enough. Maria’s pregnant. With Cain’s child.” His mouth tightened. “Her father goes to the same church as us, and he’s furious. Adam, being the good boy he is, has agreed to set things right.”
My brow puckered as I dealt with so many slivers of information that I couldn’t keep up. My brain wasn’t addled from the near-death experience, but at that moment, I actually felt like it might be.
With the entire world beneath my feet suddenly quaking, I managed to get out, “What do you mean, Robert? How can Adam make things right when he has nothing to do with what Maria’s going through?”
“I mean, we’ve given them our permission to get married.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It isn’t like Cain can rectify his wrongdoings, can he? Not when he’s in jail. They might try him as an adult, for God’s sake, and if they do, I have no idea how long he’ll be inside.” He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, then bowed his head like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
I couldn’t blame him.
An almost-seventeen-year-old kid in a man’s prison?
Surely, nobody would sign off on that.
But Robert’s pain was nothing compared to what I was enduring at that moment.
Nothing to the pain that was spearing me in two.
Was that why Adam hadn’t come to visit me yet?
Was that the reason I’d only seen the Majors and Robert?
For a second, I was sure I was going to puke all over myself, the bed, and Robert.
Because this couldn’t be happening.
It couldn’t.
But… Robert’s resolute misery was all the proof I needed.
This was happening.
There was no escaping it.
I licked my lips, unable to process what I was hearing, but Robert seemed to mistake what I was going through. I wasn’t sure what he thought he saw, but he murmured, “My lawyers are dealing with this situation as we speak.”
“Which situation?” I rasped. The almost murder attempt, the marriage, or the adoption...apparently, there were three to choose from.
He blinked. “The adoption, of course. It’s underway as we speak. Within the next two months, quicker if I can sway it, you’ll be one of the family.”
And that was only the start of my nightmares coming to fruition.
The only way I wanted to be family with Robert was as his daughter-in-law, not as an adopted daughter.
“Why did you ask me if this was what I wanted if you weren’t going to listen anyway?” I whispered, feeling the cavernous chasm in my soul as it began to crumble away as his news hit home.
“The illusion of choice is a powerful thing,” he advised, and somehow, when he looked at me, I felt like he was telling me something else.
My brow puckered as I strained to understand, but he reached over, patted my hand, and said, “Just concentrate on getting better. I’ll arrange for everything to be moved from your foster home to ours. I’ll visit within the next couple of days, my wife too, and you’ll be returning home to us once you’re allowed to leave the hospital.” Another pat to my hand. “Let’s make some good come out of this, Theodosia. Let me right my son’s wrongs.”
It wasn’t a question, more of a statement, and it was more of a highlight once more of how choice truly was an illusion. I had no say in this. Adam’s family had decided my fate, just as they’d decided his.
Only, it wasn’t a fate that was entwined, a future where we were together… No. It was one where we were separated by a wedding band, one that wasn’t on my finger, but on his.
THEA
A few days later when I was chauffeured back to the Ramsden’s home, staring at the family driver’s head, I wondered at the oddity of fate.
I’d already met Linden a handful of times thanks to Adam, and he’d greeted me on sight when I waddled out of the hospital wheelchair they’d rolled me out in. I’d never been so stationary in all my life, and I was stiff as a board as a result. Linden had helped me out of the chair, had assisted me onto my feet, and had steadied me when I’d almost fallen over. I wasn’t sure if his friendliness was because of my new status, or if it was because he was genuinely sorry for me after what had happened, but I’d take it.
There was nothing physically wrong with me. No reason my legs were limp as spaghetti… but they were. And