Page 50 of Her Loving Hero

“Emily, do you know that you are the most important in my world?” he asked her imploringly.

She shook her head, blonde hairs lashed his cheek. It felt like a hundred tiny razors scoring his skin. He had to get through to her, he had to. He knew deep in his heart if he didn’t keep the lines of communication open, if she closed him out, it would be over. He glanced up at Gray. The man nodded and walked out of the empty waiting room.

Wyatt tugged at her hand, and thankfully, she allowed herself to be led to a seat. He knelt at her feet. If he had to, he would have touched his head to the floor. “I thought I lost them, Em. My mom died when I was thirteen, the boys, Benny, Luke and Kyle were six, five and three. She’d been sick since Kyle was born and I took care of them.”

She didn’t look up from where their hands were linked. He prayed his words were sinking in.

“They were mine, Em. They weren’t just my brothers, they were my boys. I fed them, I changed diapers, I got them dressed, I read them stories, they were mine.”

“And your dad?” He heard the faintly whispered question.

“He was my stepdad,” Wyatt said wearily. Then went silent.

“Stepdad,” she prompted.

“A year before Mom died he got hurt on the job. It wasn’t bad, but he managed to milk it for a disability, between that and the state funds he was getting for the boys, he figured he was sitting pretty, but he was a mean bastard, and he hated my ass.” He went silent again.

This time she looked up at him expectantly. “And?”

“Then he started yelling and locking Kyle and Luke up in their rooms without food. I’d come home from school and find out about this and go berserk.”

“Did he hit you?”

“Nah, the bastard was smarter than that. He arranged it so that all my homework would always go missing, or I’d miss school on test days, so I’d fail. Then in the end, he called social services, and had me sent into foster care, turned out that since he’d never adopted me, that I was literally a ward of the state and not his responsibility. I fought it, but I had no power. I ran away trying to get back to my brothers.”

The pain still felt raw. Like bloody talons, it ripped at his heart. But seeing Benny today gave him hope that his boys had been okay without him.

Her gentle hand cupped his cheek. An echo of that moment when he had cupped Ben’s. Her blue eyes glowed as she smiled down at him.

“I understand.”

“Can you forgive me for not sharing?”

“I feel so bad Wyatt,” a tear slipped down her right cheek. “There are things I will never, ever tell you about that night. I should never have insisted you expose your deepest secrets, that’s not what this is about. You’ve shared you. You’ve let me see your kind heart. That should have been enough.”

He latched onto that one word. “Should?”

“Is. Your kind heart, your beautiful soul. Take some time with your brother, then let’s go home.”