Love Restored

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Chris’s family had found her.

  They’d found Rowan.

  And now, Blake could lose everything.

  Her vision blurred, and she tried to catch her breath, only too late realizing she hadn’t been breathing at all. As she started to fall back, Derek was there, catching her.

  “Shit,” he said quickly. “Blake, honey, breathe.”

  “Fuck, call Graham, will you?” Maya asked. Blake wasn’t sure who Maya was talking to, but she assumed it had to be one of the clients. She blinked up as Maya tossed her phone to someone and knelt in front of her. “Honey, talk to me. What’s in this envelope?”

  When had she ended up on the ground? Things didn’t make sense. Oh, God. She needed to find Rowan. She couldn’t break, couldn’t fall apart. She didn’t have the luxury of falling apart like this.

  “I need…” Blake took a deep breath. “I need to get Rowan.” She met Maya’s gaze. “I need to get her from school. Keep her safe.”

  Maya cupped her face even as Derek rubbed her back. “Got that. But you aren’t driving right now. Is there anyone on the list at her school that can pick her up?”

  Blake pressed her lips together. “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes, told herself to stop freaking out and put Rowan first. “My neighbor, Mrs. Gonzales. But she doesn’t have a car.”

  Maya stuck her hand in Blake’s pocket and pulled out her phone. “Okay, then we’re going to call Mrs. Gonzales and tell her to be ready for a Montgomery or a Gallagher to pick her up so they can go get Rowan. You’re not alone, Blake. Not anymore.”

  Blake’s hands shook as she put in her password and dialed the number, knowing Maya was right, though it hurt her to ask for help. No one knew the truth, knew who Blake had been before she’d cleaned herself up. And now, everyone would see who she was and how she’d never truly cleaned off the grit that marred her soul.

  By the time she’d finished explaining things to her neighbor, who swore she’d protect Rowan, Blake was ready to stand up and open the envelope that had fallen to her lap.

  “Owen is on his way to pick her up with Murphy,” Maya explained. “Then they’ll take Rowan and Mrs. Gonzales to Graham’s place so she’s not at home in case they have your address.” Maya paused. “I let you keep your secrets because I trust you and I still do, but you’re going to have to come clean because I’m putting those I love in the middle of this.”

  Maya’s words penetrated her thoughts as she shook her head. “You shouldn’t have called Graham,” she whispered. She cleared her throat, this time, her words stronger. “We’re not together anymore, and he wants nothing to do with me and Rowan.”

  Maya held Blake’s hands as she helped her up. Then she bent down, grabbed the envelope, and handed it over to Blake. “He’s on his way. I don’t know what happened between the two of you guys, but he’s coming because you need him. I didn’t know y’all had a fight, or I might have called someone else. But you know what? We’re what you have right now. Rowan is going to be safe, and you’re going to be fine. Now open the damn envelope.”

  Maya’s sharp words brought Blake out of her funk, and she opened the package, shaking hands and all.

  The first words on at the legal document were what she’d figured they’d be, but they were still a shock to the system.

  “A formal petition for custody?” Derek asked from behind her. She’d almost forgotten he was there. “Who is trying to get Rowan? Her father?”

  Blake shook her head. “Chris is dead. This is his parents.” Her voice shook. “They want Rowan because they’ve always found me unfit.”

  “We won’t let that happen.”

  Blake’s head shot up at Graham’s voice. Maya moved out of the way, and Graham moved closer to Blake. Her heart raced, her body going numb at the sight of him.

  “You must have broken like every traffic law to get here,” Derek said.

  “I’m here. That’s what matters.” He turned to Maya. “You okay without Blake today? I’m taking her to my place so she’s there when Rowan gets out of school. Derek, you okay driving her car back to my place later with someone?”

  “Got it, just get me the keys.”

  Blake held out her arms. When had everything fallen out of her hands into others’? This was so unlike her, and she hated it.

  “Stop,” she said softly. “Stop trying to fix it. You can’t fix this, Graham. No one can.” She paused. “I appreciate everything you guys are doing, but I need to do this myself.”

  Graham pinched her chin and forced her gaze to his. “You’ve been doing everything on your own long enough. We’re helping you, and you’re going to have to deal with it. Scream at me and hit me later. For now, we’re carrying your burden so you can get your head on straight.”

  And with that eloquent statement, Blake promptly burst into tears.

  Graham held her close, taking the papers from her hand, causing her to cry even harder. With each tear, she hated herself just a little bit more for not being able to hold it together. She’d been doing just fine for a freaking decade, but apparently, she couldn’t do it anymore. And it killed her that she wasn’t strong enough to be what Rowan needed now.

  She must have said the last part out loud because Graham growled. “Keep calling yourself weak, and I’ll have to show you how strong you are. Now come with me, baby. We’ll handle this.”

  “But you hate me,” she whispered, even as he led her to his car. She hadn’t looked at the others in the shop on the way out, her pride far beyond torn. How could she face them? How on earth could she ever repay them for picking up the pieces when she had nothing left to give?

  Graham got her in the car and started the engine once he’d gotten into his seat. Then he sighed. “I don’t hate you, Blake. I was angry and said things I regret, but we’ll come back to that. Now, I’m going to need you to tell me everything you can as we get to my place. Can you do that? My brothers are getting your neighbor and daughter right now and will meet us. But I don’t know if you want to talk about everything in front of your kid. So tell me now, and let’s see how we can fix this.”

  “We can’t fix this,” she said softly, her gaze on the window, unseeing.

  “Doesn’t mean we can’t try,” he said gruffly. “Now talk, baby.”

  She’d told herself she would tell the others anyway, so why not tell the man she’d been falling for? She didn’t know what would happen after this—if there was something after this—but she couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore.

  Graham deserved to know what he’d put his family in the middle of.

  He deserved so much more.

  “I fell in lust with Chris when I was sixteen,” she began. “I thought it was love, but it wasn’t. I can see that now. We were high school sweethearts, you see. The prom queen and king with all the money and privilege in the world.”

  “Hence the house,” Graham said.

  “Hence the house.” She took a deep breath. “I was born a trust fund kid, a silver spoon in my mouth with forty spoons to spare. I had everything I ever wanted. My parents were the typical parents you read about with that much money and not enough love to shower on their child. They didn’t abuse me, didn’t neglect me, but they didn’t pay much attention to me once I started dating Chris. They were best friends with Chris’s family, so the match was perfect for them. They’d have their darling Blake married off to another rich family, and then we’d have perfect little babies and a perfect marriage. I wouldn’t need to go to college on their dime because I’d have found my husband already.”

  Blake snorted. “God, I was such a young idiot.”

  “We’re all idiots when we’re young.” A pause. “I married my high school sweetheart, after all.”

  Blake looked over at him. Though his attention was on the road in front of them, his hands were fisted around the steering wheel. She knew she’d lose him again once she told him how not the sweetheart she truly was.

  “We never married,” she said after a moment
. “The day after graduation, we withdrew as much money as we could because, hey, it was our money, right? I figured I’d go to school after I lived a bit, you know? As for Chris? I don’t think he ever wanted to go back to school. He just wanted to party and live off his parents like his dad had done before he’d found his path. So he drank, and I drank with him. He smoked, but I didn’t since I never liked the taste. When he started doing drugs because some of his friends did, he scared me, and I broke up with him and ran back to my parents. They wanted nothing to do with me. Not that I could blame them. They disowned me, hit me, and called me a whore. So I lived on the streets for a couple weeks before I found a job as a receptionist at a tattoo shop and tried to figure out my life.”

  She let out a breath.

  “Chris got clean and I went back. I was so freaking stupid. I quit my job because Chris’s family paid for his lifestyle, while my parents threatened my life daily. His parents figured if they let him party it out, he’d come back to them. I don’t know if he ever would have, even if things had turned out differently. I was worse than an abuser, I was an enabler. I tried to get Chris off drugs, but it was never enough. When I got pregnant, I ran. I didn’t want my baby to be a part of that.”

  She closed her eyes.

  “Chris OD’d a few days after I had Rowan. He never met her, never knew I was having a girl. I was so scared someone was going to take her away from me, but they didn’t. I had a job, a roof over my head, and the determination to keep her.”

  “That’s fucking brave of you, baby.”

  Blake shook her head. “Not brave enough. My parents died in a car crash a few years ago. Slick roads and too much drinking. I never wanted the house, and I’m still not sure about what the will says about Rowan. Or frankly, me. But I don’t want anything to do with that place. They moved out of it when I came back the first time. The last time I stood in that foyer, my mother called me a whore and my father backhanded me. And when I left, they left, too, not caring about the building. That’s why I freaked out that first day when I got there.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Rowan’s never seen it. Never seen any of her grandparents. I’ve hidden her from my friends and moved around from job to job to make sure Chris’s parents couldn’t find me. I haven’t changed my name or anything that could get me in trouble, but I’ve done my best to keep under the radar. But when the estate came up, I knew my days of running would be over.”

  Graham pulled into his driveway and shut off the car. “They aren’t getting Rowan.” His voice was low, a little gravely.

  “I don’t know how I can fight them. They have so much money and power, and I’m a piercer at a tattoo shop. My baby is such a smart little girl, and so freaking amazing, but if they get their hands on her, they’ll shut off the light that makes her my Rowan.”

  Graham turned in his seat and cupped her face. “I’m not letting you lose your child, Blake. We’ll figure it out.”

  Tears filled her eyes again, but she blinked them back. “I didn’t think you wanted any part of this.”

  Graham ran a thumb under her eye. “I don’t know what I want or what will hurt less, but I can’t walk away when you need me.”

  Before Blake could say anything to that, another car pulled up, and she stiffened, only to scramble out as Murphy got out of the passenger seat. He opened the back door, and Rowan piled out, her little legs running full steam to Blake, who had her arms open.

  “Mom! What’s going on?” Rowan asked, her body shaking. “Are we running again?”

  Her daughter had always known to be careful, and that things could change, but she’d done her best to shield her daughter from a past that would hurt. When Rowan was older, she’d tell her everything.

  “Let’s talk inside,” Graham said as he made his way to Blake’s side. “Hi, Rowan, I’m Graham.”

  Rowan’s eyes widened as she looked up, all the way up at Graham. “Hi. Your beard is really long.”

  And despite the brevity of the situation and the fact that Blake had no idea what she was doing, she laughed.

  Maybe, just maybe, they’d figure this out.

  At least, she hoped.

  12

  Graham had slept for shit, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t be sleeping well until things were sorted. While he’d been shaking inside like a leaf for the entire evening, he’d done his best not to scare a little girl who had done nothing wrong except being the same age that his daughter should have been.

  After Blake had finished the introductions for everyone, she explained some of the situation to his brothers and Mrs. Gonzales with Rowan in the room; though he figured she kept some details vague for her daughter’s sake. Owen and Mrs. Gonzales had scrounged in his kitchen and had ended up making them all dinner. They ate while discussing an uncomfortable set of conversations that didn’t go too deep.

  Afterward, Blake had told him she needed to make sure Rowan slept in her own bed that night. For that, he was grateful. Even though he would have let Rowan sleep over, he wasn’t sure he was ready to have another little girl sleep under his roof. Yeah, he was a selfish jerk, but he was working on fixing that. They’d all decided that things should be safe since it had been a formal petition and not something shady, but Blake would be locking the doors tightly.

  He honestly had no idea what he was doing, but he was doing it anyway. When a guy from the shop had called him, freaking out because Blake looked like she was having a panic attack over something some guy in a suit had given her, he’d dropped everything. His brothers had done the same when Maya had called, saying she needed their help, as well.

  At that moment, it hadn’t mattered that he hadn’t seen or heard from Blake in four days. It hadn’t mattered that he’d kicked her out of his home and still hadn’t finished dealing with the thoughts running through his head at her revelation. She’d needed him, and he’d done his best to be there for her. He supposed that simple fact spoke more of his intentions than the idea that he needed time to think did.

  He’d overreacted when he’d found out about Rowan, and though Blake had apologized, he hadn’t given her time to explain. Now that he’d heard about why she’d kept her secrets, he understood. It might have hurt at first, but if he’d been in a similar situation, he’d have done the same damn thing. At least, he hoped he would have because the sheer force of will and sacrifice that was Blake was something to be awed by.

  Blake was going to have a fight on her hands when it came to the legal aspects of keeping her daughter, and Graham had a feeling he would be right by her side. There was something between them, he knew it. Now he just needed to figure out what it was…and what he was going to do about it.

  “Fuck!”

  Graham turned on his heel at the sound of someone cursing and something falling. He couldn’t tell if it was a wall or a ladder or something in between, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Workplace accidents weren’t uncommon on jobsites as they were working with thousands of moving parts and many of those parts were heavy as hell, but the Gallaghers had a low accident rate because they were very, very careful.

  He came to a stop as he caught a glimpse of the scene. Gary, one of his subcontractors, was on the ground, bleeding slightly from scrapes and what looked like road rash, while a stack of drywall they hadn’t put up yet lay on top of one of his legs. If his leg wasn’t crushed, it had to be at least broken.

  “Shit,” he grumbled as he pushed his way through the guys to kneel at Gary’s side. “What hurts? Has someone called an ambulance?”

  “Already did!” a guy called out.

  “Construction’s halted,” Owen said as he made his way through. “No one leaves, but no one even picks up a hammer. Got me?”

  People grumbled, but for the most part, they were focused on Gary.

  “Talk to me, Gary,” Graham said as he tugged the water bottle out of his tool belt and gave it to the other guy.

  “I was just walking by, heading to the alcove to set up the next stage
when it toppled over. It wasn’t too high or anything, but it just fell on me.” He winced, his eyes closed tightly. “Fuck, it hurts. I can still feel my toes, though, so that’s a good sign.”

  It was a fucking great sign, but Graham didn’t say anything to that effect. “Well, just sit tight, Gary. We’ll take care of you.”

  Gary rolled his eyes, even as sweat slid down his face. “I’d rather that hot chick with the really sexy legs who came that first day help me.”

  Graham narrowed his eyes even as Owen held back a laugh. “She bites. I’d be careful.”

  “As she’s Graham’s woman, I’d be more careful of him.”

  Gary let out a breath, as the sound of sirens split the air. “Thank Christ someone with the good drugs is on their way. And did you say Graham found a woman? Must have hit my head on the way down.”

  Owen outright laughed as Graham shook his head, grateful Gary had kept his sense of humor through all of this.

  By the time the ambulance had taken Gary away, Graham was ready to call it a day. They couldn’t work on the site until the insurance reps showed up, and frankly, Graham wanted to be sure the place was secure before anyone started on anything again. There was something not quite right about how Gary had gotten hurt, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  “Okay, the reps should be here in the morning,” Owen said as he put his phone back on his belt. “Either way, it’s Friday afternoon, and the crew should head out anyway. No use them staying on since you and I already recorded their statements, and the reps will do so on their own, too. Murphy’s at the other site now, but doesn’t need our help, or I’d say we go over there. I have some paperwork to do, but I think you should head to Blake’s.”

  Graham’s brows rose. “Really? Just take the day off?”

  “The day’s already over because of what went down, and Blake said Rowan only had a half-day today thanks to some teacher’s conference or something. So call your woman and go make sure she’s okay. She had a scare yesterday, and it looks like it’s only the beginning.”