Chapter 56
Chapter 56 Lost And Found
Chapter 56 Lost And Found
Lana’s POV
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I didn’t want to let him continue. I didn’t want to hear him say the words that would tear my perception of reality apart. But he was the one in the hospital bed, struggling with each word. As much as I wanted to stop him, I couldn’t find my voice or my courage. His revelation had taken both.
From what Tyler had found in my files, I had suspected. But to hear the words from my father’s mouth… That was something else. I felt like the ground was crumbling under my feet.
All I could do was listen, a prisoner to his truth.
“Your mother and I… we often walked through the woods behind our home. The leaves were just starting to change and…” He coughed.
Nurse Jen stepped forward, “Jeremy, please rest p>
My father shook his head, and I knew where I had gotten my stubbornness from.
“We could never have a child of our own. When we found you in the woods… you were a blessing from the Moon Goddess.” He looked at me, his eyes focusing on my face. “You still are, my daughter p>
“Dad…” My voice broke, my tears slipping down my cheeks.
He squeezed my hand. “You were left there. Abandoned. It was getting colder, you could have died p>
“I didn’t,” I said. “You found me. You and Mom p>
“You are my daughter… in every way that matters…” Dad said. “I have always loved you like you are our own. Your mother did, too p>
He started coughing, his voice strained and likely sore from disuse.
“Please, Dad. Please stop. You have to rest and get better.” I blinked and more tears escaped. “I’m not ready to lose you too p>
“We don’t always… get to choose… when we go p>
“Well, you can certainly try to help things by resting,” Nurse Jen said.
“I’m not ready to lose you,” I said again.
He looked at me for a long moment, then closed his eyes and sighed. “I miss your mother… But she would be very angry with me for leaving you… too soon p>
“Please, rest,” I told him. Everything he said struck me like a blow, but I wasn’t acknowledging that yet. His health was the priority. My own feelings, including those about my past, could wait. I just needed him to get better.
He started to nod, sinking into the pillows. Nurse Jen righted his blankets, bringing them high up his chest,
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Chapter 56 Lost And Found
ensuring his comfort.
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In flash, his eyes opened again, once more focusing on me. He clutched my hand, some urgency in his face now. He tried to sit up, but only made it as high as lifting slightly on one elbow. “There was a necklace p>
“A necklace?” What was he talking about?
“When we found you. It was all you had. I stored it… It’s safe… I…” His energy quickly failed him anne pressed down into the pillows again.
“Rest,” Nurse Jen said, and finally he listened. Although, with his health, he likely didn’t have much other choice. He had exerted too much energy telling me all of this.
Now that he was finally resting, the truth of his words finally rose up in my mind, settling there, haunting
I wasn’t my parents’ daughter. Not biologically, at least. They’d found me and raised me, but… who was I i I wasn’t theirs? My whole life I had believed certain truths about myself. Despite what might happen in my future, I thought that past was set in stone. I was stubborn like my father and brave like my mother. Now? I didn’t know who I was.
I was a stranger to myself.
Kade, from behind me, placed his hand on the small of my back. It was a grounding touch, and I leaned into it. Turning, I looked up at him, but his face was blurry through my tears.
“Let me get you home,” Kade said, his voice low and steady, one more thing for me to hold onto when I felt like I might fall apart.
“I can’t leave him p>
“He’s resting now, Lana. The doctors and I will look after him,” Nurse Jen said. “You’ve had a great shock and need rest too. Your father would want you to take care of yourself p>
I knew that was true, but I still couldn’t leave him.
Kade must have read my confliction on my face. “We aren’t going far. I’ll arrange for you to stay at a hotel just up the street p>
I looked at my father again, blinking away my tears. He was so frail and pale in the bed, so unlike the man I always imagine him as, when I was young and he was my protector against the whole world.
It had been just the two of us for too long. To think I might soon be left all alone was almost too much. I covered my face with my hands, hoping to shut out the world.
Kade’s arm curled more fully around me, tugging me toward him. I buried my face against his chest, and he didn’t move an inch as I cried.
No, I couldn’t lose myself. Not here. Not yet. What if my father were to wake up again and see me like this? I needed to be strong for his sake.
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Chapter 56 Lost And Found
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Gathering my strength, I stepped back from Kade and wiped away my tears with the backs of my wrists. My sleeves were soaked. As my tears dried up, and I could finally see clearly, I noticed that I had alsoft a damp spot on Kade’s shirt. Embarrassment struck me, but he didn’t acknowledge it at all.
“I’m ready,” I told him. Then, after one last look back at my Dad, I walked out of the room.
My bag had made the trip from the Eastern packs. Kade insisted on carrying it for me up to my el room, even though I argued. I was more than capable of carrying my own bag. He wouldn’t take nor an answer though, and maybe I didn’t push that hard. I didn’t really want to be alone yet.
I pressed the keycard to the lock and the hotel room door opened. Stepping inside, I clicked on the light, and was blown away. This hotel room was immaculate. Crystal chandeliers, a full kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms attached with their own doors. This was more of an entire apartment than a hotel room, much bigger than I had ever stayed in before.
Kade acted like this was normal. Walking around me, he took my luggage into one of the bedrooms, then came out and stood beside me in the living room.
“Do you have everything you need?” he asked, studying me.
I should say yes, and let him leave. Then I could crawl under the covers and cry myself to sleep.
But I didn’t want to be alone. How could I ask Kade to stay with me, though? He wasn’t my boyfriend for real. I should let him go. He needed to go. Now. Before I fell apart again, much worse this time.
“You” I started.
“Are you okay?” he asked me at the same time.
Tell him yes. Get him to leave.
Instead, what came out of my mouth was a harsh sob, followed immediately by the word, “No p>
Kade moved at once, like it was instinct. His arms went around me and I was back against his chest, my face buried against my shirt. He held me tightly, one arm locked around my waist, while the other stroked the length of my spine, up and down and back again.
The comfort broke through my weak defenses, and all at once, every feeling I had been bottling up came pouring out of me.
My biological parents didn’t want me. Why? Because I was an omega?
Did they really leave me out in the woods to die? Had I meant so little to them that they would have rather I was dead than in their lives? An embarrassment. An Omega.
My mom and dad were the best parents I could have ever asked for. That should have been enough to comfort me. Maybe in the future, it would be. But right now… Right now, I was shocked and hurt. Why wasn’t I good enough? Why hadn’t I been enough?
Kade was my lighthouse in this storm, holding me together. I would have fallen to the floor without him. I would have fallen apart.
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hated being so vulnerable with him, letting him see this broken side of me. I thought he might laugh a e or mock me. Instead, he was quiet as a statue, holding me, with one hand following the trail of my
spine.
I didn’t understand him at all. And this strength of his… it made me feel things. I didn’t want to kk him. Nothing between us was real. Yet, when he acted like this, how could I not?
Slowly, I pieced myself back together. My tears dried up, and I felt comfortable stepping back fromdim.
While I was grateful he had held me through my breakdown, I needed distance now. From him. Krom these confusing feelings. I was entirely untrustworthy where he was concerned, especially when was next to me. Only with distance would I be able to see things clearly.
“Goodnight, Kade,” I said.
He hovered a moment. His face calm, his eyes searching my face.
In this moment, he looked at me a little differently, giving an expression I had never seen before. It was soft, almost like he… no. Whatever I was seeing there, I had to be imagining it.
“Goodnight, Little Bird. I won’t be far if you need me p>
I wouldn’t allow myself to need him. No matter what my heart wanted.
He turned then and walked away from me.
It took all that I had not to call him back.
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