Protecting His Forever (13 page)

Grinning at Kane, I tell him, “This is it.” He chuckles and goes to find a worker.

This is the day that everything changes. This little girl is going to change our lives forever. I never thought this would happen, but everything happens for a reason.

Later that day

“She is almost here, Kane,” I tell him breathlessly. The social worker called and told us she was ten minutes out.

“I know, sweetheart.” He looks down at me softly and holds me tightly in his arms.

Laying my head against his chest, I suck in a deep breath enjoying just being in his presence.

“You don’t have to be here for this, Sydney.” His arms tighten around me waiting for my response.

“I know, Kane,” I mutter against his chest before looking up at him. “I want nothing more than to be here for this little girl. Not one second did I doubt this.”

His face softens before he brings his mouth to mine. Sighing, I pull him harder against me. He moves his lips tenderly over mine. When he pulls back, his breathing is labored. His lips go to my forehead, and he whispers, “I love you, Sydney.”

Closing my eyes, I try to hold back the emotions I’m feeling. “I love you, too.”

The sound of a car driving up the driveway has me looking out of the window. My heart stops. “She’s here,” I whisper to Kane.

He smiles and takes my hand. Together, we walk out hand and hand. Through the window of the car I can see a little blonde head looking all around her frantically trying to take everything in.

The social works gets out and walks to the backdoor. “How are you guys today?” the social worker asks as she opens the back door to the vehicle. She leans in and unbuckles the little girl.

Little feet hit the pavement as she climbs out of the car. My eyes shoot down to the ratty shoes that cover her feet. The worker pulls her into view and my heart breaks instantly. Walking down the steps, I’m itching to get close to her. To comfort her. Kane follows closely behind.

“Meet Arabella,” the social worker says, and I let go of Kane’s hand. Taking the last couple steps so I’m a foot away from her. She barely peeks at me before going back to tugging at the ends of her clothes.

“Hey, sweetheart.” I bend down so I’m eye level with her. Reaching up, I touch her shoulder. She jerks back like I hit her. She looks up at me and her face crumbles as she starts crying. She’s scared. Not knowing what to do, I take her into my arms. Her little face rests on my shoulder, her tears soaking my shirt.

Standing up, I place my hand on the back of her head and the other under her butt to hold her up. Warmth hits my back as Kane wraps his arms around us both. The social worker is staring at us with tears in her eyes.

Kane places his hand on her back and she jerks again from the contact. Kane drops his hand and he looks out at the field with his jaw clenched. He’s pissed, and so am I.
What kind of mom lets her child get hit? What kind of fucking mother doesn’t care for her child?
Today is the day this little girl won’t ever have to worry about anything like that again.

“I have some papers here for you to sign. I checked everything, and it’s obvious that you can financially care for the child. I checked your records and everything came back clean. I will be back in a week to check on things.” She nods her head at Kane and points to go inside the house.

Kane puts his hand on the small of my back and leads me up the steps. Arabella is still wrapped around me tightly. Her little fists clenching my shirt.

“This way,” he tells the social worker and points toward the kitchen.

Her mouth is open as she stares around at the house. She turns to Kane. “Wow, your house is amazing.” She then turns her head to the boxes of toys and bed things for Arabella. Her face softens and turns to look at me. Smiling, I hug Arabella tighter to me.

“I see you guys are well prepared.” She doesn’t say anything else as she follows Kane into the kitchen.

What do I do? Follow after them? Stay here?
Deciding to stand at the door frame that leads into the kitchen so I’m in view but not close enough to think I’m eavesdropping, I watch as Kane signs some things and the social worker puts them into a file. “I will be on my way. It was nice to meet you.” The social worker turns to Kane and then to me.

“You too,” I tell her. Kane just nods but doesn’t take his eyes off me. The door shuts a minute later.

What do I do now? Maybe she is hungry
.

“Are you hungry, baby?” I ask her softly. I can feel her nod slightly against my shoulder. “What would you like?” I ask again.

“Pizza?”

Looking up at Kane I smile at him. Kane takes out his phone to place the order.

“Kane, I’m going to sit in the living room while we wait for the pizza.”

He nods his head. His eyes are sad when he looks at Arabella. She reminds him of himself when he was a kid. The product of having to live with a mother who did drugs and did nothing to care for her child.

Sitting down on the couch, Arabella doesn’t move. After a few minutes she starts to move around a little, and then she turns her head and her eyes connect with him. Her icy blue eyes have me sucking in a sharp breath. Her eyes are identical to Kane’s.

I can feel Kane walk by us and sit down beside me. His hand touches my thigh as he looks down at the little girl. She sits up a little farther to get a better view. Looking at Kane, I notice him smiling at her slightly.

“Hey, baby,” Kane whispers to her. He smooths her hair away from her face. She doesn’t flinch.

She sits up all the way, her eyes never leaving Kane. Kane rubs his thumb over her cheek. Her eyes widen. Bracing myself, I prepare for her to start crying. To my utter disbelief, she lifts her arms and reaches for Kane.

She wraps herself around him like a monkey. Her little fists clench his shirt. Her face goes to his chest. Kane wraps his arms around her protectively. He gives me a pained look. I know how he’s feeling. It’s tearing me up inside at the thought of what made this little girl this way.

The doorbells rings and Arabella cries out and burrows deeper into Kane’s chest. He holds her tighter. Putting my hand over my mouth, I try to hold in my sob. Kane leans to the side slightly and pulls out his wallet. He nods to the door. Nodding, I go to pay the pizza man.

Hurrying, I pay and grab the pizza, gently closing the door behind me not wanting to startle Arabella. Going to the kitchen I grab plates, two waters, and a cup of milk. Setting everything on top of the pizza box, I carry it back to the living room.

Arabella is still cuddling to his chest. “Food’s ready.”

Kane lifts her up so she sitting in his lap. Opening the box, I place a piece on each of our plates. Noticing that Arabella’s eyes never leave the food, I quickly cut the pizza up into little pieces so she can pick it up and eat it herself.

Sitting down, I put the plate into her lap. She stares down at it for a second before she nervously looks around her like she’s waiting for someone to snatch the food away any second. She slowly picks up a piece and lifts her to her mouth and takes her first bite. She barely bites into it before she starts chewing and shoves the rest into her mouth. Kane and I don’t eat—we can’t take our eyes off of this little girl.

Grabbing the sippy cup off of the coffee table, I hand it to her. She takes it from me and takes a dainty sip. Her eyes widen and looks down at the cup wondering what’s in it.
She doesn’t even know what milk is!

Clearing my throat, I try to control my emotions. More than anything I just want to curl into a ball and sob. I want to take the pain away from this child. Make her feel safe and have her forget everything that happened to her.

She finishes the food and climbs off Kane’s lap.

“Pee,” she says quietly.

Shocked that she said something, I stand up slowly. Offering my hand for her to take, she wearily looks at it before slipping her hand into mine. Leading her to the bathroom she goes straight to the toilet and does her business.

“Let’s wash our hands.” Pulling out a little stool I lift her onto it.

Putting some soap in her palm, I turn on the water and help her scrub her hands. Bending down, I blow bubbles from her hands. She giggles. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s something. Smiling proudly, I rinse her hands and dry them with a towel.

“Want to show her to her room?” Kane asks from behind us. Turning around, I lift her down from the stool. She stares at Kane and then back at me.

Taking her hand, I lead her to the steps. She looks up at them before putting her foot on the first one. Kane walks ahead of us. We spent the last few hours putting everything up. Don’t ask me how we did it, but we did.

Kane pushes her door open and walks inside, flipping on the lights as he goes. Turning the corner, she sees her room. Her eyes light up and her mouth opens slightly. She lets go of my hand and walks toward a doll laying on her bed.

She stops before she can touch it. She looks at me nervously. “It’s yours, baby.” She grabs the doll and hugs it to her. Backing out of the door, I pull Kane with me. We move out of the sight of the door. I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly to me as I let go of the emotions that have been threatening to break free from the moment I met this little girl. His hand shakes as he rubs my back, trying to comfort me.

I can hear her inside of the bedroom playing with her toys.

“Kane,” I start, but he shushes me.

“I know.” He kisses my forehead before pulling me tighter against him.

“I love you,” I say against his chest.

“I love you, too, baby. So much.” He kisses the top of my head.

Closing my eyes, I take in the comfort of Kane’s arms. Pulling back, I peek around the corner at Arabella. She’s sitting on the floor brushing the doll’s hair.

“I need to give her a bath,” I tell him.

“Give her a bath, and I’ll fix her bed for the night.

“Okay.”

Walking back into her bedroom, I tell her, “Okay, sweetheart, it's time for a bath. Let’s pick out your pajamas.” I go to her little white dresser and pick out two princess gowns and hold them up for her to pick one. “You choose the one you want to wear.”

Her little eyes light up again and she points to the purple gown.

“Good choice.” I give her a wink and head to the bathtub. Pulling back the curtains, I run her bath. I can feel her watching me.

Turning around, I tell her, “Come here, sweetheart.”

She slowly walks toward me, and I take her little hand. “I promise you that everything will be okay. Okay?” Smiling at her, she stares at me confused. Pulling her dirty clothes off her, dirt hits the floor as the shirt hits the ground.

A brown and yellow bruise streaks across her belly up to her ribs. It happened a while ago. Anger sweeps through me. Composing myself, I lift her into the tub. Pulling some bath paint out of the cabinet, I help her paint the tub—she draws little swirls.

After getting her bathed, she grabs her doll and we walk downstairs. She lets go of my hand and heads straight for Kane. She lifts her arms up, and he instantly picks her up. He sits on the couch with her, and I move to cuddle up to his other side.

“Look at her belly,” I whisper into his ear.

“Can I see your tummy, angel?” He smiles at her. She nods her little head and moves so he can pull up the gown.

His eyes are instantly full of anger. The kind of anger that’s ready to detonate. I feel the same way. I want to hurt the person who did this ten times worse. What could a child have done to deserve something like this? Nothing. No child ever deserves this no matter what they do.

Tucking my head against Kane’s shoulder, he wraps his arms around us both. It doesn’t take long before she falls asleep. Sitting up, Kane gets up and carries her to bed. Following behind him, I watch from the doorway as he lifts the child bar and tucks the blanket around her.

Walking into our bedroom, I take off my clothes as I go. His hand goes to my hips, turning me around. He gently lays me down onto the bed. Our eyes show the same emotion: we need this. He covers his body with mine as he slowly makes love to me, our eyes never leaving each other.

~*~

Screaming wakes me up from a deep sleep. Shooting up in bed, I look around frantically. Throwing the blanket back, I rush off the bed, but Kane is ahead of me. Following behind him, we run into Arabella's bedroom and find she isn’t there. Another piercing scream comes from the closet. With three long strides, he’s at the closet and all but rips the door from its hinges.

Arabella is curled up into a little ball on the floor. Her eyes are closed tight and little droplets of tears trickle down her cheeks. Kane lifts her into his arms, startling her, but once she realizes he has her, she rests her head on his shoulder.

Kane cradles her to his chest as she wraps her little arms around his neck. “Shhh, baby girl. I got you. No one is ever going to bother you again. I will make sure of that. You’re safe here.” He sways side to side.

He walks into our bedroom with her curled into his chest. Gently, he lays down on the bed with her. Crawling up beside him, I wrap my arms around her too.

“Fank you.”

I look up at Kane shocked. This is the third time she has talked today. It’s a small feat, but it gives us something.
Hope
.

“Nothing to thank, love bug.” I kiss the top of her head and lie down.

Kane lies still with her on his chest.

~*~

I wake up to something poking my nose. Cracking my tired eyes open, I see wild blonde hair and large blue eyes staring at me.

“Hey, baby girl,” I whisper softly. Kane is still asleep.

“Hi,” she says sheepishly.

Smiling at her, I ask in a hushed voice, “You hungry?”

Her little head nods up and down. Sitting up, I slide off the bed. Standing next to it, I raise my hands to see if she wants me to carry her. She lifts her arms. I pick her up and settle her on my hip as she lays her head on my shoulder sleepily.

Kissing the top of her head, we head downstairs. I gather all the ingredients for pancakes while she sits at the breakfast bar. I give her a spoon so she can help me stir. I always loved to help my mother in the kitchen.