Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
ENOUGH
Ally
Georgia Banks gazed at my daughter, and I resisted the urge to snatch her back.
“Mrs Banks. Thank you for coming,” Scarlet said, arriving at my side, her voice tight.
I took her hand and ran a reassuring thumb across the back of her knuckles.
The children and the older woman gaped at the castle interior, as people usually did, but Georgia still stared at the baby, her jaw rigid and her expression one of resolve.
“Mrs Banks has asked to talk to me in private about the future of my daughter,” I told Scarlet.
I’d decided to act bold, and tell her how this was, but the woman’s expression darkened. At that second, the twins scurried across the hall, some ball game underway. The two Banks children watched with big eyes.
Mathilda entered after them, her son strapped to her and a warm smile ready.
“This is my sister-in-law, and Scarlet’s sister, Mathilda.” I made the introduction.
Mathilda patted her son’s back and tipped her head at the Banks children. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. You are welcome to leave your son and daughter to play with mine while you talk.”
The woman hesitated then inclined her head. “Very well. Tom, Kelly, play nicely and don’t be a bother.”
I turned my attention to the older woman whose scowl hadn’t dropped an inch.
Georgia followed my gaze. “Is there somewhere we can talk now?”
“Let’s go into the den,” I suggested, and we moved inside.
On the green sofas, where I’d had multiple family chats, the most important of all was about to commence. But this wasn’t quite right. I needed my bairn on my arm.
Somehow, Scarlet anticipated me. “May I?” she asked, holding out her hands.
Georgia’s nostrils flared, but she handed Cait over all the same. Scarlet promptly placed her on my chest, then leaned in to kiss her head.
The message couldn’t be clearer. This is where she belongs.
I peered once more at the older woman who continued to stare at me.
“You were a model,” she said, her gaze all over my scars.
“Aye. Not anymore.”
“What happened to your face?”
Scarlet recoiled, but I took her hand once more in reassurance. I guessed this was the woman who’d seen Wasp in Inverness and to whom we owed gratitude for telling us of Cait’s existence. Even if she wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“An accident. Another driver hit my parked car. Broke my leg, my ribs, and shredded my skin.”
The two women on the opposite couch pulled twin expressions of shock.
I pushed on, because I wasn’t ashamed of myself. “It ended my modelling career, but that is no loss. I work as a driver now. It took a while to heal, but I’m back on my feet.”
Georgia blinked. “That’s why you missed visits with Kath…” She stopped herself from using the wrong name. “With the child. We were only told that you didn’t show up. I’m afraid we thought the worst.”
I swallowed down my reaction. “I never missed any time I had with Cait. Even when I thought she might fear me in bandages.”
Scarlet raised a hand. “I’m sorry, but I never knew Kaylee and I don’t know her family setup. Mrs Banks, are you her sister? Ally said you look like her.”
“Cousin,” the woman said. “Second cousin, if I’m to be precise. And this is Morag, my great aunt, but who also played the role for Kaylee, despite not being a blood relative.”
“You met William, my twin, in Inverness, aye? Pleased to meet you,” I said to Morag.
She huffed, clearly unimpressed. I’d change that.
“Kaylee mentioned ye once,” I told Georgia. “She called ye Gia and talked about you leaving.”
The woman took a sharp breath. “You knew about that? We grew up together and were best friends. She never forgave me for going away. It was only for a year for work but…” She trailed off. “She said I broke her heart.”
“She was sad, but that wasn’t your fault,” I said. “She was upset about a lot of things.”
Georgia sniffed. “I didn’t know you knew her so well.”
“We were friends. Everything else shouldnae have happened, but I’m not sad that it did. Otherwise my bairn wouldnae be here.”
The two women plus Scarlet gazed at Cait, to where she gnawed on my knuckle.
“Teething,” I explained.
Georgia shook her head. “Too young.”
“Aye, I thought the same but I asked my ma, and she said my twin and I teethed early and showed signs at two or three months old. She’s just like me.”
She blinked once. “Oh.”
I sensed my opportunity. She’d clearly had the wrong idea about me in all kinds of ways. Her aunt thought I was an airhead, and they both believed I didn’t care for the bairn. Or Kaylee, for that matter. I needed to give this all I had.
“Scarlet, would ye take Cait and the two of ye show Morag around the castle a while? I’d like to talk to Georgia alone.”
Scarlet scooped Cait into her arms, grinning at her wee flapping arms. Then Morag, grumbling, followed after her.
I eyed Georgia Banks.
“I shouldn’t be here,” she said. “My solicitor told me not to come.”
“I’m sure mine would be having a head fit, too. But this isn’t about them, and it isn’t about you or me either.” I gazed out the door into the hall, where Scarlet held my tiny child.
Ella joined them, and the older woman smiled for the first time since she’d got here.
“It’s about the wee lass we both love and what’s best for her. I don’t believe a judge can decide between the two of us and come up with an answer that’s right. I don’t want complicated arrangements or anything that could cause stress to my bairn.”
“I don’t want that either,” Georgia said, her stiff spine relaxing a degree.
“This has already been hard enough. I lost my best friend, and that baby is all that’s left of her.
Kaylee refused to talk to me after I left.
I only found out she had died after the fact.
I came to visit her the day after we arrived home, but instead, I ran into Morag, and she was so full of hurt and anger.
She’d only just found out about Kaylee, too.
Then I was grieving. I’m afraid it quite poisoned my view.
My husband…” She stopped and grimaced. “He convinced me to come here today, though your girlfriend did a good job before that. He doesn’t like Morag all that much, but he also doesn’t want another baby. ”
“I do. I want her. Since the moment I heard about her, I’ve wanted nothing more.
” My heart pounded, and I leaned in, like I could convince her to withdraw her case based on will alone.
“I’ve turned my world upside down to keep her, and she is my first thought in the morning and my last at night. ” Her and Scarlet. My family.
Georgia’s gaze flitted like she was making a decision. “I have questions for you and I want you to answer honestly.”
“I don’t lie. Go ahead.”
“Why didn’t you support Kaylee when she was pregnant?”
“She didn’t tell me. She cut off all contact after the last time I saw her. When Cait was conceived. I tried for months to get her to talk to me, but she didn’t reply.” I ran over the key facts of mine and Kaylee’s friendship, frankly and honestly.
Georgia closed her eyes briefly. “Did you cheat on your girlfriend with Kaylee? I know you were friends for many years. She told me a long time ago about you, but said that you were in love with someone else.”
My jaw dropped, and I skimmed over memories, wondering how the hell Kaylee knew that.
Maybe she surmised it from my inability to commit.
“I’ve loved Scarlet since I was a teenager.
It’s only been recently, after Kaylee, that we’ve been a couple.
I’ve never cheated and I never will. I consider myself the luckiest man alive that Scar will have me. ”
Georgia’s gaze took me to pieces. “I’m going to tell you something now, and it might be hard to hear. I think Kaylee might’ve used you to get pregnant. Perhaps taken measures to make it happen. She confessed to me that she wanted a baby, and she was…thoughtless, in some respects.”
Ouch. Kaylee had supplied the condoms and I’d concluded that she’d put holes in them. “I thought as much. The pregnancy should never have happened, but I can’t be sad that it did. Only that Cait’s ma won’t see her grow up. Either way, I’m her da, and that will never change.”
For a minute, we both went quiet. Had I done enough to convince her? I wasn’t sure. I still assumed that every person who looked at me saw a joker. Or perhaps my scars now made me appear more serious.
I had to finish this as best I could. “Cait has everything she could need here with me. She has a da who loves her beyond what he thought possible, cousins and aunts and uncles. A safe and wonderful estate to roam. A maternal aunt, too, if you agree to come visit her.”
“What about Scarlet? Is she going to be Cait’s mum?” Georgia peered through the open den door.
Scarlet swayed as she talked, lulling Cait to sleep.
“I hope so. I’ve never wanted anything more. But either way, Cait has enough love to last her a lifetime.”
Georgia stood and graced me with a short smile, my interview apparently over. “Thank you for seeing me today.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to know? Would you like to see my place?”
“I don’t think so.”
We left the den and joined her family. At a sign from Georgia, her children returned to her side and picked up their discarded jackets. Morag fell in, too, but not before giving Scar a hug and kissing Cait on the head.
“I’ll be in touch,” Georgia said. Then, just like that, she left.
“Did she agree?” Scarlet rushed to give me a hug, and I gripped her, nuzzling Cait at the same time.
“Not yet. Christ, I hope she does.”
The rest of Sunday passed us by like a dream. We remained at the castle, helping to cook up a huge roast for the whole family, including Scar’s folks.
Cait stayed awake through the whole thing, even waving in happiness when Callum and Mathilda announced their son’s name—Blayne, another traditional Scottish name—and we all cheered the wee lad.
Every single one of my family hugged my lass before Scarlet and I took her home. Seen through an outsider’s eyes, it could’ve looked like a farewell, but we all held hope, dangerous and potent.
We left, and I held that optimism around me, keeping me sane.
“You made that happen today,” I told Scar.
Cait’s eyes had just rolled closed, and we’d laid her in her cot in our bedroom, set up the baby monitor, and snuck downstairs. Joy filled me once again, and I needed Scarlet, even if we didn’t have long.
“You did the hard work, mostly before you even met Georgia.”
Scarlet dragged my shirt from me, the same urgency in her moves. We’d only gotten as far as the hall and already were tumbling to the floor, our kisses stealing our words.
Then there was nothing more to be done but celebrate the day. It might be enough, it might not. Only time would tell.
Tomorrow, we were going to court.