Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
CADEN
A VALENTINE’S DAY WEDDING
“There.” Rose pointed at a bench. “That’s where I met Enzo and his sister.”
Behind me, I heard Poppy’s measured steps. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.” Rose’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, tugging me forward.
I followed silently as she circled the bench, studying every weathered slat and iron armrest with careful attention, as if they would tell her where the children had gone.
“They must be here somewhere.” Rose walked around the deck, feet tracing the cracks in the weathered boards, hands cradling the white insulated tote bag that held enough calories for a week.
“You were hungry and confused,” Poppy said, sounding bored. “How could you have remembered a specific bench?”
Poppy was a realist like me. We both knew this was a lost cause. The kids were long gone, potentially even dead. Children didn’t last long on these streets, but Rose’s hopeful eyes forced back my cynical statement.
Damon stepped forward. “Maybe we can look around the surrounding area,” he suggested. “I’m sure we’ll find them.”
I glared at him. Technically, Damon hadn’t done anything wrong. The goody-two-shoes side of him wanted to find the kids as much as Rose. But the way his empathetic side bonded with Rose pissed me off. My little discovery before we left the Bahamas had only made matters worse.
“What do you mean you used to like Damon?”
Rose shook her head like a deer in headlights. “I didn’t like Damon. I thought he was you. On the rooftop, you said your name was Damon Maxwell.”
Abysmal flaw in my execution. I didn’t think Rose remembered our interaction when we first met, much less my name. After we made up, I pressed her about what she remembered. It seemed she had been in love with my twin because she thought he was me.
Suffice to say, I punched Damon in the face when I saw him next.
To his credit, Damon took the punch like a man and insisted that now we put things to rest once and for all.
My guess was that it had little to do with me and everything to do with how Rose’s previously misguided feelings might make Poppy uncomfortable.
As for me, I never wanted to relive those thoughts or entertain the idea that Rose might have liked anyone else, let alone my brother.
It made my blood boil, especially since it was my mistake.
Why had I given her the wrong name?
Fuck. The thought still pissed me off.
On the flip side, whatever awkwardness I had anticipated between the four of us was nonexistent.
After learning we were engaged, Poppy was no longer angry at me for ‘kidnapping’ Rose.
She was grateful Rose’s feelings were for me, not her husband.
Much to my relief, Rose never spared Damon a second glance.
Considering everything, the four of us had gotten along great—well, after I punched Damon in the face.
The newlyweds decided to hitch a ride back from the Bahamas with us, and the moment the boat docked, Rose insisted we track down the two homeless children she had come across while living on the streets.
I glanced warily at the bench.
“This was where I saw them,” Rose pressed. My silence made her turn toward me. “I swear, they were here. They were searching for food.” Her lips pressed together. She wanted me to believe her.
How was I going to break it to her that the kids were probably dead? Or perhaps they had been trafficked for organs. “I believe you, Little Rose,” I said instead.
“If you’re sure, then we’ll keep looking until we find them,” Damon added softly. He still sported the black eye I had given him, and I considered adding another one to match. Did he ever give it a rest?
Rose’s bottom lip trembled adorably. “They’re probably still hungry and scared.”
A lone tear slipped onto her cheek. I found myself stepping up to kiss it away and saying, “I’m sure we’ll find them.”
Poppy was also on the verge of tears, though hers was from boredom. She knew this was hopeless, but like me, she loved Rose too much to burst her bubble. “Let’s keep looking,” she said with a sigh.
It seemed the four of us were committed to a lost cause, all to bring a smile to one girl’s face.
Rose beamed, grabbing my hand once more. I watched her from my peripheral, couldn’t look away even if I wanted to. God, she was beautiful, and utterly optimistic and bright. And I was going to marry the fuck out of her.
“What happens after we find them?” I asked just as she nestled against me. The cold bite of winter hung in the air, and she melted against my coat in search of warmth. My arm circled her shoulders to pull her closer.
“I brought food for them.” She pointed at the white tote bag. “And I was hoping one of Damon’s foundations could help them figure out the next step.” She glanced at him wistfully, searching his face.
Well, fuck that.
“We can take the girl until we find a good home for her,” I told Rose before he could respond.
Rose stilled next to me.
“You said the boy looked to be about sixteen. I can give him an aptitude test and mentor him. If he’s smart, I’ll get him enrolled in a boarding school.
If he isn’t academically inclined and can’t get into college, I’ll find him work at my new lab after he graduates.
I’ll pay him enough so he can take care of his sister. ”
Rose’s pupils were blown wide. “You? You want to foster? You?”
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Damon wasn’t the only charitable fucker. How hard was it to take care of a couple of kids? “Yes, Rose. Me,” I said with a bite to my tone. “Damon does it all the time before he transitions them into homes. And I’m much smarter than him, so how hard can it be?”
“I-I am sorry,” Rose stammered, while Damon and Poppy stopped a few feet away from us, realizing we needed the space. “I didn’t think you were child-friendly. Also, what did you mean by we can take the girl?”
I stared at her for a few moments. “You’re moving in with me, obviously.”
Rose opened her mouth, but I cut her off.
“Social services prefer it when couples foster children, not single men. In any case, do you really want to live with your father instead of your fiancé?”
Rose cringed. “Well, no, I don’t want to live with him.” She seemed thoughtful for a moment before she spoke more decisively. “I want to live with you. You just caught me off guard because we never discussed it.”
A slow smile crossed my face. “What’s there to discuss?
You’re my fiancée, so it makes sense to live together, especially if we are fostering a little girl.
It’d be specifically beneficial to the process if we got married.
Social services look down on couples living in sin. They prefer traditional homes.”
Rose didn’t know how to argue with my logic and kept quiet.
“We’re engaged, Rose,” I pressed. “That means we’ll be getting married sooner or later. I thought that much was a given.”
“How soon were you looking to get married?”
“By Valentine’s Day.”
“That’s next week,” she shrieked.
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind being married to you by next week and fostering a few hungry children. Would you?”
She stared at me, unblinking. Slowly, she whispered, “I wouldn’t mind being married to you, either.”
With a smile, I grabbed her hand. We resumed our walk along the deck. Now, I really hoped to find those kids. Who knew having kids was so advantageous?
Just as Rose fell into step behind me, I stopped short. There were two kids—a teenager and a little girl—going through the trash at the far end of the deck. The way Rose’s face lit up told me everything I needed to know.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Itended to hold on to resentment, or so I had been told by Rose. I couldn’t refute the accusation, not when I purposefully made Damon my best man to give him a front-row seat while I married Rose.
Damon only had eyes for Poppy, with a baby on the way.
Still, I had to make sure he knew the only one in Rose’s heart was me.
The reason Rose might have liked him once was because she mistook Damon for me.
Nonetheless, I was a bitter man who held on to grudges, and the fact that I could put my brother through the wringer today brought me solace.
“She should be here by now,” I muttered under my breath.
Damon sighed. “I suppose it’s pointless to ask you to exercise patience. You do know it’s a virtue.”
“And as I have told you many times, I’m virtue deficient. Now go and find out what’s taking so long.”
Though Damon made a face, he couldn’t flip me off on my wedding day. Instead, he left the mandap to check on the bride’s arrival.
The hotel ballroom looked great, though we only had a week to plan the wedding.
I glanced at Enzo and his sister—Brynne—in the front row.
They had been staying in my spare rooms. Enzo was curiously smart.
It was a piece of cake to get him enrolled in a boarding school, though he had concerns about leaving his sister behind.
After receiving many reassurances from Rose, he agreed to biweekly weekend visits while we found a stable home for his sister.
It was disgustingly easy to get Enzo and Brynne’s biological mother to agree to the adoption.
Even she knew she wasn’t meant to be a mother, and this was for the best.
Initially, Rose suggested we adopt Brynne, but I vetoed the idea after seeing how much of her attention the kid had pulled away from me.
Enzo was a loner and stayed holed up in his room while Brynne followed Rose around.
It wouldn’t do, and after meeting potential families, Rose had finally given the thumbs-up to a couple who had never been able to conceive.
The adoption had been a hurdle in wedding planning.
While Rose didn’t remember much about her previous life, she wanted a traditional Indian wedding. Getting the hotel to agree to an open fire had been the biggest challenge thus far.
Our families protested the union, of course.
But it helped that Rose didn’t remember much about her family and wasn’t supremely concerned about offending them.
When they realized she didn’t care whether they attended, they dropped the charade to be a part of today’s festivities.
Moving forward, we planned to maintain minimal contact with her family other than Poppy and Piya.
I wouldn’t let anyone get between us again.
I endured a private hell when she convinced me that she loved someone else, and I refused to revisit that dark place.
The bitterness took a nosedive when Rose appeared in the ballroom, escorted by a few of her cousins.
My chest seized as if gripped by a vise.
The marble floor gleamed under each step Rose took toward me.
My gaze burned a path from the gold-embroidered hem of her lehenga, past the rich crimson fabric draped perfectly around her hips, the delicate cinch of her waist adorned with jewels, to the flush spreading beneath the intricate henna on her hands.
The little skin she showed made me feral with both need and possessiveness.
I wanted to scream mine in the middle of our wedding.
When our eyes finally locked through her veil, the depth of them hit me with the force of a monsoon.
Those same eyes had haunted my dreams since we met on that roof and we saved each other’s lives.
Her lips parted in that smile I’d kill for, the one that started hesitant before blooming into something fierce and certain.
That smile had brought me to my knees even before I understood what it meant to want someone this completely.
It had been more than ten years since we met.
Ten fucking years since it became apparent that I was only human for one person in this world.
That was the thing about Rose; not only was she my salvation, but she was also my sanctuary. My home. The beginning to my end.
She was everything.
And now the world would know the same truth I had known for far too long. Rose belonged to me as much as I belonged to her.
Rose sat next to me under the red-and-gold tapestry-adorned mandap.
Her father, Dev, adjusted the dupatta over her head before placing her hand over mine.
He was so relieved that Rose was okay after she disappeared from the hospital that he didn’t throw a fit over our engagement.
Not that he had a moral high ground after kidnapping my twin.
It helped that Damon didn’t call the authorities, and now, Dev was doing everything in his power to suck up to us.
Giving Rose his blessing was a good start, but I had ammunition against him if he stood in my way.
The moment Dev was out of earshot, I whispered, “Fuck, baby. You clean up nice. All I can think about is ripping that lehenga off you. How long before this thing is over?”
Her smile remained shy beneath her veil, but those eyes, I was obsessed with seeing my reflection in them. Today, of all days, I needed to see myself in her eyes, but Rose was distracted.
“The kids clean up nicely, too,” she whispered.
I stared at Rose instead of following her gaze to Enzo and Brynne.
When I didn’t respond, she gave me a blank look. “What?”
“The kids clean up nice?” I fit myself into a fucking sherwani for her.
She laughed softly under the see-through veil. “You look incredible. There’s something incredibly hot about a white guy wearing a sherwani.”
Once more, I glared at her.
And yet again, the infuriating woman chuckled. “I meant, you’re the only white guy that looks hot in a sherwani. Happy?”
I smiled, squeezing her hand while the priest babbled on. The sindoor I would soon place in the part of her hair waited between us like a promise.
“Is this real life?” she leaned over to whisper. “A few weeks ago, I had nothing. And now—” Her eyes swept across the ballroom from Enzo, Brynne, Piya, and Zane in the front row to her father, Poppy, and Damon at the mandap next to us. Finally, her gaze settled on my face.
I smirked. “And now?”
“And now, I have everything.”
I smiled because she was right.
I had everything, too.
Because I had her.