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Sawyer finally stepped forward away from the wall. He stopped just in front of me and dropped down to his haunches so that we were at eye level.
“We don’t care who the father is,” Sawyer said. Thankfully, he kept talking before my mind could doom-spiral and fill in the gaps. “We care about you. Deeply. And the baby. Individually, it doesn’t matter before the health of the baby. It’s… amazing news.” A warm smile curved across his lips. “We don’t care about the patent either. It’s a stroke of luck, I think, that you stole the wrong one. We’re not in trouble, not in the slightest.”
“Bianca has her job back,” Kane said, squeezing my hand.
“And we’re taking care of your mother’s bills for now,” Liam said. “Ultimately, her care is up to you but until you’re ready to make that decision, all payments will be taken care of by us.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, glancing between the three of them. “Why don’t you hate me?”
“For what?” Sawyer asked, drawing my attention back to him. “For being scared? For doing what was best for your mother? I think I speak for all of us when I say that the only thing that pains us is that you couldn’t come and talk to us. Whether we weren’t open enough or we need to gain more of your trust; whatever the reason, we will work on it.”
“Because we care about you, Callie,” Liam said. “So fucking much.”
“In regards to Eli,” Kane sighed. “We also have your back if you wish to press charges against him.”
“I—no. No, I don’t think I want to do that.” I shook my head. It would place the spotlight on me and give Eli a chance to turn the blame back onto my shoulders for all the wrongs I did. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to have any more to do with him. Not even a little.”
“It’s your choice,” Sawyer replied softly.
“So are… are you going to have me arrested?” I asked cautiously, wiping away another few stray tears. “For what I stole?”
“No,” Liam chuckled. “What you did… well, we’ve all done crazy things for our family and like Sawyer said, we only want you to trust us and understand how much we love you.”
The words slipped from his lips, and then the cutest pink blush crept over his cheeks. My heart fluttered in my chest, and my mouth turned impossibly dry.
“Love?” I repeated hoarsely. “You love me?”
The blush on Liam’s cheeks deepened, even as he straightened himself up and cleared his throat. “I do,” he said. “I have for a while but admitting it has felt… impossible.”
“Admitting it feels like exposing a part of ourselves that we wanted to protect because loving you so deeply meant that the rejection would be crushing,” Kane said softly, pulling my attention to him. “But loving you is the easiest thing to do. I knew it for a long time but I didn’t see it until Eli was threatening to keep you away from me forever.”
“I think I have been in love with you since the moment I met you,” Sawyer said, delicately placing his hands on my knees. “I knew it the moment you fell in my office and had the sweetest smile on your face even as you were flat on your back. I just didn’t see a way to make you mine. Until I thought I was going to lose you. Loving you is like breathing. I can’t live without it.”
“Even after what I did?” I whispered, lacking the strength to speak properly. “Even after I nearly ruined your business?”
Sawyer cupped my cheek and traced his thumb along under my eye, catching tears.
“Losing you would ruin me,” he said. “Whatever you want, whatever you need. We’re here.”
“Whatever you want to do with your baby,” Liam said, sliding his arm around my back. “We’re here for you.”
“Just please,” Kane added hoarsely. “Don’t send us away.”
This couldn’t be real. Maybe I died in that room and this dream is the afterlife. They weren’t mad at me; they loved me even despite what I did. What hurt, surprisingly, was that they also all seemed to understand why I did what I did. If only I had reached out and told them the truth sooner.
“I can’t ever send you away,” I wept quietly, taking them all in. “Because I love you too. All of you. That’s why I was so scared that anything I did would make you hate me. But I love you. All of you and I think…”
Wetting my lips with a dart of my tongue, I sniffled softly.
“I think I want to have this baby.”
33
CALLIE
“Fuck— oh, fuck, Liam!”
Sleepiness trickled away, replaced with the overwhelming pleasure of an early morning orgasm courtesy of Liam buried between my legs. My core clenched and fluttered as wave after wave of warm, tingling pleasure spread from my core, reaching every corner of my body.
