Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
Quinn breathed a sigh of relief when the car finally pulled up and kids spilled from within.
When Gabe got out, he looked like he’d been wrestling alligators and lost. Their children hurried into the house, already arguing about who would get the TV and who could have the last bag of crisps, but Max made a beeline for Quinn and wrapped his arms around her legs.
She lifted the little boy into her arms and held him close until he calmed down.
“Well, I’m never doing that again,” Gabe said over Max’s head. “The place was absolute chaos, and even with Emma’s help, to keep all of them in my line of sight at all times would have required four heads.”
“Did you have fun?” Quinn asked Max, who was now looking at her, his eyes pleading for attention.
He nodded, but he didn’t look like a child who’d had a good day. “I want to go home,” he whispered. “Please.”
Quinn’s heart broke for him. He was so small and vulnerable and confused. And she had no idea what to tell him. She ran a gentle hand over his black locks, so like Logan’s, and looked into his eyes. He needed to know that she had heard him and she understood and respected his feelings.
“We’ll go home soon. I promise.”
“My home,” Max said. “Where’s my dad?” he cried. “I want to speak to him.”
“So do I, sweet pea. So do I,” Quinn muttered.
“Mum, we’re hungry,” Emma called out from the doorway. “And Mia and Alex are fighting over the TV.”
“Are you hungry?” Quinn asked Max, and he shrugged.
“I’m tired,” he said, and his eyes filled with tears. Quinn knew he wasn’t just physically tired. He was emotionally overwrought, and, although he was too young to effectively verbalize his feeling, he probably thought that the adults in his life were letting him down.
“I know you are,” Quinn said. “You can go to bed right after dinner if you like.”
“No bath?”
“Not unless you want one.”
Max shook his head, then buried his face in Quinn’s shoulder, and his suffering brought tears to her own eyes.
She met Gabe’s gaze and saw the misery reflected in his face.
They were failing Max, but they were powerless to help him.
And what would happen if Logan didn’t come back?
The answer was obvious—they would take Max in and raise him as one of their own—but the lack of understanding and closure would haunt him for the rest of his life, and the search for answers could take him to dangerous places.
Quinn set Max down and took him by the hand. His fingers felt tiny and fragile, and his skin was clammy and warm. He walked alongside her as if he were being marched to the gallows. Gabe grabbed his wallet and phone from the car and followed them.
It was just as they walked into the house that they heard Alex scream.