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Page 131 of Where Broken Wings Fly

She stops at my side, those damned eyes peering up at me. “Mummy, please don’t cry. Daddy can’t find us here. The giant and his family will keep us safe.”

“Ari… please go back inside.”

“No, I won’t,” she protests. “You don’t need to be sad anymore.”

Letting my legs crumple, I kneel in front of her, my entire world narrowing until it’s just the two of us. Like it always has been. Me and my little miracle against the whole fucking world.

She places a tiny palm on my cheek. “Aren’t we safe here?”

Pulling the remaining shards of my sanity together for her, I summon the world’s worst smile for the world’s best daughter. It’s all I have left to give her.

“We’re safe. I promised, didn’t I?”

“And Mummy always keeps her promises,” she declares. “That’s how I know that everything is going to be okay. Because you promised.”

Wrapping her hands around mine, Arianna tugs hard, demanding I stand back up. With her to anchor me in the present, far from that blood-stained mansion, I find my feet again. Only because she needs me to.

“Ari,” Zach calls from the porch. “Come inside.”

She spares me another glance. “Mummy?”

“It’s okay, baby. I need to talk to Killian. Go on up.”

Arianna releases my hand and reluctantly returns to the cabin. I watch as Zach leads her inside, though he looks desperate to pull me into his arms. Micah is helping Lola, leading her away to give me some privacy.

My legs are weak, but Killian closes the gap between us in a flash. He lets me collapse into his arms and crushes me against his chest, almost cutting off my blood circulation.

“Fuck, Willow. You should have told me.”

“I was scared for you to know the truth,” I whisper into his flannel shirt. “It was easier to lie. I didn’t want you to look at me any differently if you knew what he did.”

Cupping the back of my head, Killian forces me to look up at him. His eyes strip back my skin, layer by layer, until it feels like he’s looking straight into the centre of my soul. Every last ugly secret I hold inside me is displayed for him to see.

“Nothing in this entire world could make me see you any differently,” he says with fire. “I see a mama bear determined to protect her baby, and the strongest damn woman I’ve ever known.”

“You’re wrong. I’m broken.”

“Broken wings can still fly. You are living proof of that.”

My throat constricts. “All I can do is fall.”

“I’ve got you, and I’m never letting go. None of us are. We’re here to catch you if you fall and help you get back up again. That’s what family is for.”

Lifting me into his arms despite my protests, he carries me back to the cabin, leaving Lola to be led away. There’s nothing I can offer her right now. She’s one in a long line of disappointments.

I can’t be angry with the whole world for failing me, but I don’t know how to forgive those who left me behind. I was a child. Vulnerable and alone. They were all adults and they still let me down.

No matter what happens, I will never do that to my daughter. Nobody will ever lay a finger on her while I’m still breathing. I’ll do for her what my parents didn’t do for me. She will always be safe, no matter what it costs.

Even if that cost is my heart.

And the three men who now own it.

CHAPTER 25

WILLOW

DON’T HOLD ME - SANDRO CAVAZZA