Broken Kingdom (Corium University Trilogy 3)

“Aspen.” Quinton takes me by the arms, staring into my face, almost laughing in relief. I barely hear him. Everything around me is strangely muted yet somehow more intense at the same time. The light is brighter, the air colder. Yet my skin feels warm despite that. People move around me talking. Their mouths move, but all I hear is muffled sound like I’m listening through a door. Above it all, there’s the pounding of my heart.

“I think I might be in shock.” I manage to gasp. Quinton sits me down, taking my hands in his and rubbing them briskly.

“You’re safe now. It’s all over.” Yes, he can say that all he wants. I know it’s true. I don’t believe it. Now I know how many surprises I can take over the course of a single day. I’m not sure I could handle one more.

“Aspen. Are you all right?” Xander appears, handing me a glass of water. “I suppose anyone could be excused for feeling overwhelmed at a time like this.”

“Thank you.” Above everything else, it feels most critical to thank him. If he hadn’t been willing to play ball with the founders, particularly Nate’s father, the outcome could have been very different.

“We do what needs doing for one of our own.” One of his own. It’s like I fell asleep and woke up on another planet. In what world does Xander Rossi refer to me as one of his own? When I think about where we came from compared to where we are now, it’s almost too much to believe.

But Quinton’s hands are still holding mine, and I feel the wedding band pressing against my skin. That’s real. Our love is real. And if that’s possible, anything is.

After a minute or two, I feel more like myself. Everything is back in focus, and my heart no longer feels like a bird frantically flapping its wings in hopes of escaping. I look across the room and find a familiar pair of eyes staring at me. Is it true? Would he have said it if it wasn’t?

I stand, and Quinton wraps an arm around my waist like he wants to lead me away. First, I need to know. Lucas must be reading my mind because he steps up and clears his throat. “Can I have a minute with you?” he asks.

I exchange a look with Quinton and nod. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up to you.” I feel his indecision, how much he wants to stay with me, but there are certain things a person can’t be protected from. Like the truth, for starters. Some things I have to face on my own.

Finally, we’re alone. I sit down again because I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle this standing. “I hope you don’t hate me for blurting that out in front of everyone,” he begins.

“I don’t. You probably saved my life.”

“Not entirely. You did a lot of that on your own.”

“So it’s really true?” I search his face, looking for signs of myself in it. His eyes, his nose, the curve of his jaw, even his ears. Sometimes when the light hits him just right, I think I see it. Touches of the face I see in the mirror every day.

“I want you to know that I had no idea there was even a child.” He paces, reminding me of a caged tiger. “Not until we watched that video together. I can’t tell you how shocked I was. Because I did see a woman named Charlotte, and the time we were together lines up with roughly the time you were born. Last I heard, she passed away a few years ago, I’m sorry to say.”

He rubs his hands together, and it strikes me as almost touching. He’s as nervous and unsure as I am. “It was enough to make me want to look deeper into the situation. I had your DNA tested against mine.” I won’t bother asking how he managed to get a sample of my DNA. I’m sure he has plenty of options at his disposal. “The results came in earlier today and confirmed our connection.”

My chest aches. “Earlier today? Before the…?”

He must hear what’s underneath my words because he finally stops pacing and faces me head-on. “Yes. Before the wedding. I had the honor of walking my daughter down the aisle and giving her away.”

At some point, maybe tomorrow or maybe weeks from now, the true weight of this will settle over me, and I’ll spend a solid day crying my eyes out. I didn’t know until now, right at this very minute, that what I secretly wished in my heart as I walked down the aisle toward the man who would soon be my husband was for my father to be the one walking with me. As it turns out, he was all along.