He raises one eyebrow. “Yeah? I figured you might want to move, but … where are we moving to?”
“We?”
“You’re not leaving me behind.”
I laugh. “I’d hoped you’d come with us, but I wasn’t sure. You’re old enough to live your life now.”
“So where are we moving to?”
I press my hands together and knit my fingers. “I thought, Napier.”
“That’s where you …”
“We lived there before my parents joined the church. Some of the best years of my life were there.”
Noah nods. “Is … is my father there?”
“I think so.”
His gaze hits mine so hard that I pull back a little. The truth is that I haven’t tracked Caleb. Once we left the church, more than eleven years had passed, and I didn’t want to find that he was married or had more children.
I also knew if I ever contacted him and he found out about Noah, he’d want to see him. That’s the type of person Caleb is. And I would be the one who lived with Malcolm’s retribution.
By then, Bailey and Kiera were born, and I was left agonising over what to do.
There was no way I could win. Either way, I’d be risking losing one, two, or all three of my children.
“You don’t know?”
“No.” I place my hand over his. “But even if he’s not, maybe his parents are there, and they will love you.”
“Maybe?”
“It’s been twenty-seven years. Anything could’ve happened.”
I’d do anything to save the anguish in my son’s eyes.
“When you left the church, why didn’t you tell him?”
My heart cracks wide open. I fought myself for years over this, tormented over the fact that no matter what I did, I’d lose.
“If he found out about you, then he would’ve wanted to know you. Can you imagine what Malcolm would’ve done?”
He recoils.
“If he had the chance to pass you off to your father, he would have. And I would’ve lost you.”
“But you could have come with me.”
“Do you really think he would have let me leave with the girls?”
Noah sets his jaw. “No.”
“Can you see that it was a no-win situation for me? Whatever I did, I’d lose someone. And I was scared, Caleb. Scared of Malcolm, scared of losing everything, scared of leaving the girls with Malcolm.”
His brows knit. “Do you think he would have done something bad?”
“I think he had no qualms about marrying a sixteen-year-old girl. He wasn’t a good man. You know that.”
