "I'm gone." Maeve merely nodded. She was too busy to give me attention.
I didn't even bother kicking off my boots when I stormed into my house. I just kept moving. Atrium to kitchen, to living room, to the narrow hallway, then doubling back again. Once the edge was off, I paused in the kitchen, staring down at my phone. My whole body was wired in a way that had nothing to do with panic. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her face from the parade, older but still hitting me in the same placeshe did seventeen years ago. That spark never dulled. If anything, it had teeth now.
I'd set the parade photo as my lock screen. Tash's kids, no, my kids.Ourkids against the brick of a building. There was no way I was crazy. I could see myself in both of them. But what stopped me cold was the memory of their mother. The exact tilt of her smile flickered behind my eyes, and the old heat that had knocked me sideways came back fast. Too fast. Like my body remembered her long before my brain caught up.
Lola, my white Persian, twined between my ankles now that I'd stopped. She kept giving these pitiful meows, as if her lack of treats was somehow the most urgent problem in the room. I ignored her as I walked slowly into the living room. She nearly tripped me twice, but I didn't care. My brain couldn't find a way to care about anything but the way my life had just detonated. I was too wrapped up in the image of Tash at nineteen and the woman she'd become today. The way she held herself now had a steadiness that pulled at something deep in my chest. I didn't know how I'd missed it for so long, or how I'd gone this many years without recognizing the pull for what it was.
I dropped into the battered armchair in the corner of the living room, balancing my phone on one knee. Lola, never one to miss her moment, sprang up andplanted herself square in my lap, tail flicking like a possessed feather duster. Her purring ratcheted up a notch the second I started scratching behind her ears.
I had to talk to my brothers. Evan spent all his spare time hunting the Order and could find anyone or anything. Or if he wasn't available, Damon. He'd rip the theory apart, hit below the belt, and help me sort out what the hell to do next.
First, Evan. I pulled up a text.
I need to find a woman. I think she had my kids.
He replied immediately.
Will contact as soon as hunt ends. Call Damon. Let me know what happens.
That meant whatever he was hunting, it was in the stalking and killing phase, and he couldn't risk talking. Fair enough. Given how obsessed he was, the fact that he'd actually answered was a little surprising.
I wasted five seconds debating a text versus a call for Damon, my middle brother. I needed him to actually look at the evidence. The video app took forever to load, which was probably my own fault for never updating anything. When Damon's grumpy facefinally appeared on the screen, he was hunched over his kitchen table, mug of coffee steaming in front of him, even though it was probably closer to dinnertime in Nashville.
He didn't bother with a hello. "You look like hell."
"Nice to see you too, brother." I shoved Lola's tail out of my face and tried to look calm. "You got a minute?"
He made a show of checking his phone, then shrugged. "I was about to start dinner, but whatever. You look like you're about to chew through rocks. What's up?"
My mouth went dry. I just stared at him, knuckles whitening around the tablet. Lola kneaded my leg like she was rooting me to earth. "Promise you won't hang up?"
Damon smirked. "Depends. Are you about to confess to murder or propose?"
I barked a laugh. It came out strangled. "Worse. I think… I think I might have kids. Twin girls. With Tash. A human whom you've never met."
I got no reply except dead silence. Damon blinked, momentarily stunned, then threw his head back and laughed so hard he nearly sloshed his coffee onto the keyboard. "That's good. You had me going. Seriously, though, what's eating you?"
"I'm not joking."
He lowered his cup, the smirk fading as he took inventory. "Run that by me again. You think you have kids with ahumanwoman you've never mentioned?"
Mentioning her had never come easy. Even thinking about her used to light up every nerve I had, which was something I never learned how to talk about. She wasn't just a mistake or a fling, despite being the only one-night stand I'd ever had. Even then, she was a spark I couldn't hold without burning. I nodded. "I saw her in town today. At the festival. It's been seventeen years since I saw her. She's got twin daughters, teenagers. They look like—" My voice caught, and I had to start over. "Look, I'll just show you."
