Page 63 of Redemption
I cannot hate my past. Somehow, I know that serves no purpose. Instead, in this moment, where my father’s grief and joy collide, I let the past go. Completely.
I reach out and wrap my arms around him, pulling his shoulders toward me. “It doesn’t matter now. None of it matters now. What matters is right here. Right now. This moment. Our family. We’re all here. Nothing that came before has any hold on us. Today is what matters. Right now is what matters.”
My father’s sobs grow louder as he clutches at my suit jacket, holding on to me as if I’m his anchor to this world.
I’m strong enough for both of us, old man, I think as he shakes. Your son is not weak. Your son is a king of his own world.
Keira’s hand squeezes my thigh, and my mother’s hand remains on my shoulder. I lift my head to see Marco with his hands together and head bowed, as if praying over us all.
“It’s a miracle,” my mother whispers.
My father holds on tighter and tighter until he finally releases me and pulls back six inches, shifting his grip from my back to my shoulders. His dark gaze burns into mine.
“My son. You are my son. My Luca. You are home. I thought God had cursed me and our family, but I was wrong. You are strong. You are well. And you are home.”
“A miracle,” my mother says once more.
My father breaks his stare to look at her. “And you are more beautiful than ever, Francesca. What a stupid, stupid man I have been. All this time I have wasted. I do not deserve such joy, but I cannot shut it out. I want to ask how or why, but I do not care. I do not care how or why today happened. All I care is that it is so.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Keira
I’ve never seen such a range of raw emotion on display. This family reunion is beyond description.
Grief.
Disbelief.
Regret.
Joy.
Relief.
Gratitude.
Devotion.
I don’t feel like an outsider, because Lachlan is the other half of my soul, but I know that what he and his family are feeling truly has nothing to do with me.
Except that’s not entirely true. But for me, this moment wouldn’t be happening. I was the one who submitted that DNA test without his knowledge. Because I had seen the gaping hole Lachlan Mount’s unknown origins had left in his heart and his life.
This was a man who believed that no one cared about him and that he mattered to no one. He’d grown into manhood on the cruel streets of New Orleans, believing that was the truth. It had shaped him into the hard and ruthless man who was waiting in my office to take my body in payment and claim me for his own.
I would never have believed that the Lachlan Mount I first met is the same man who now cries with his father, his mother, and his brother. I didn’t know he had the ability and capacity to transform to this degree. I didn’t know anyone had that ability or capacity.
But once more, Lachlan Mount has blown away every single one of my fixed beliefs and expectations. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. But I have to admit, I am constantly surprised by my husband. I had no idea he could become the man he has become.
His beginnings would make anyone believe otherwise. But now, to find out that everything he believed about himself was a lie … as his mother has said repeatedly, it is a miracle. None of it was true. He wasn’t unwanted. He wasn’t abandoned. He was taken. Stolen. And yet still loved beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
Watching this reunification unfold and being part of it, with my hand on his thigh, I am overwhelmed by the magic of life and the very grace by which we have been touched.
I didn’t know that the urge that led me to submit that DNA test could result in this beautiful homecoming and reunion.
Looking down at the grass beneath me, I press my palm against the blades for support and whisper a mental prayer.
Thank you, God. I did not know this much happiness was possible. Thank you for giving this moment to my husband and his family. Thank you.
