Chapter 9

Lucy

I honestly couldn't have just heard what I think I did, could I? The stranger in our home didn't just say that they need DNA to prove I'm someone else, right?

"Luce," Jayden says, his tone worried yet gentle, the same way mine is when reassuring Liam that everything's okay and my eyes drift up to his, seeing the truth there. I really did just walk into the conversation I think I did.

"What's going on?" I ask looking from him towards the two strangers that stand up letting Jayden move us to the couch they were just occupying. One of them grabs a chair from the table and settles onto it while the other perches on the recliner Jayden bought. Liam loves snuggling with him in it. I have so many pictures of it because it's so sweet watching them, even have one as the background and lockscreen on my phone.

"This is likely going to be hard to hear and there's no easy way to say it. If there were I'd find it, but these men believe that your father kidnapped you when you were four-months old after nearly killing your mom and…beating your twin sister to death," Jayden tells me, and everything around me goes a little white as bees buzz in my ears.

His face is the only thing I can see, his hand is stroking my cheek, but it takes another minute before I can feel that. My hand tightens in his when I can finally make out his, "Are you okay?"

"Lucy, baby, I'm sorry," Jayden whispers to me, holding me close. His lips press against my forehead, and I rest my face in his neck for a minute until I feel like I can actually breathe again.

I sit back a bit, my eyes searching his face, the look there tells me every bit of it is true. My heart races as I turn towards the others asking, "You really think my father did this?"

"This is the age-progression photo our techs did when Elliot called to say he thought he'd found you," the first man stated, holding out his phone my way and the drawing on it definitely could have been of me.

"I routinely search databases for anyone named Lucy with your date of birth," Elliot added drawing my attention his way. "Your mother was certain he wouldn't change your first name, that Lucy was his decision. I found your marriage license information and then did a quick search for your name. You don't have any social media, but I did find your state issued id, and there were notable similarities between you and my client. That had me reaching out to the FBI and I was directed to Conner. It took me a couple extra days to find you since you'd just switched apartments."

"If a DNA test proves you really are Lucy Donnovan, as we're both certain it will, your father will be arrested for kidnapping you. He and your mother were divorcing, and your mother had legal custody until it was settled. Your father didn't have any legal rights to you or your sister. By taking you out of state, that's federal kidnapping and how the FBI got involved. He's already been charged with the death of Lisa Donnovan and the assault of Claire…"

"Claire?" My shocked gasp of the name stops the other man for a minute, but he nods as I try to breathe through the panicked shock hitting hard. The things they tell me only seems to confirm their suspicions that my father is the man they've been looking for, making me the Lucy they've been looking for as well.

"Baby, are you okay?" Jayden asks quietly as I sit there still in shock after they two men have finished speaking.

"I…I don't know," I admit as my chin trembles, fighting the tears that want to fall. "I mean…part of me always hoped that the things he said was just because of the drinking but…there was definitely part of me that was truly terrified when he'd say he should have killed me when I was a baby…"

"He said that to you?" Conner asks and I nod as Jayden lifts me onto his lap, holding me tight.

"That…and that my mother should have agreed to the abortion because he never wanted me. Hated me and my mother. That he'd never let me turn out to be a whore like Claire. He never used her name with me unless he was really drunk and ranting about guys that might have looked at me. I always thought her name was Claire until I was filling out paperwork to get my id and needed my birth certificate. The name on it wasn't Claire so after that I just thought she was someone he'd dated before my mother, or when I was too young to remember her, and she cheated on him."

"Claire said he tried to bully her into getting an abortion more than once, and when they found out it was twins he started trying to get her to do it again," Elliot says, and I really don't doubt it's true.

"Can you tell me if this is your father, the man that's been living under the name Frank Wilson for the last twenty years?" Conner asks, showing me another photo and I go cold when I see my father, twenty years younger staring up at me from the screen.

"He doesn't look quite like that now, but it's him. He had a few photos in the same box my birth certificate was in and one of them stuck to it when he got it out when I told him I had to have it. He didn't realize it was there, but I could tell it was him. He was with a redheaded woman in it, you couldn't really make out a lot of her face, but I always thought she sort of looked like me. He said she left us when I was a baby and I'd never seen even a photograph of her, so I kept it," I add, moving to get up and Jayden reluctantly lets me.

There's a fireproof lockbox that has all of my important papers—including a will I made through the school's resource program leaving guardianship of Liam to Jayden if anything happened to me. It was the only thing I could think to do to keep him out of my father's hands. Even if Jayden didn't really want to be a father, it was better than mine having him.

I dig out the photo I've kept with my birth certificate and hand it over to let the two see it. Elliot pulls up a file on a little tablet and turns it around, showing what's likely a photo taken a few moments later on the screen.

"Claire gave me copies of these, hoping something in them would help find you," Elliot adds as I stare at a face that's almost identical to mine. If Liam looks like Jayden, I definitely look like this woman—other than the hair at least. "She's a natural blonde but she said your father didn't like blondes—that they were too promiscuous, so she dyed it either brown or red, until she got pregnant, and she didn't want to risk the baby with the chemicals. This is her now," he states, pulling up a new photo and the hair color there matches mine to a tee. "She remarried finally five years ago. Her husband was a widower with three kids. The youngest is fifteen and the oldest is twenty-two. When she told him that she thought you were still out there, he gave her the money to hire me. They live here in the city actually if you want to meet her."

"Here?" I ask, amazed at that news.

"Believe me, I was just as shocked when I saw your id photo and realized you were in the same city, could have run into one another any time but somehow hadn't done so yet," Elliot says with a little chuckle. "If you need some time, she'll understand."

"I…I don't know," I admit, and Jayden holds me tighter, pressing a soft kiss to my temple.

"It's a lot to take in at once, learning she didn't abandon you, wanted you when your father told you she never did," he says and I nod, holding his gaze. The love in it soothes all of the pain trying to drown me and I let out a shaky breath, smiling at the promises I can read in his gaze.

"You can arrest him?" I ask Conner, leaning back into Jayden's hold.

"I'll send agents over there tonight if you give me a sworn statement that the man in this photograph is your father," he says, holding up the one I gave him.

"I can do that. He has a tattoo I can attest to as well. I don't know if it's any of those photos but it's a snake, biting the neck of a rabbit, on his right arm, bicep area. It's a bit distorted now but it's still there," I add and the slow smile that crosses both men's faces sends a waft of ice straight through me.

"That means something, doesn't it?" Jayden asks, rubbing my arm chasing away that cold feeling.

"Booking photo from when he was arrested for domestic assault which led to the divorce," Conner says pulling it up on his phone and there on his arm is the tattoo I've always hated. "Once he's arrested, all we have to do is fingerprint him to prove identity. We just had to have enough reasonable evidence to put him in cuffs to get to that point."

"This might help as well," I tell them, taking out the envelopes, several that are still sealed. "He gave me a letter every birthday instead of a present…I'd have preferred nothing to them. I haven't opened one since I was thirteen. They were pretty vile for a kid to receive."

"I'll get these over to the lab here. They should be able to lift prints from them before we could even get agents to your father's house. I'll need some reference prints to exclude yours and Jayden's, if you've touched them," Conner adds.

"That's Lucy's lockbox. I don't snoop, don't need to," Jayden says, pressing a kiss to my temple and relief floods me when the two men leave after Conner takes my prints, thankfully digitally, as well as a DNA sample, promising he'll let us know results on everything as soon as they have them.

Jayden wraps me up in his arms, holding me tight until I feel like I can breathe, and it helps immensely when Liam's in my arms. Not even the call from Conner saying their lab lifted prints from every one of the letters that matched to Christopher Donnovan's arrest record from Alabama, and agents in Illinois had picked him up, upset me. It did the total opposite, filling me with immense relief and I broke down in tears as Jayden held me tight.

"I know baby, when I heard what he'd done all I could think about was what if he'd found out about us, or if he learnt about Liam, or if something happened and Liam was sent to live with him," he adds, brushing a kiss over my eyes as the tears finally dry up. His last worry leads me to telling him about the will and the look in his eyes when I finish, has sleep coming much, much later after he kisses every inch of my body.

"I love you, Jayden," I whisper as his faces rests against mine, his arms tight around me, and they tighten further, filling me with the sweetness of it.

"I love you so much baby. I knew…I've seen it in your eyes this entire time, but hearing it…I'll always be here, always love you, Lucy," he promises, letting me sleep in total comfort.

By Tuesday of the next week, we have the results of the DNA test, but they're not a shock at all to any of us, and Thursday, Jayden cuts his afternoon classes, holding my hand as I leave the restaurant early with Liam tucked in between us. The building Elliot stops the car in front of takes my breath away, but a full smile settles on my lips seeing Liam's enjoyment as the elevator takes us up and up and up to a penthouse that is so beyond anything I've ever seen in my life.

Jayden presses a kiss to my temple, calming me enough to exit the elevator and move into the living room where my mother sits with a man that's gently rubbing her hands. The sight of it calms the rest of me, at least until she turns, letting out a gasp when she sees Liam in my arms. Jayden's arms instantly come around us, resting on Liam's back, his body tense until a smile settles onto Claire's lips, her eyes lighting up with joy as she heads towards us.

"My baby has a baby…" she gushes, lifting her hands up to cup Liam's face. "You are the cutest little man ever and your mama…she's so beautiful."

"She most definitely is," Jayden agrees, brushing a kiss to temple again and I rest my head against his, taking a deep breath to get my emotions under control.

"Elliot said you were married," Claire adds as she takes my hand, guiding us into the room. "I was so worried, knowing how young you were, but he promised me that your husband was a good man. He didn't say anything about a baby though."

"I didn't know if you'd want to meet us if you knew about him," I admit, laughing to myself over it now as Claire holds out her arms to Liam and he easily goes to her.

"I'd have made him bring me to you immediately to make sure you and my grandbaby were safe, in good hands," Claire states, hugging Liam who has no qualms about soaking up all of the attention. "I can see you are, he looks at you like you're his world."

"She is, my first crush, first love, first heartbreak," Jayden teases me, giving me a soft kiss as I flush at that. "The only goal I had was to find her back, show her that I wasn't just a stupid kid thinking he was in love, but that she's everything to me. Finding Liam…no way could I be upset about his existence because he showed my girl she was meant to be loved, so she wasn't quite as hard to win back as I'd feared."

"Sounds a lot like her mama," Claire's husband Kenneth says, dropping a kiss to her lips that has Liam giggling happily. "You'll be lucky to get him back tonight now."

"All kids deserve to know they're loved, I'd never keep that from Liam."

"Does that mean we can tell my parents about him now? He's been denied bail, deemed a flight risk, so he's not getting out before a trial could take place. He can never hurt you again. Can't be a threat to Liam," Jayden adds, and I nod, snuggling into his arms wanting our little boy to have all the love he possibly can. Anything less would be a punishment he definitely doesn't deserve.