Page 40 of Wilde Ride

He nodded, then wiped a tear away. “I miss my sister, Ms. Emeline.”

Wrapping my arm around him, I said, “I know you do, bud. And I don’t think you really meant to tell your daddy that you hate your mommy.”

He looked up at me. “She doesn’t want me.”

“I think she’s just sad right now.”

He fiercely shook his head. “She doesn’t want me.”

My heart tore apart. “Why do you say that?”

Suddenly, he looked worried.

“Rhett…you can tell me.”

“You won’t tell my daddy?”

I chewed nervously on my lower lip. “I wish I could make you that promise. But I can’t.”

He sighed. “She told me so.”

Drawing back just enough to look at him, I asked, “Wait, your mother told you she didn’t want you? In those words?”

The poor little thing nodded.

“When?”

He shrugged.

“Was it before or after Brooke went to Heaven?”

Those deep blue eyes, which were the same as his mother’s, looked up at me and filled with tears once again. “It was before. Brooke and I were playing, and I threw my soldier to make him fly, and he hit Brooke’s eye. She started crying, and Mommy came into the room and yelled at me.”

“Do you remember exactly what she said?”

He looked down at the ground and sniffled. “She told me not to ever tell Daddy, or anyone else, because she only said it ’cause she was mad.”

I moved to crouch in front of him. Using my finger, I lifted his chin. “Rhett, no one—not even your mother or father—should say or do anything to hurt you, then tell you not to tell anyone else. That means they’ve done or said something bad, not you.”

A tear slipped down his cheek—and that was when I made a vow to protect this child with everything I had.

“She…she said she never wanted me, and that she was glad me and Brooke didn’t share the same father. I didn’t know what that means, and I asked her. She got really, really mad, and told me to never tell Daddy what she said.”

I nearly fell back onto my ass. Had Brooke not been Levi’s daughter? Did he know?

I took both of his hands in mine. “She did want you, Rhett. Sometimes people who are unhappy say things to make other people unhappy. Even the people they love. It doesn’t mean they actually mean it.”

“But when Mommy fought with Daddy, she took Brooke and was gonna leave us. I wanted to stay with Daddy anyway, but I think she really didn’t want me.”

Lord help me, this is way over my head.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“None of that matters because you and your daddy are now in River Falls, and your sister is up in Heaven, watching all the adventures you’re going to go on. She’ll be with you the whole time.”

He placed his hand on his heart. “Grammy says she’s here, all the time.”