“You are my daddy, right?” she whispered for only me to hear, as if it were a secret between just the two of us. Her eyes were the deepest blue I had ever seen. Her hair was the exact same shade as mine, but somehow it looked better on her. Her skin had the light hint of tan…same as mine. Her nose sloped down and turned up just a fraction, identical to her mother’s. Her ears were the same shape as mine, only a much smaller and daintier version. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on, and I couldn’t believe she was already four years old.
I tried to speak but I couldn’t get anything to come out, so I just nodded my head like a dumbass. Her entire face lit up with joy that could only parallel mine and she threw her arms around my neck. I stubbornly pulled my arm from the sling and, despite the pain—which felt like absolutely nothing right then—I hugged my precious daughter with everything I had.
In that moment, everything I had done and everything I had been through had all been worth it. I knew that nothing could have ever filled the void in my life like she could. I also knew that I would always fight to the ends of the earth for this little girl in my arms right now.
“Kate.” The word bubbled up out of my throat and I began to sob into her tiny shoulder. “You know who I am?”
She pulled back just enough to flash her brilliant eyes at me and giggled, “Of course, silly. You’re my daddy.”
With tears coursing down my face for everyone to see, I squeezed her back to me tightly. “I feel like I’ve been waiting an eternity for you, Kit Kat.”
Her eyes popped open wide at the nickname and she pushed on my injured shoulder to take a look at me. I tried not to cringe, but it had been at least a good twenty hours since I’d last taken something for it. Instinctually, she lightly patted her hand over my wound. She couldn’t see the bandage under my shirt, but somehow she knew. Her touch was like a feather and maybe it was all in my head, but it really did lessen the stinging ache.
“You have an ouchie?” she asked innocently.
“It’ll be okay. See?” I tenderly pulled back the collar of my shirt. “I have this great big Band-aid making it all better.”
It was amazing to be able to just watch her expressions. I saw myself in so many of them, and I’d never realized what kind of feeling that would give my soul. She was this beautiful part of me—the very best part of me.
As she examined my bandage like a trained nurse, she slowly bent forward and kissed the covered area. My heart stopped beating for an entire handful of seconds. I would have thought I was having a heart attack, but there was nothing numb inside me at this moment. I was feeling every emotion and for once, I couldn’t have been happier about it.
“Kisses make ouchies better.” Her face lit up with pride.
“They certainly do,” I choked out.
I let my bag slip off of my opposite shoulder so I could stand while holding her. She wrapped her arms around my neck, but she was cautious of my injury.
I gently wrapped my fingers around her dainty wrist and flipped it over to see the confirmation I absolutely didn’t need. There on the inside of her left wrist was a tiny birthmark in the shape of a heart. I noticed it the second she had been all cleaned off after birth. It was such a perfect mark for a perfect little girl. I’d been searching four years for that heart-shaped mark.
“Bubba was right, you are like Superman,” Kate said while gazing directly into my eyes.
A look of confusion crossed my face as I tried to figure out what she had just said. “Who is bubba, little one?”
With one arm wrapped tightly around my neck, as if I would actually try and escape her, she swiveled around and faced the crowd surrounding us. I finally took in all of the faces that were staring at us. The crowd had lessened, but the ones who remained had all been watching our reunion very closely. Women were wiping their faces dry while the men were clearing their throats and avoiding my glassy eyes as they tried to give me at least the appearance of privacy.
“Braden is bubba!” she excitedly told me, pointing through the bodies at a little boy who appeared to be about the same age as Kate.
But it wasn’t Braden that stopped the blood flow throughout my body once again. It was the woman sitting next to him. She was the one person, besides Flores, who could stir up intense anger inside of me. The one person I had suspected of aiding my daughter’s kidnappers. Raegan Hayes.
RAEGAN -
We had been sitting in that dark and dingy police station for hours. Not that we had anywhere to go anyway. Braden and Kate’s bedtime had long since come and gone, even with the time difference. Where did they expect us to sleep tonight, because it sure as hell wouldn’t be here on the cold floor?
I knew he would be coming, but I just didn’t know when to expect him. I’d heard Officer Charlie talking with him on the phone while we were flying out to New York, even though he thought I was sleeping along with the others.
When Lane Parker’s huge body filled the door of the hallway we were all congregating in, my breath was stolen straight from my chest. Lane had always been every woman’s fantasy, but over these last four years he had become impossibly more beautiful. Even through his polo shirt, I could see the stretch of tight muscles and everything else on him looked incredibly hard. Four years ago, he was not built like that at all. He had been lean, but I wouldn’t have called him muscular. Now I could see that the gym had been his friend.
My eyes welled up with tears when he heard Kate’s sweet voice for the first time. His entire face zoned in on her, even if he couldn’t see her yet, and when his knees hit the ground we all felt it shake beneath us. I couldn’t have been happier for Kate right then, but the selfish side of me wondered what that meant for us.
No one in the station could look away from the heart-wrenching father-daughter reunion. Kate, in her true boisterous and outgoing nature, ran to the only man she’s ever known to be her father—even though she never really knew him. I couldn’t begin to keep track of the amount of times she had asked me when she could see him again over the last four years.
Braden, ever the silent, stoic protector, inched closer just a smidge so he could keep an eye on her at all times. Lane wouldn’t get very far with Kate, not without a small, male, four-year-old tagalong. Braden took a long look at him holding Kate and eyed me nervously, and I knew he was silently wondering if she was about to be taken away from us. I wiped the moisture from my face and averted my gaze from his inaudible questions because I didn’t know the answers. And I was too afraid to ask.
My legs ached from sitting all day. I’d sat on a plane for five hours and then came here and alternated between the floor and hard, wooden chairs. I couldn’t go on for much longer. If I had any money at all, I would have just told them we would be at a hotel, but now I wondered if I had any control over what Kate did. She was technically not mine; well at least they wouldn’t see it that way.
It seemed as though no one around here really knew the protocol for having missing persons return after four years. I guessed after a year or so they just assumed you wouldn’t be coming back. It made me wonder if anyone had actually been out there looking for us. I had always hoped they were out there at least trying. Then again, could I have really expected them to search for us for four years?
Every time I’d asked Officer Charlie what it was we were waiting on, he told me a different person each time. First, we were waiting on some Sergeant, and then it was an attorney. I had heard him speak of the Police Chief and finally he said a psychologist. It was obvious that he had no idea and was giving me the run-around.