Chapter 18
“Tanner is your daddy, Violet.” The whispered words hit like daggers being shoved in April’s heart.
All the trust, the love, the relationship she and Violet had formed in the last three years were destroyed.
She hadn’t just lied to the man she was quickly falling in love with.
She’d lied to her niece, too. That sweet, little girl who trusted her beyond all measure.
Refocusing on what had to be done, April forced herself to continue.
“Tanner, Violet is your daughter. She’s yours.
Casey always wanted you to know. She came looking for you, but your family turned her away.
” April’s eyes filled with tears at the admission.
It seemed so unbelievable after meeting them, even if she knew it to be true.
A knock at the door startled April, making her spin around from the mirror she’d been staring into for who knows how long.
“April? Are you okay?” His hair was damp from a shower, and he wore a simple white t-shirt and gray sweatpants.
The woodsy scent of his soap drifted across the room, filling her nostrils and making her wish he’d cross the distance and wrap his arms around her.
She nodded like a bobblehead, then caught herself, and stopped.
“I was just getting ready for bed.” She’d already found a tank top and pink pajama bottoms in the bag of things Faith had given her and changed into them after putting Violet down for the night.
But her niece’s words still clung in her chest like dark clouds.
I want you to be my daddy. Little did Violet know, he was.
Tanner came into the room and stopped an arm’s length away from her. “How’s the room? Do you need anything?”
“Nope, it’s perfect,” April said. There was a nice double bed, a large closet, a three-drawer dresser with a flat screen television on it, and a small nightstand with a lamp and a few books.
Tanner smiled. “I don’t know about perfect. I think my mom kind of shafted you when you consider what she did in Violet’s room.”
April laughed. “Violet deserves all the beautiful purple princess rooms in the world. After what Ned put her through…” She couldn’t even think about what they’d just escaped, because the truth of it was, they hadn’t really escaped anything at all yet. They were just buying themselves some time.
“What’s wrong?” Tanner asked.
“I should’ve done this sooner. I should’ve trusted someone - you - sooner.” There was so much she needed to tell him.
“No,” Tanner said, opening his arms to her. She went into his embrace, sinking into his warmth. “You can’t blame yourself for any of this. Look at me.”
She raised her gaze to meet his.
“Violet is special, April. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t trust her with anyone, let alone a cop you just met.
I’m glad you waited. I’m grateful you trusted me, but I’m also so proud of you for sticking to your gut, trusting yourself not to act before you knew that you both had a safe place to go.
Doing anything before that wouldn’t have just been irresponsible, it would’ve been dangerous. ”
“Do you always see the best in people?” April asked, feeling a sense of relief at hearing his reasoning. She didn’t deserve his understanding, but she’d take it anyway.
“Not at all,” Tanner said. “But I see you, and there’s no way in the world you’d ever do anything to endanger that little girl.
And that is something that I not only understand, but fully support.
Anyone who tells you otherwise has no idea what it’s like to love a child or protect someone who’s vulnerable to abuse. ”
April sensed he was talking about more than just Violet, or even Sienna.
“What’s that?” He asked, gesturing to her hand.
She looked down, almost forgetting that she’d been clutching an old photo of Casey. Violet loved looking at it whenever she missed her mom.
Pulling out of her hug with Tanner, she said, “Just a photo of my sister, Violet’s mom.” April’s heart rate sped up as she showed it to Tanner. She had every intention of telling Violet about Tanner first, but maybe this way was better. If he -
“Wait, I recognize her,” Tanner said, taking the photo from April’s hand. “I think I met her once in -”
“Vegas?” April suggested, hoping to jog his memory so he’d finally know the truth.
Tanner’s eyes went wide. “How did you -” His jaw dropped and the photo fell from his hand landing on the soft carpet. “Wait a second. Are you telling me -”
A tear escaped and trailed down April’s cheek as she nodded, confirming what she’d been dying to tell this man since the first time she’d met him. “I know you said you weren’t sure about having kids, but Violet needs you, Tanner. You’re her only hope of getting away from -”
Tanner pulled her into the tightest hug she’d ever been in. “Tanner…” she started to say.
He pulled back then and met her gaze. “Are you sure?”
“Am I sure she was in Vegas or that she found out she was pregnant six weeks later?”
Tanner took a step back, bent to pick up the photo, then sat down on the edge of the bed.
He stared at the picture of Casey for a long moment.
“Seven years ago, one of my buddies at the station was getting married. He’s since gotten divorced, but that’s not the point.
He invited a bunch of the guys to Vegas for his bachelor party.
I met a woman there. She was stunning and her eyes were this incredible bluish-purple color.
At first, I thought it was from the lights in the club, but then we went back to my hotel room and…
she was gone when I woke up the next morning.
I had a splitting headache, and all I remembered was that her name was CeCe.
I wanted to find her. I never forgot her or those eyes, but I obviously didn’t have much to go on.
I didn’t even know where she was from, just somewhere in California.
” Tanner paused then, collecting his thoughts, catching his breath.
“I never saw or heard from her again. All this time…”
“Tanner,” April said again, wishing there was some way she could soften the blow.
“How could I have not known that I had a kid? Why wouldn’t she have come to me? And why did she tell me a fake name?”
“CeCe was a nickname she sometimes used with strangers. And she did come to you,” April said. “Casey was here when she was seven months pregnant. It took her forever to find you, but she said you guys sent her away. She was devastated, but determined to raise her baby.”
Tanner shook his head. “I never saw her.”
April almost couldn’t believe it, but Zara had been right all along.
Tanner never knew about his daughter. More determined than ever to make things right for her niece and the man she cared about, April continued.
“When Violet was a year old, she started showing signs of her ability. It freaked Casey out, and she started looking for treatments to help control what she could do. That was how she met Ned. At the time, he claimed to be doing some sort of research on gifted children. She didn’t tell me much, and then she was killed.
I had no idea what was happening to Violet until I got here three years ago. And then it was too late.”
“Why didn’t you come to me then?” Tanner asked.
“Because I didn’t know who you were. Casey was so angry with you that she burned all your information and refused to give me a last name.”
“But that didn’t stop you from finding me.” His words hit her like the accusation they were meant to be. “How long have you known who I am? Did you know that night at Madigan’s? On our runs? At the soup kitchen? How long, April, were you going to keep this from me? Keep my daughter from me?”
***
Tanner hated the way he was practically yelling at April.
None of this was her fault, and he had no doubt she’d done the best she could.
He needed to take a minute. He’d started out telling himself to stay calm.
Not to get angry. But the more April told him, the angrier he got.
“Give me a minute,” he said, then left the room in a huff.
He needed to get control of himself. He stood in the hallway, watching Violet sleep.
Her dark hair was fanned out, her soft lashes kissed the tops of her cheeks, and her little hands were tucked in under her pillow as she lay on her side.
How had he not seen it the moment he met her?
She had his chin and his mom’s high cheekbones.
She even gave off little snores just like Faith did when she was that age.
His heart was nearly splitting in half watching his daughter sound asleep. His daughter!
Was it even possible? Nothing in the world felt more right, but he still worried this was some dream he was going to wake up from, and Violet and April would be gone.
“A little over six months,” April said, coming up behind him a few minutes later.
Tanner suspected she hated this conversation as much as he did, but they needed to have it.
If Violet was his daughter, which he fully believed that she was, there was no way he was just going to stand by and let someone else take care of her or control her life.
“It took a while to find you because Casey never told me much about you. I used two different private investigators. That also took time because I had to make sure they weren’t in Ned’s pocket, and then I had to save up enough cash to pay them so I didn’t leave any paper trail for Ned to find. Once I knew who you were…”
Tanner didn’t miss how she lowered her gaze as if in shame or deep regret. “Hey,” he lifted her chin gently with his finger until her eyes locked with his. “I’m not trying to be a jerk here, or in any way downplay your role in Violet’s life. I just need to know.”
“I understand. And I promise, I’ll tell you everything I know. I’ll be an open book with you. The hardest part was finding a way to tell you. Even after I spent time with you and figured out that you weren’t going to be another Ned in her life.”