Tommy, Raven and my dad were at the foot of the bed. They were in focus, yet still slightly blurry.
Then I turned my head very slowly to the right and these big green eyes filled with wonderment stared at me. Then I turned my head to the left and twin eyes opened even further and a tiny crooked smile appeared on one of my baby’s face. I smiled and softly laughed.
The room filled with sunshine, but there weren’t any windows. I was finally awake. I was sore, but I was returning to the living. Returning to the people that needed me, that loved me and to my two beautiful additions to our family.
After some adjustments and small talk with my family, Dominick and I had some quiet time with the twins. He held baby girl Kane and I held baby boy Kane. Hmm, daddy’s little girl already. I felt bad for her. She didn’t know what she was in for, with her control freak daddy. I smiled though, knowing he did everything out of a passionate love he had for his new family. It was all good.
They were beautiful. They were a mix of Dominick and me. They had eyes like Dominick’s and hair that was black as coal, like mine. My heart was so full it could burst. I started to cry.
“I know. They're amazing aren’t they. You can’t help but cry.”
Dominick stated after seeing my reaction to our babies.
“They are. It’s so indescribable. You know, the way they make you feel immediately. I’ve never felt like this about anyone else. It’s magical.”
“We need to name them, Rain. They need their identities.”He stated as if it was imperative that it was done immediately.
I didn’t have the strength to argue or the heart to say‘no lets wait for a while longer’, so I guess it was time to give our babies an identity of their own. I wondered if Dominick had any thoughts on the subject. I’d lay ten to one that he probably already had the names picked out and he was just going to spring it on me in my moment of weakness.
“So Mr. Kane, any ideas?”I asked innocently.
“I thought you did?”He seemed surprised.
“No, I wanted to discuss it that with you the week I was done the shore.”
“Oh. Well, what do you think?”
“I want their names to mean something or at the very least be named after someone special in our lives.”
“I couldn't agree more.”Dominick was genuine.
We both discussed it a bit further. At some points throughout parts the conversation we were silent. We were in deep thought. At other times we threw names out to each other, but none seemed to fit.
Then it finally came to each of us. We would name them after Joseph and Anna. We both felt that Dominick didn’t really get to have his father’s true name. He did legally have it added before our marriage ceremony, but it still bothered him that his last name wasn’t the same as Joseph’s, like the way it was for Daniel.
He wasn’t sure about Anna. He and Anna had a special bond, and even with all of the fights and the discovery of her being his mom; he couldn’t stay mad at her for very long. She in essence was his guardian angel during those times when her sister Elise was essentially blackmailing their family.
Dominick and his parents were working on their relationship. They still had a long way to go, but they were in a much better place and it was only improving every single day.
So after all that we debated on, we both agreed on Joseph and Angel. We felt it was perfect. Joseph, so Dominick’s son could have a piece of his real father and Angel, because it represented Dominick not only being saved once as a child, but the second time as an adult; by me. That’s why he called me‘Angel’.
I had come to love Anna and Joseph so much and felt it was the perfect choice. I was also happy to finally hear why Dominick always called me his‘Angel’. I had my suspicions that was why, but now I knew for sure.
“How do you feel, baby? Physically, I mean.”Dominick inquired the status of my condition constantly.
“I’m sore, achy, but that could be because I’ve been laying here for a while. Wait. How long have I been asleep.?”I wondered.
“Five weeks. You've been out for five weeks.”He was careful.
“Shit! Five fucking weeks! I’ve missed five weeks of our babies’lives? I was so frustrated in that moment.
“Rain, calm down. They're starting to fall asleep.”He whispered.
I looked at our son and daughter and their eyes were closing in slow motion. I smiled at them and then at their daddy. He smiled back. Then he continued to explain what happened.
“If you want to get technical they were born four weeks ago on August 2nd. You’ve been unconscious since the incident at the shore house. Remember?”He asked.
I grimaced and tried to think.
“I remember opening all of the patio doors and going into the kitchen to get ready for Daniel’s arrival. Then I heard something in the living room. I went back out to investigate the noise and saw our seashell on the floor, cracked in half. I do remember sirens, but that’s about it. What happened to me?”
“That’s all you remember?”Dominick seemed shocked.
“Yeah, that about covers it.”
“You had a visitor. Daniel said it was a woman with long red hair.”
“Darian?”
“No, the police were able to prove she was out on Long Island.”
“How do you know it was a woman with long red hair? I mean I don’t even remember that.”I questioned.
“Daniel.” Dominick revealed.
“Daniel saw the intruder?”
“Yeah, but not before she had assaulted you.”
“I see. So that’s why I’m here?”
“Yes and then while asleep, your body started to go into distress, so Dr. Phillips felt it best to do a C-section. This put you and the babies at less risk.”
“I take it from the state we are in now and looking at these two, everything is okay.”
“Everything’s fine, Angel. Now that you're awake, that is. It was touch and go for awhile.”The sound of relief blanketed his voice. I knew from his reaction that I would get better.
I needed to get strong quickly. I had two tiny babies that needed me. Nothing was more important than that. Also important was the fact that I was fully awake and my anger began to build. Someone, a woman, stole my precious moments of being fully present at the birth of our twins. They took from me their first moments of life. The first smile, the first cry. The look on Dominick’s face when they were born.
This would never be acceptable to me and I won’t rest until they’re caught. Hell will feel like Heaven, when I get through with them.
I told Dominick in the beginning when he kidnapped me, no one fucks with my family and an gets away with it. This was far worse. They fucked with my babies. I can’t get that time back, but I can make every moment from here on out count for everything.
“Dominick are the police looking for this person?”
“Yeah, baby. They're doing everything they can. Checking cameras from the shore house, examining pictures of the car and speaking with Daniel as well.”
“Okay. It must have something to do with the firm and the loss of clients my dad was dealing with.”
“I think you're right, but you need to rest so we can go home and be a family. Just so you know, since I started at the firm, clients have not only stopped leaving, many are returning. I’m going to try as delicately as I can to find out what precipitated all of this upheaval. Don’t worry, Rain. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”He gave me a reassuring smile and kissed my lips gently.
I sighed deeply. Boy, did I miss him.
“Listen, Rain. There’s one other thing that I need for you to agree to and I don’t want you to give me any of that smart mouth of yours.”He was serious.
“Okay, Mr. Kane. Let’s have it.”I smirked.
“I don’t want you or our babies to stay home alone at this point. At least not until the situation with the firm is completely straightened out and until the piece of shit that hurt you is caught. So whether you're with
Anna and Joseph or you're out with Tommy, I’m also posting a guard on you and the twins. Once the intruder is caught and the firm is back to normal, then we’ll go back to normal. Our normal.”He gave me his sexy grin.
“I couldn’t agree with you more.”I smiled.
“No resistance, Mrs. Kane?”He looked pleasantly surprised.
“Nope, none from me. I totally agree with you.”
“Good girl.”That got me more than a grin. It got me a deeper kiss.
Hmm…Maybe I should be more agreeable every so often.
After the doctors ran some necessary and even quite a few unnecessary tests, the babies and I were released the following week, as promised. And yes we were heavily guarded. I should have known when Dominick said one guard, he met more than one. They were very professional though and not at all intrusive. They didn’t at all interfere with our privacy.
Anna and Joseph agreed to come with us to the shore house for labor day weekend. Of course, Max came too. He was so curious and very protective of the babies. Who needs guards when I have Max. Although I knew the guards weren’t going anywhere for the time being. They would actually be a big help while I was trying to figure out who did all of this to me and my family.
I knew Dominick wouldn’t like me snooping around, but this was our family and our company and I needed to get to the bottom of it. It may take awhile, but I knew eventually that someone would be caught. I just wanted to be part of the investigation.
That definitely wouldn’t happen until I was fully back on my feet, so the shore house was absolutely the best place to recuperate. Besides, I needed some time alone with Dominick and I knew that having Anna and Joseph there would be a great deal of help, but also a wonderful way to help Dominick connect with his parents even further. We needed to build our family in every sense of the word. After all they were our twin’s grandparents.
I walked into the shore house like I always had. Dominick helped Joseph with the bags. Anna and I placed the babies in their cribs. They were both sound asleep. It was wonderful how their schedules were the same. Yet, I knew at some point that things wouldn't stay this perfect forever.
I went into our bedroom and I saw Dominick standing at the fireplace. Many of the memories of the year gone by came flooding in. I couldn’t believe it. It was one year since Dominick and I first met.
One year ago today held a very special day. I didn’t know it then, but I knew it now. This year Dominick’s birthday fell on Labor Day. And I decided to make Mr. Kane’s 40th, one he would never forget.
It was one year since Dominick took me. One year since all of the craziness began. One year to the day we both started our journey into our past and discovered that we were both broken and needed to heal.
In that year, we made new friends, discovered family and tore down the walls that controlled our lives. We learned how to compromise. How to say no and let things go that really had no place with us. We learned (well, maybe I learned more than Dominick) that control was not really having an upper hand to handle things better. It was a way of confining ourselves and not letting ourselves be free. Life needed to be lived. Having control over it and placing situations in tiny little neat compartments didn’t work. Taking a chance did.
Dominick took that chance when he kidnapped me. I took that chance when I let him into my heart. Even with all of our childish actions and stupid moves, we found our way into each others arms and stayed. The running away, the fights, the control, and not wanting to relinquish that control; that all stopped and we eventually pulled it together.
Now one year later we’re husband and wife. We have two beautiful babies and a future to look forward to. Dominick and I were finally free. Free for us was actually admitting that we did need each other.
It wasn’t about who was stronger. Or who was right or wrong. It wasn’t about the push or the pull. It wasn’t about what was or was not rightfully his. It wasn’t even about the kidnapping.
It was about us. Just us. Not what others thought, but what matter to us once we really dug deep and revealed our feelings, smashed down the walls and let our defenses weaken to show our insecurities and our true love for one another.
In the end, after everything; it was how two people so broken and in so much denial about it; finally saw the honest reflection of their real selves, their real identities in each other with no regrets.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Kane.
****
THE EPILOGUE
DOMINICK’S EPILOGUE, THAT IS
It was a year ago that Rain, now my beautiful wife, walked into my life. Well, let’s face it, she didn’t walk in of her own accord. She was bound and blindfolded. Tactics I still may use on her today, but not for the original reasons I started with.
We went through so much shit. We had so much garbage. We got through it, though. No one could ever say that what went on with us was normal and it even was sometimes childish. I will admit to that. Though we aren’t that different from most couples today.
We all have pasts and we all struggle with them. Making it ever so hard to hold a relationship together. I’m just grateful that Rain held on and never gave up on us, on me.
She gave me two beautiful children. A baby boy and a baby girl. Twins. What more could I ask for. I loved Rain and our family, our life. I couldn’t be a happier man.
I was distracted from my thoughts as she walked in the doorway of our bedroom, she wore one of my white collared dress shirts, that was much too big for her and black lace panties, that I needed to discard immediately. Her sexy long legs were tanned and gleaming as she leaned to the side, resting her body against the wall.
She smiled and pulled on her sleeves. I knew what she wanted. I wanted it too. It had been over five weeks since my cock was inside her sweet pussy. It was five weeks too long.
“There’s my girl, just the way I like her.”I stated.
“And how’s is that, Mr. Kane?”She teased.
My cocked twitched. I needed to fuck my wife.
I stalked forward.
“Where are my babies, Rain?”
“They’re sound asleep in their cribs. Why?”She acted so innocent. She was far from it where sex with me was concerned.
“You know why, baby.”I grinned and noticed her nipples hardened and were piercing through the crisp white material of the shirt.
“Show me.”She whispered.
I lifted her off her feet. Her breath hitched and a small satisfied giggled escaped her lips as she wrapped her legs around my waist. I pressed her up against the wall and took her mouth. She was everything to me and I intended to prove it to her for the rest of the my life. Hell, I would do anything for her for the rest of our lives.
Our kiss was hot and she was needy. I just wanted to get inside her and take what’s mine. She whimpered and I knew that was my cue that Rain wanted more. I carried her over to our bed and laid her down gently without disconnecting from our kiss.
Rain, still with her legs wrapped around my waist, pulled hard on my hair. Yeah, she was ready. I could smell her arousal. It was time for me to bury myself inside of her.
I slid my one hand underneath her and pulled down on her panties. I didn’t want to break our embrace, so I ripped them off her body and I discarded them quickly and carelessly to the floor.
With that same hand I let my fingers explore her slick folds. Rain moaned and removed one hand from my hair to grab hold of my fully hard cock. She pulled back from our kiss, breathless.
“Dominick, fuck me. Now.”Her voice was barely audible.
“I know, baby. In due time. I’m enjoying how wet you are for me.”I grinned into her neck knowing that I was the only one that could do this to her beautiful body. Only me.
I loved how she reacted. How she called my name, just shy of begging. I loved that she allowed me the control I craved. She was exquisite. And together we were perfect.
I didn’t want her to come with my fingers inside of her. I wanted her to come all over me, while
I fucked her, hard and into her own release.
I removed my fingers, which got me a pouty reaction. Then quickly I discarded my sweats and and retrieved the foil packet from the nightstand draw. Rain said it was very easy to get pregnant so soon after giving birth. I wouldn’t mind having her body pregnant again, but Dr. Phillips gave Rain and I strict instructions not to allow that to happen. It wouldn't be healthy or safe for her. I wasn’t willing to take any chances with my Angel, so the condom stayed.
Identity: …………..People aren’t always who you believe them to be (Miss Taken Identity Series Book 2) Page 43