Never let her go

Chapter 37

Lucy POV

My family seemed nice.

I was nervous as hell the whole time. If it wasn’t for Noah and Theo, I would probably hide in my room. Well, not probably, I would definitely hide in my room.

I could tell they wanted to hug me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t let go of Noah and Theo. I wasn’t ready.

I’m sure they are great. My brothers told me that they would never hurt me, and I believed them. But I wasn’t ready.

“You are doing great, honey.” Ezra whispered to me, leaning over Noah. “If it’s too much, tell me and you and I will take a walk, okay?”

I smiled and nodded. I don’t think I will need to leave the room, but it’s nice to know that I have that option.

Liam was telling our family about our first encounter in the diner. They kept glancing at me like they couldn’t believe I was real.

“How did you get custody so fast?” uncle Dan asked Liam.

“Money.” Liam shrugged. “And we did a DNA test. That helped.”

“We didn’t really need it this time, though.” Noah said, wrapping his arm around me even tighter. “We knew right away.”

“This time?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing.

Theo tensed up. Noah looked at Liam nervously.

“Over the years, people came to us, claiming that they knew where you were.” Liam said. “They wanted our money in the exchange for information about you.”

“There was this one girl who had similar features to you.” Ezra continued. “She was living in an orphanage at the time. We were really excited because we thought it was you. Looking back, we only wanted to think it was you. She clearly wasn’t.”

My heart clenched painfully. I was sorry for the little girl, who wanted family. But on the other hand, I was relieved. If they thought it was me, they never would have found me. They never would have continued looking. Even if they walked into the diner that day, I would be just another waitress. They would probably notice my similarities with their sister, but they would forget about me the moment they walked out of the diner. I would still be with Jack. Maybe I would already be dead.

My stomach twisted painfully. I could picture them walking away from me, and it made me want to cry.

“We did a DNA test.” Liam sighed. “It was negative, of course. As it turned out, the little girl’s mother was the one who told us about the girl. She left her own daughter in an orphanage, hoping she would get money out of it.”

My eyes widened in disbelief. My mother wasn’t the best, but this was over the top. That woman was ready to sell her own daughter. How could someone do something like that? My heart clenched painfully for the girl. I hoped she was happy and safe.

“Oh, my God.” I managed to mumble.

Liam nodded. “We were shocked and hurt. It was really hard on us.”

Liam’s eyes fell on Theo. I turned my head to look at him. He was staring through the window with his jaw clenched tight.

My heart broke. I could only imagine what he and Noah went through.

“I am so sorry, Theo.” I said, leaning my forehead on his shoulder as I pulled Noah closer. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. You didn’t deserve it. That little girl didn’t deserve it.”

Noah wrapped his arm around me tighter, and Theo turned around, kissing the top of my head.

“It’s okay, Sunshine.” Theo said. “It all worked out in the end. You are here. The real you.”