Page 74 of Enchanted to Meet You

As he walked around to the driver’s side, I sat back against the leather seat, staring out the windshield in utter disbelief.

This wasn’t an act. He hadn’t said those things to impress Kelcey or to make her jealous. He hadn’t even looked at her while he tore her down. He had shut her down completely, brutally, and without a second thought—not for show, but simply because she was standing between me and where I needed to be.

Rhys got into the driver’s seat, pulled the door shut, and turned the key. The engine roared to life. He reached across the center console, taking my cold hand in his warm, steady grip, resting our joined hands on his thigh as he shifted into reverse.

“We’ll be there in two hours,” he murmured, glancing over at me with absolute devotion in his eyes. “I’ve got you.”

And despite the storm waiting for me at home, I believed him.

twenty-three

The two-hour drive to Trinity Hospital, where Imogen told me that they would all wait for me, was a suffocating nightmare. Rhys kept one hand on the wheel and the other locked around mine, his thumb rubbing continuous, soothing circles over my skin, but nothing could stop the storm raging in my head. When we finally pulled into the parking structure sitting on the concrete barrier near the glass entrance were Lavender and Imogen. Imogen was staring into space and Lavender aggressively paced back and forth, biting her fingernails. Sebastian was leaning against the wall, slamming his ankle repeatedly into the concrete with a dull thunk.

I stepped out of the car, my knees shaking, and Rhys fell into step right beside me. I stopped, turning around to put a hand on his forearm. “Rhys... you don’t have to come in. Sebastian is right there, and with everything going on today, if he sees you⁠—“

“I don’t care about Sebastian right now, Ainsley,” Rhys said, calm and steady. “And I’m not leaving you to walk into this alone. I’ll stay in the back. I won’t say a word, I won’t draw attention, but I am not sitting in this car while you deal with him.”

Looking into his face, seeing the absolute, unwavering determination to protect me, a lump formed in my throat. I didn’t have the strength to fight him on it. I just reached out, squeezing his hand. “Okay.”

As we approached, Sebastian snapped his head up. The second he saw Rhys, his jaw clenched violently. “What’s he doing here?” he barked.

“Don’t, Seb,” I said quickly, stepping between them before he could utter a word. My voice was raspy, but firm. “It’s a long story and I promise I’ll explain later, but Rhys gave me a ride here, okay?”

Sebastian glared at Rhys over my head. Rhys didn’t flinch, didn’t smirk, and didn’t posture—he just stood his ground, impassive and silent, letting Sebastian see that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Sebastian let out a harsh breath through his nose, turning his back on Rhys and forcing his focus entirely onto me. “Fine. Whatever.”

“How is she?” I asked, looking toward my sisters. Imogen stood up immediately, throwing her arms around my neck. I hugged her tight, feeling her shaky breaths against my collarbone, while Lavender gave me a tight, exhausted nod.

“Hilary’s out of surgery,” Sebastian said, his voice flat. “The baby’s in the NICU—seven pounds, four and a half weeks early, but the doctors say she’s stable. Dad’s upstairs waiting outside the room.”

We moved into a secluded corner of the ground-floor waiting area, near a bank of vending machines. Rhys lingered ten feet back, leaning his broad back against a concrete pillar, folding his arms across his chest. He was completely silent, a human barrier between us and the rest of the world.

“So what are we doing?” Lavender asked, her voice cracking slightly as she looked around at the three of us. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, defensively. “He gave us an ultimatum on the phone, Ainsley. Come now, or never meet her.”

“He’s using a newborn baby to bully us into playing happy family,” I mumbled.

“I want to see her,” Imogen said quietly, wiping her cheeks with the back of her sleeve. “I know what he did is horrible. I know he destroyed everything. But she’s just a baby. She’s our sister. She didn’t choose him. She didn’t choose Hilary. If we walk away today, we’re letting him decide that we don’t get to have a sister.”

“He’s forcing our hands,” Sebastian snapped, his voice a furious whisper as he paced the small circle of linoleum. “If we go up there, he wins. He gets to parade us around in front of everyone, pretending he’s some great family man who brought all his kids together.”

“So we don’t give that to him,” Lavender said. She was staring off into the distance, seeming like she was looking without seeing.

Sebastian stilled. “What do you mean?”

“We go up there, and we meet our sister,” she said in a deadly calm voice.” We make it completely clear to his face that we are here for her, and her alone. We tell him that we will be in her life, but that he doesn’t get a single piece of ours. He lost his right to be our father the day he packed his bags and left Mum. He’s not a dad anymore, he’s just the guy who shares our DNA and happens to be raising our sister.”

“Can we do that?” Imogen asked softly.

Lavender leveled her with a look. “It’s exactly what I told him the first time I dropped you off at his flat.”

“You think that will work?” I asked, my gaze bouncing between my siblings.

“Won’t know until we try,” Sebastian said. “Let’s do it.” And with that, he led the way into the entrance of the hospital and toward the elevators.

When the elevator doors slid open, Dad was standing right outside Room 412. The second he saw us, he dropped the paper coffee cups he was holding, letting them splatter across the floor, and rushed forward with his arms wide as if he expected us to collapse into a group hug.

None of us moved. We stopped as a solid unit ten feet away from him, our faces cold and stony. Rhys lingered somewhere a few feet behind us, a presence I could feel even if I wasn’t holding his hand the way I wanted to for strength right now. My father’s arms faltered, dropping awkwardly to his sides as his smile wavered. “What... what’s with the faces? I know today was a shock, but Hilary had an emergency C-section. It was touch and go for an hour, the baby is barely seven pounds, she’s in an incubator down in the NICU⁠—“