Page 102 of All Yours

Robyn stood by the large Christmas tree in the courtyard outside the hospital entrance, wondering if she was shivering with nerves or the bite of the wind. She tugged her coat tighter and counted the large coloured globe lights that decorated the green branches, trying to calm the nerves that had started raging the second she sent the message to Fox. When he replied to say he was on his way, she’d focused on the star that twinkled at the top of the tree, closed her eyes and made a wish. It was finally happening. She’d had her sign from the universe.

Fox appeared in the doorway of the hospital, and pulled his collar up against the cold before stepping out. He spotted her, a curious expression on his face, and headed over. Her stomach flipped and she steeled herself, trying to ready herself for whatever happened next. She hugged Willow closer to her chest, praying that she was making the right decision for them all. And then, he was in front of her, and there was no going back.

‘What’s up?’ Fox asked, head tilted, observing her. ‘You okay?’

Robyn swallowed. Of course his first reaction would be to check if there was something wrong, because Fox was always looking after everyone else. Because he was a good man.

‘I’m fine,’ she said and her voice sounded remarkably strong and clear, not giving away any of the turmoil inside. She exhaled slowly, psyching herself up, determined to do this in the right way.

‘You said you needed to talk to me?’ he prompted, nervously avoiding eye contact, clapping his arms around himself to keep out the cold. She waited until his coppery eyes found hers and then she focused on them. On the warmth in them, the golden glints in the brown.

‘It’s about you,’ she said quietly. ‘And what you said.’

He raised an eyebrow, thrown off guard, and she couldn’t help but think he had never looked better.

‘About how children were blessings.’

He lifted his chin, nodded once.

‘And how the third one was an unexpected gift.’

He was intrigued now. She saw it in the tilt of his head, the tiny furrow between his brows.

‘And it finally felt like the sign from the universe. The one I’ve been waiting for.’

Robyn was feeling almost otherworldly, about to tell the secret closest to her heart. The one that could change not just her life, but her daughter’s too.

‘I have to tell you that you have a third child too.’ As the words came out, she saw their impact – the flicker of confusion on his face, the parting of his lips.

‘Willow is your daughter.’ She smoothed Willow’s hair over her head, as she saw Fox’s eyes drop to her daughter, before raising his gaze again to Robyn’s.

‘What?’ he said, shaking his head as if he had water in his ears and couldn’t trust his hearing.

‘Willow is yours. I fell pregnant after our night together.’ The words she’d dreamed of saying were finally free. Fox’s jaw dropped.

‘But you said you fell pregnant a month later?’

Robyn took a deep breath. ‘I lied. I’m so sorry.’

His eyes were laser focused on hers, but she couldn’t read his face. A tiny muscle twitched in his cheek as he opened his mouth and then shut it again, twice, before finally asking, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

She’d expected that. Of course.

‘Firstly, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again and I had no way of contacting you. If you remember, you’d already left by the time I woke up in the morning.’

He nodded slowly in acknowledgement. That was true.

‘And secondly, when I did meet you again, I was scared to tell you. I had to make sure that you were a good man for my daughter.’

‘So that history didn’t repeat itself,’ Fox said and she felt a rush of sheer gratitude that he understood, that he knew her well enough to see what might have held her back. A spark of hope shot through her. He got it, he really did. She watched his attention turn to the baby on her hip. His expression shifted, softened as Willow waved her chubby fists in the air.

‘When exactly was she born?’

Robyn was ready for this. She unfolded a square of paper in her purse and handed it over.

‘Willow’s birth certificate,’ she explained. Fox scanned it briefly, his finger tracking the page.

‘Born the eighteenth of June,’ he said, and she could see him doing the calculations in his head.