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"Me, too. She saved our lives, I'm sure of it."
"But you worry he'll still come after you?"
She nodded. "He came to see Eliana a few years ago. Apparently, he somehow tracked us to her. He threatened her, but she wouldn’t budge. She was able to send a message to me to be careful, that he was still looking for us." She put her hands on her hips and looked up at Keegan. "If something happens to me, you'll take Gabby, right? She'll always have your family if he finds me?"
Oh, hell. "He won't find you."
"He might. He has a lot of resources." She shrugged. "I don't choose men well," she said. "My dad was terrible, and my mom never really escaped his influence, even though she left him when I was twelve. And then I married a monster. After that, I just wanted my freedom, to never be trapped, to never let a man be able to trap me, or Gabby."
He nodded. "I get that." Yeah, he got that. Some of his siblings had come from very rough family situations.
"I didn't know how to find you when I first left," she said. "But one day, I was at the grocery store, and I saw your picture on one of those tabloid covers. I thought it was a joke, and then I read the article, and I knew it was you. I started seeing you and your family on all the covers everywhere. Rich, powerful, attractive…which made you terrifying to me."
"Because of your ex."
She nodded. "I didn't want your money or your attention. I just wanted to live my little life, but I always felt guilty. A what if? I read every article about you, and everything I read made you and your family sound like such good people. I worried I'd made a mistake, but it was too late, right? Too late to show up with a teenager, a story, and an apology. Plus, what if I were wrong, and you were like him? So, I let it be, until Gabby forced me to pay up on a promise I'd made years ago, and tell her who her biological dad was." She shrugged. "I know, it's not much of a story or an excuse, but it's what it is."
"No." Keegan took her hands and brought them to his mouth, where he pressed a kiss to her knuckles, stunning her into silence. "It's a story of a woman who was strong enough to protect her baby and herself. I get it. Every Hart has spent half their life looking over their shoulder for threats from their old life. We've all had to make choices that we wish we hadn't had to make, but survival wins every time. You do what you need to do."
She stared at him, then sudden tears filled her eyes. "You mean that."
"I do." He paused, thinking. "Is your ex-husband's name on Gabby's birth certificate?"
Sofia shook her head. "I never put it on. We'd just met when she was born, so obviously I didn't at that point. Things unraveled so quickly in our marriage that I knew I wouldn't change it then. I've always been so grateful for that. The little blessings in life, right?"
"So, it's blank?"
She laughed softly. "Don't worry. I didn't put your name on it."
"I want to be on it."
Her heart jumped. "What?"
Keegan held up his hands. "I'm not trying to scare you or take over. I was simply thinking that if my name is on Gabby's birth certificate, she's protected from him legally. I want to claim her legally as my daughter, as a Hart."
Sofia felt the truth of his words, his need to protect and nurture, and suddenly, emotions she'd kept bottled up for so many years seemed to flood out of her. The shame. The guilt. "God, Keegan, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I—"
"No." He cut her off. "Never apologize for being you and living your life. Never."
"Aren't you mad?" She almost shouted the question through her tears, almost wanting him to get angry, to treat her the way she sometimes felt she should be treated.
"Mad?" With a sigh, he caught her wrists, and drew their joined hands to his chest. "Sofia, look at the story you just told me from an outsider's point of view. Who on earth would judge you for that, other than yourself?"
His hands felt so good and warm surrounding hers. Like he was pouring heat into the icicles trying to grip her hands. "I—"
"No one. No one would judge you. Especially not me, because I get it."
"But you missed sixteen years with Gabby—"
He nodded. "I'm not going to lie that I'm going to have to process that loss, because it's real. As is the fact I missed sixteen years with you. I'm going to wonder what I could have done back then to show you that I was a good guy, because even back then, I would have stood by you both and protected you." He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "But angry? No. Never."
She searched his face and saw no anger in his eyes. Just honest integrity. Pain. Yes, pain was in there too. Fresh tears trickled out of her eyes, and she pressed her hands to his cheeks. "I will always wonder if Gabby would have been more whole if I'd trusted you," she whispered. "If she'd had a dad in her life instead of just me."
"Gabby seems pretty freaking awesome to me."
She smiled, some of the tightness around her chest easing. "She is. Completely."
He took a breath. "Besides, we can't change the past."
