Chapter 40
The plane lurches as we lift off, the familiar pressure pressing me back into the seat. My eyes stare out the window at the shrinking city below, but I can’t see anything. It’s bright, the sun is shining, but nothing breaks through the haze.
Every second feels like an hour. Every mile I’ve traveled away from Madison since the start of March feels like a mistake I can’t undo.
Ryan sits beside me, his quiet presence a comfort I’m grateful for. I wish I had words to give him, to tell him how much it means to me, but I can’t find them.
My phone buzzes in my hand and I nearly drop it. Aiden’s name flashes across the screen and my heart stops. It’s not the person I thought would be calling. For a split second, I can’t move, can’t breathe. But then I remember he’s calling with news and I press the phone to my ear.
“Aiden.” His name comes out broken, barely a whisper. It’s raw and desperate, terrified of what he’s going to tell me.
“We have her. She’s on her way to the hospital.” Aiden’s voice is steady, calm, exactly as I’ve come to depend on with him.
The relief hits me so hard I slump forward, my body collapsing in half.
“She’s gone into labor,” he continues, but the words don’t register, not right away.
“It’s too early,” I whisper.
“It’s going to be fine,” Aiden assures. “Thirty-seven weeks is early, but the risks are low. He’s going to be fine.”
I close my eyes, trying to slow my racing heart. The plane engines hum around me, indifferent to the fact that my entire world is shifting.
In the silence, Aiden asks me something I’m not sure I even contemplated, but know I need to hear.
“You want the details now or you want to wait?”
I sit up, taking a breath. “Tell me.” My voice is steadier than it’s been since the first call, and while I wish more than anything I was by Madison’s side now, knowing who’s responsible for this is something I can deal with now.
“Do you remember Holly, the new housekeeper Madison hired?”
“Yeah.” I frown, trying to understand how she has anything to do with this. “She came to clean the cottage one morning while I was still sleeping.”
“But you don’t remember her from anywhere else?”
“Should I?”
“She says you met at a coffee shop in New York early last year.”
I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “I meet tons of people in coffee shops. I don’t remember her.”
“I didn’t think you would.” He exhales and I can practically see him rubbing a hand over his beard, the same way I’ve seen him do whenever he’s annoyed about something. “She was working with Aaron.”
The name hits like a physical blow and I swear the wind is knocked out of me. “What?”
“Aaron was afraid of losing you,” Aiden says, his voice carefully neutral. “So he came up with the stalker scheme, hoping it would remind me of how important he is.”
I can’t speak, can’t process what he’s saying.
Aaron, the man who signed me when I was eighteen and had no idea what I was doing. The man who stood with me through the loss of my parents, who supported me through rehab and kept my career alive when all I did was screw it up.
And now this.
“He says he never meant for it to go this far,” Aiden continues. “When he called you back to New York he was trying to put Pandora back in the box, but he couldn’t do it.”
I know Aiden continues talking, but all I can think about is the day Aaron showed up with the contract. I was eighteen, naive and excited, looking forward to finally giving back to my parents. Aaron saw something in me, saw a future I couldn’t fathom.
“How do you…” I trail off, unable to finish the question.
“Holly must have told him what she was planning. He turned himself in just a few minutes after Ian called me.”
The betrayal tastes bitter in my mouth. All those conversations about loyalty and trust and having my back—it’s all been lies.
“Beckett?” Aiden’s voice pulls me back.
“Yeah.” The word is hollow coming out of my mouth, but I don’t have anything else in me right now.
“Don’t worry about any of that right now. Just get to the hospital. Be with Madison.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I tell him, forcing the thoughts of Aaron out of my mind and focusing on what matters—on Madison and Shepherd. “Don’t leave her side,” I say before we hang up.
“No one could drag me away.”
The line goes dead, and I’m left staring at my phone, the reality of everything crashing over me.
“What’s the update?” Ryan asks beside me.
“Madison’s in labor,” I start. “And Aaron…” I pause, the hurt too fresh to put into words. “Aaron was behind the stalking.”
Ryan’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t say he told me so. He just nods and reaches over to squeeze my shoulder.
I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes, trying to block out everything except the image of Madison’s face. The way she laughs. The way she looks at me. The way she loves me.
Aaron’s betrayal will have to wait. My entire future is in a hospital room in Pennsylvania, and that’s where I need to be.
Please. Please let me get there in time. Please let them be okay.
The hospital doors slide open with a hiss that grates on my already frayed nerves. I’m moving before I fully process where I am, my legs carrying me toward the same desk I stopped at the last time I was here.
“Where’s Madison Hawthorne?” I ask the nurse behind the desk, my voice coming out rough and urgent.
The nurse looks up. Her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. For a moment she just stares, frozen. I recognize the look, I’ve seen it thousands of times, but right now, I don’t have the patience for it.
“Please.” I try to soften my voice, to smile, but it feels more like a grimace. “I need to find her.”
The nurse blinks, her cheeks flushing pink. “I-I’m sorry. I just—”
Ryan steps up beside me. “She was brought in by ambulance. In labor. Can you check for us?”
The nurse shakes herself, her professional mask sliding back into place. “Yes. Of course.” She types something into her computer, her fingers fumbling slightly. “Room 304.”
She’s quick to give us directions, and I’m on the move as soon as she’s done.
“Thanks,” Ryan calls over his shoulder as he keeps pace with me.
The elevator takes an eternity. My hands clench and unclench at my sides the entire ride up.
“She’s fine,” Ryan says quietly. “Someone would have called you if she wasn’t.”
I don’t answer and when the doors finally open, I sprint down the hall, scanning room numbers as my heart hammers against my ribs.
I push through the door without knocking and my world narrows to one thing.
Madison.
She’s lying in the hospital bed, her hair piled on top of her head, her face a little pale but she’s beautiful. Our eyes meet and everything else disappears. The fear, the betrayal, the exhaustion—it all fades in the face of her.
I stumble—actually stumble—getting to her. My knees go weak and my vision swims with the force of what I feel for this woman. I catch myself on the doorframe, barely managing to stay upright.
She doesn’t say anything, but when she reaches for me, her hand trembling with tears in her eyes, I pull myself together and am by her side in two strides.
My hands find her face, her arms, her stomach, everywhere I can get my hands on.
I need to touch her, to feel that she’s real and whole—that she’s okay.
“You made it,” she whispers, her voice breaking over the words.
I meet her eyes, drawing in the brown depths, and I kiss her. It’s soft and desperate and full of everything I’ve missed over the last month. I pour every ounce of love I have into this kiss, hoping she can feel it.
When we pull apart, her cheeks are wet with tears, and I gently wipe them away.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
She smiles, watery but real, and grips my shirt, holding me to her.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whisper.
I feel her nod against me, and everything stills.
“Good timing,” Aiden says quietly.
I look up to see him standing by the window, arms crossed over his chest with Ruby by his side. They both look exhausted but relieved, and I realize with a pang of guilt that I haven’t even acknowledged them.
“We’re gonna join everyone in the waiting room,” Ruby says before I can say anything, reaching up to press a kiss to my cheek as she walks past.
Aiden squeezes my arm, and I watch them head for the door, pausing for only a moment when they notice Ryan standing there.
“I’ll be with them,” he says, spinning to follow.
The door clicks shut behind them, and I turn back to Madison, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face.
“I love you.” The words catch in my throat, and I swallow, needing to get the rest out. “I’m never leaving you again.”
“I love you too.” She studies me, and I don’t know if she’s looking for something or memorizing my face, but the next words out of her mouth are nothing like I was expecting. “It was Aaron. He—”
“Aiden filled me in.” I shake my head, not wanting her to worry about any of that. “We’ll deal with that later. Right now, let’s just focus on bringing Shep into the world.”
She searches my face, her eyes worried. “Are you okay?”
“I have you. I’m perfect.”
The world shrinks down to this room, this bed, these two amazing people. The lights are dimmed, the hospital sounds muffled, and outside the April night presses against the window, but in here, everything is warm and golden.
Madison lies against the pillows; her eyes focus on the little human wrapped in a soft blue blanket in her arms. And it’s the most perfect sight I’ve ever seen.
Madison and Shepherd.
He’s tiny—impossibly tiny—with a fuzz of dark hair and a rosebud mouth that opens in a yawn as I watch. His little fists wave in the air and I can’t stop watching him.
“He’s perfect,” I whisper.
Madison smiles down at him, her expression soft and wonderstruck. “He is.”
I carefully climb onto the bed beside her, settling in so I can see him better. He has her nose, and maybe her chin. It’s too early to tell, but I plan to spend the rest of my life figuring it out.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Shepherd Hawthorne,” I murmur, reaching out to touch his little hand. His fingers wrap around my pinky with surprising strength, and my heart explodes in my chest.
Madison is quiet beside me, and I look over to find her watching me with an expression I can’t quite read. There’s tenderness there, but something else too. Nerves, maybe?
“Beckett,” she whispers.
“Yeah?”
She takes a breath, her gaze steady on mine. “Shepherd Keith Corbin.”
“What?” I release on a breath.
“I want to name him after a strong man, someone brave and loving,” she says, her voice thick with emotion. “Who better than the man who raised you?”
I stare back at her, speechless. My father. The man who taught me everything about being a good man, about working hard, about loving people fully. The man who died and left a hole in my life that never fully closed.
“You want to give him my father’s name?” I ask, the words barely above a whisper.
She nodes, tears gathering in her eyes. “If you’re okay with it. And since we’re apparently getting married”—she smiles, teasing through her tears—“he should have your last name.”
I laugh, the sound choked and disbelieving. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” She nods again, more firmly this time. “I’m sure.”
I kiss her, hard and grateful and full of everything I feel. “Thank you,” I breathe against her lips.
I look down at our son, and the reality of it washes over me. This is my family. This is my future. Everything I never knew I wanted and now can’t imagine living without.
Swallowing the emotions welling in my throat, I lean down to press a kiss to his forehead. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Shepherd Keith Corbin.”