Aligned: Volume 4 (25 page)

“Good, I’m happy for you.”
 

“Are you really?”
 

“Yes, you two should be together.”
 

“Is everything okay? Is everything okay with the baby?”
 

I feel Landon’s heart rate speed up as he thinks about his daughter.
 

“Yes. I’m fine; the baby is fine. But I need to tell you something. Something I should tell you in person, but I don’t want to tear you any further away from Alex.”
 

“It can wait. We will be coming to check on you in a couple of hours.”
 

“No, it can’t wait, and no, you are not.” I hear Caroline take a deep breath, and I brace myself for the pain she is going to cause Landon. “Landon, I lied to you. You are not the father of my baby.”
 

Landon’s heart stops. It literally stops, and I have to rub his chest gently to get it to beat again. He looks at me with wide eyes, and I nod my head begging him to listen.
 

“How? The paternity test proved that I am.”
 

“Yes, but it also proved that someone else is too.”
 

I watch as his face curls in confusion. “That night that I told you we slept together. It never happened. You didn’t have sex with me. You just passed out as soon as we got you back to your room.”
 

“Drew,” he says. “He told me he didn’t fuck you!” His voice rises in anger.
 

“He didn’t. He came on my breasts. I was the one that took it further. I went to the bathroom right after to clean myself up. But instead of cleaning myself off, I used it to get pregnant. I knew I could convince you the baby was yours. That the tests would prove it too.”

I feel Landon’s heart break as he finds out it was true.
 

“You’re not going to be a father. Drew is.”
 

I hear Caroline crying on the other end of the phone. “I’m so sorry for hurting you, Landon. For tricking you and Drew, but Drew and I are happy. We are supposed to be together.”
 

“I love her, Landon,” Drew says into the phone making me smile. I wasn’t sure if Drew would forgive her so soon, but he did.
 

“Landon, are you still there ...”
 

I run my hand on Landon’s chest gently encouraging him.
 

“Don’t be sorry, Caroline. Your daughter saved me when I thought I was dead. She saved me. And I’ll still love her like a daughter. Like a niece.”
 

Landon ends the call, and I see the tears falling down his cheek.

“I don’t understand how it could be true. When I was surely dead lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to my chest, I shouldn’t have made it, but my daughter kept me alive. How could she not exist?”
 

I smile and push myself off Landon’s chest until I look him eye to eye. Tears are already falling in my eyes matching his.
 

“You feel that way because she does exist.”
 

“What do you mean?”
 

I touch my stomach. “I’m pregnant, Landon.”
 

His eyes grow wide. “He never touched me, Landon. Not in that way. The baby’s yours.”
 

He jumps from the chair lifting me and twirling us around despite his still healing wounds that should prevent him from doing so. We both laugh. We cry.
 

Landon finally puts me down so that my feet are touching the ground. “I’m going to be a father.”
 

“I’m going to be a mother.”
 

“I love you,” we both say at the same time before our lips collide in a passionate kiss. When we pull away Landon begins singing ...

At three years old

I lost my faith.
 

I remember it

Like it was yesterday.
 

Father used the drink to wash away

The pain of losing her

Was just too much to bear.
 

He left me alone in the dark.
 

He left me on my own to deal

With my own pain, hurt, and loss.
 

But light by light, you snuck into my world.
 

I thought I could never be a father after what mine did to me.
 

But you were born, and you rescued me

With your tiny fingers and cute smile.
 

You shined a light into my world and you ...

You saved me.
 

You saved me from the darkness.
 

You saved me from my worst self.
 

Daughter, you saved me

And showed me how to be a father.
 

At twenty-eight, I lost someone too.

I understood my father
 

And the pain he couldn’t bear.

I thought I’d lose myself too

In the bottom of a bottle

I thought I’d get sucked into.
 

But you saved me.
 

Daughter, you saved me.
 

You shined a light when no one else was there.

You saved me
 

And showed me how to be a father.
 

Daughter, I’m not proud of who I was.
 

I’ve been a monster more days than one.
 

I don’t deserve your love.
 

But somehow, you found the light that was still hidden in me.
 

You saved me.
 

When the pain was too much to bear

You saved me.
 

When I was truly scared

You saved me.
 

When I was crying on my knees

You saved me.
 

When I had nothing left in me

You saved me.
 

When the darkness was controlling me
 

You saved me.
 

Daughter, you saved me ...

I join Landon on the last words of the song while he sings ‘and taught me how to be a father,’ I sing ‘and taught me how to be a mother.’
 

I smile because I know I’ve finally put my past behind me. Landon is my past and my future. This child is my future. Their love at this moment was worth all of the pain. I link my hands with Landon, finally feeling at peace. Finally feeling our paths aligning. And I know how we will live our future. As one.

“I can’t believe we are going to miss your brother’s wedding.”
 

I roll my eyes at Alex, the most amazing, selfless woman. Only she would be in labor and still thinking about someone else.
 

“I’m not. It’s his own fucking fault he planned a wedding three weeks before our daughter was supposed to be born. He knew the chance he was taking.”
 

“Ow,” Alex moans in pain again as she squeezes my hand tightly. Her engagement ring digs into my hand just a little as she tightens her grip further. A ring I gave to her properly in the backyard of our new home with nothing but the stars overhead lighting the proposal.

”Just breathe,” I say. “You got this.”
 

She breathes through another contraction and then returns almost immediately to her calm self. “I just hate that we are going to miss it. I understand why they chose today when it means so much to them. I guess now this day is going to mean a lot to us too.”
 

I smile at her and tuck her hair behind her ear. Today is Caroline’s birthday. The day she fell in love with Drew so long ago when she thought it was me. Now, I guess our daughter is going to share a birthday with her, as well. We will always be connected — all of us — and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
 

“Shit, I’m supposed to be meeting a survivor today to do a shoot.”
 

I smile as I think about the amazing business Alex started. The business she always wanted to start. ‘Aligning the broken pieces ...’ is the perfect title for the company. She photographs survivors. Survivors of cancer. Of sexual violence. Of most anything. She finds all the pieces that broke after the experience and helps them align them all. Each picture she takes tells a story of pain and pleasure. Past and future. Happiness and sadness. They all make a part of each person’s story. She just puts them together and helps them heal. She doesn’t get paid for what she does. All the money goes to helping the survivors and helping prevent future survivors. Instead, she heals a little more each day from helping others heal.
 

And I heal a little more each day watching her and our baby grow.
 

“You know, we are both going to have to learn to curse a little less when our daughter arrives.”
 

She smiles, but it fades when another contraction prevents her from speaking. “I.” Breath. “Guess I had better.” Breath. “Get it all out ... Fuck!”
 

I watch as her face turns a brighter shade of red as her body tenses with another contraction. “You got this, baby.”
 

“Fuck!” she screams again.
 

I laugh. “That’s not the breathing we were taught in your birthing classes.”
 

She just glares at me as her contraction ends.
 

The door bursts open and three of my favorite people in the world stumble in the door. Drew, Caroline, and sweet Amelia.
 

“What are you doing here?” I take Amelia from Caroline’s arms as she smiles at me. She coos at me as I hold her.
 

“We couldn’t miss the birth of our new niece,” Drew says.
 

“But what about your wedding?” Alex asks.
 

“We couldn’t go through with it, not without the people who brought us together there. We don’t care about our wedding. We care about our family. It could be better this way. We could have a double wedding with both of our daughters there now,” Caroline says.
 

I smile at her as she goes over to check on Alex. I would have never imagined that the two of them would have wound up friends. I never imagined that they would get along like sisters, but somehow, they have made it work.
 

“Fuck!” Alex groans again, and I quickly cover Amelia’s ears as I turn to glare at Alex. Caroline just laughs and takes Amelia from my arms.
 

“Don’t you dare tell her she is in the wrong. Not today. Amelia will survive hearing a couple of cuss words,” Caroline says.
 

Alex’s nurse bursts through the door, and after taking one look at Alex, she rushes everyone out.
 

“It’s time,” the nurse says.

I take my place beside Alex as she begins pushing. I hold her hand as each contraction takes over her body.
 

“I can’t do this!” she shouts exhausted after an hour of pushing.
 

I don’t fear it, though, because I know she can. She has done incredibly wonderful things. She can do this. “Yes, you can,” I whisper in her ear.
 

She gathers her strength and pushes our daughter into the world. I watch as the nurse places our daughter on her stomach.

“She’s beautiful.”

Alex smiles as she holds our daughter on her chest. She holds her for a long time before she hands her to me. “You’re not going to drop her,” Alex says when she sees how nervous I am to hold her. Despite all the practice I’ve had with Amelia, this moment still makes me nervous. I still feel deep down like I don’t deserve her. I still am afraid I’m not going to be a good father, just like my father.
 

Alex sighs when she sees me holding our daughter. “We still have to pick out a name.”
 

I begin rocking our daughter on instinct, back and forth, as I walk around the room.
 

“I still like Hailey,” Alex says.
 

I shake my head as I look at our daughter. The name doesn’t fit.
 

“Emma?”
 

“No.”
 

“Ashley?”
 

“No.”
 

“Sydney?”

“No.”
 

I hear Alex sigh. I continue rocking our daughter in my arms. She seems to relax with every movement, seeming to fall asleep. But just before she does, she opens her eyes for me and for the first time I see her eyes. Emerald eyes. Just like her mother’s. Just like my daughter from the dream that saved me. It wasn’t Amelia in my dream. It wasn’t some figment of my imagination that didn’t really exist. It was my daughter who I’m holding in my arms. She saved me.
 

It was ... “Isabella. Her name is Isabella.”

This is a free bonus novella to everyone that is on my mailing list. It will be exclusively available to those on my mailing list and will not be sold on Amazon or any other site. It is not necessary to read to understand the Aligned story and have a satisfied ending. It is just a free bonus book to say thank you to those that have supported me. It is an extended epilogue from the Aligned series and tells Alex and Landon’s happily ever after.
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