Rise by Kimberly Adams

Author:Kimberly Adams [Adams, Kimberly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adams Romance
Published: 2013-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Well?”

I set my keys on the kitchen table quietly, careful not to wake Eva as she slept on my shoulder.

“Well, it’s done. They’ve graduated.”

Violet nodded, pulling the blanket closer to her chin and resting her cheek against the pillow on the couch. “Were they happy?”

I lowered Eva to the loveseat, pulling a soft, fleece blanket over her legs.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t go. I just couldn’t see him... with her,” she whispered, blinking rapidly.

I knew that she was fighting away tears. I patted her legs, indicating she move them. When she did, I sat next to her, pulling my oldest daughter into my arms.

“I understand. It was fine. Morgan held Eva.”

“It’s just not fair… everyone gets to forget, and the three of us have to remember forever. It’s not fair,” she cried, exhaling slowly to control her tears.

I pulled gently at a spiral curl, nodding. “I know. I’m sorry, Vi.”

“Even Mom. She doesn’t remember that she was just gone from my life for so many years, and she doesn’t know any of it. The foster families, or- or Logan...” Her voice broke at his name. “She doesn’t get why I wanted to live with you instead of her.”

“She’s coming around. It’ll take time,” I promised. “I’m just glad she doesn’t remember the castle. I thought she would.”

“She thinks you’re just another deadbeat dad.”

I thought of Roam, and the way her eyes lit with confusing recognition when she saw Eva again for the first time.

God, I miss her.

“I don’t care what she thinks of me.” I hadn’t intended to sound so callous.

Silence stretched for long minutes. I thought she’d fallen asleep, but her tremulous words interrupted the stillness.

“Is he still enlisting?”

“He said yes.”

I felt her stiffen in my arms.

“He can’t go.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Vi… he’s smart, and he’s resourceful. He’s meant to do this.”

“How could you stand to be so close to her, all year?” she pleaded with me, turning her gaze up at me from the pillow.

I closed his eyes tightly.

How could I not be so close to her?

I thought of the way I’d lose myself in the middle of a lesson because she made the slightest movement, or simply brushed her hair away from her face and looked up at me. Every part of me longed to throw it all away and kiss her, touch her, hold her again...

If only for just a moment.

“Every time I began to rationalize telling her, I pictured her in that ballroom. You didn’t see her, Violet. She was… broken. Dying. She killed people. She’d been through too much, and to give her the ability to erase all that Troy had done to her... I couldn’t take that away from her.”

“But once she realized she could be together with you again... don’t you think she’d want that?”

I remembered her staggered breaths at the end, as I held her frail, failing body in my arms.

“I don’t want her to remember any of it. She deserves a normal life, and so does Logan. So do you,” I added, tightening my hold on her shoulders.

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