Present
Victoria
I stood there dumbfounded, unable to understand if this was reality or a dream.
My daughter was alive!
She was wearing a cute black t-shirt over a red skirt, a saddlebag slung across her chest.
"What's your name, sweetie?" I asked her softly.
She looked up at Tyler and when he smiled at her encouragingly, she looked back at me, "Honor."
I burst into tears, not caring that we were being watched by the restaurant staff.
I raised my hand towards Honor and she placed her little hand in mine, tentatively, taking a step towards me. When she was close enough, I wrapped my arms around her little form and continued to sob, pain gripping my chest mercilessly, "My baby...my Honor..."
I pulled away to look at her again, not believing that this was true. It had to be a beautiful dream that I was going to wake up any minute from; I tried telling myself that but no, this was reality and Honor was right here.
I cupped her face in my hands, touching her cheeks lovingly; my throat was still thickened by emotions. "I...I missed you...sweetie...I love you so much..." I managed to say between the tears. I touched her hair, grazed her shoulders, her face again. There was no doubt in my mind.
She was mine.
She patted my head, "its okay. Don't cry." Her voice was so sweet.
"I'm...I'm Vicky." I introduced myself awkwardly.
She smiled and shyly said, "Nice to meet you, Vicky."
"Honor...I can't tell you how happy I'm to see you, honey." I said and then burst into tears again. Composing myself one more time, I asked, "Sweetie, can I talk to your daddy for a minute alone?"
She laughed, "You don't need permission from me to talk to Ty."
"Here's the double chocolate milkshake for the little lady." The waitress cooed walking to the table and placing a tall glass of the drink on the table, "Enjoy!" she batted her eyes at Tyler, and then frowned at me.
Honor went to the table and sat down. I watched her as she brought the straw to her mouth. I used her distraction to look at Tyler.
"Can we talk?" I couldn't keep the anger out of my voice.
Tyler knew that Honor was alive and he kept her away from me.
For ten years I'd been robbed of my life with my baby.
There was a sick feeling churning in my stomach.
"We're talking." He said.
I pulled him away from Honor making sure we weren't within earshot. She didn't need to listen to this, and I couldn't wait until later to hear what Tyler had to say about this.
"How dare you, Tyler?" I demanded. "How dare you keep me in the dark for so long? You knew about Honor! All this time! You knew how much she meant to me and yet you never said a word. Where was she?!"
Tyler looked calm throughout the accusations, "If you're done, I'll explain."
"Yes! Please do, Mr. Lockhart." I hissed impatiently. "I can't wait!"
He looked at Honor who smiled and waved at him before she continued to suck the life out of the straw, swinging her legs back and forth, humming to herself.
"I'll start from the very beginning. I didn't know about her until recently, that is not until a week before I came to Cold-Bay. When I was still in London, I got a text from Max."
"Your cousin Max?"
"Yeah." Tyler retrieved his phone from his pocket and started scrolling through his text messages. "Max went to Boston for a Red Sox game with his date, and they were in the VIP area which is where he spotted a young girl and I'll quote what he said ′You think Vicky's dad came to Boston and had a little fun?"
When I glared at him, he quickly backpedaled and in his defense said, "That's what Max said and I was confused too." He showed me the old texts that Max had sent him, and continued, "so I asked him what he meant by that and he sent me some pictures of this kid."
I read the message on the screen.
Max: It's illegal to take pictures of unsuspecting people, especially children and I could go to jail for this. The lady there has started giving me the look. But this is unbelievable and sooooo freaaaky....you have to see this Ty. This kid looks just like our Victoria.
The text was followed by a couple of pictures of Honor with a family. Zoomed in shots of Honor.
"I got curious and decided to hire a private investigator. Turns out she was our Honor." He concluded, "Her name even then was Honor Lockhart as it was registered when she was born which was strange."
"So how did she end up with another family? We were told she was dead, Tyler! I lived all these years mourning her loss when she was out there with other people." I said as my body shook; I was starting to have shortness of breath, my chest was tightening with anxiety. I quickly pulled out the inhaler from my bag and put it in my mouth.
Honor tilted her head to look at me curiously.
"She didn't die that night when she was taken to the hospital. She got better but someone took her away deliberately and lied to us that she was dead. You and I never saw the body, and neither did my parents."
"Who did it?" I asked, "Who took her away?"
Tyler avoided eye-contact and I knew I wasn't going to like his answer. "You're better off not knowing."
"You have to tell me," I said, clutching the front of his shirt.
He heaved a sigh, knowing there was no way around it, "Your mother."
I was speechless for a few seconds as I tried to sink his words in.
"You're lying!"
He shook his head, "I know how you feel, baby, but that's the truth. Your mom, Isabelle...she was against you bringing up the child seeing as we were so young. And she hates my family, but you already know that and I'm sure she didn't want Honor to grow up around us. According to the information that I was able to gather from the investigator, she managed to take the baby away and gave it to a lady who apparently handed orphans over to wealthy families who needed children. I don't know the details but that's how Honor ended up with Joe and Alison Crandall."
I was overcome with shame. I'd suspected Tyler but it had turned out to be my mother who'd done this. Betrayal hit me hard.
"I think the arrangement was supposed to be temporary, your mom just wanted to keep Honor with a family for time being until you were old enough to take care of the baby, but this lady that she gave Honor to had given her away to the Crandall's. It was supposed to be for a year or two but the family refused to give the child back."
"That's the reason she never lives with us anymore." I said softly, "She's guilty of what she's done so she stays at grandpa's."
It all started to make sense.
Tyler nodded. "I know it's a lot for you to take in but I didn't lie to you. I have proof of the adoption papers and everything else that can prove what I said. You can have a look if you want."
"I'll talk to mom. I need answers from her! How could she do this to her own daughter?"
Tyler placed a hand on my shoulder, "I already spoke to your mother. She appeared to be guilty and asked me if you'd forgive her. What she did was undeniably wrong, but I think she wanted what was best for you, and she thought that Honor wasn't fit to grow up in my home, neither did she want me in her life or yours." He looked at our daughter, who looked at us and grinned, "Look at her, Vicky...she turned out to be such a sweet girl. She had a nice family who gave her a normal life that you and I probably wouldn't have been able to give her when we were young."
I sniffled, "what are you saying?"
His blue eyes cut through mine, stroking my cheek gently with his fingers, "We got our daughter back and that's more important. I forgive your mother, and so should you."
My hands were balled into fists. "Never! I will never ever forgive her for this! Not until I draw my last breath!"
I composed myself enough to ask him, "Where are the Crandall's now? Is she going to be taken away from us again?" I started hyperventilating again. "Tyler...Tyler...I can't..."
"The Crandall's are dead. It happened a few months back. They got into a car accident, there were no close relatives who wanted to take her and Honor went to an orphanage for a while until I got to her."
I stared at him. "Tyler, I don't want to ask this but did you have anything to do with the family's accident?"
I feared what Tyler would answer, my heart jumped into my throat. If he'd discovered about Honor's connection to us and realized there was no other way to get our daughter back, I imagined Tyler going to any extent to get what he wanted. And even though I wanted, needed my daughter in my life, I couldn't stand the thought of Tyler hurting somebody.
"Of course not, Victoria." He used my full name, he was super pissed. "I'm shocked you'd even suggest that. I'm shocked that you thought I kept her away from you all these years." He gave a humorless laugh, "We don't talk about this often but I got you pregnant with her for a reason. Honor was my ticket to forever. Why in the world would I keep her away from you? What would I gain from it? I wanted a family of my own, Vicky, and wanted you and Honor to be with me. She's my kid."
I swallowed, a few seconds ticked. "I'm sorry...for the things I said."
"You were overwhelmed. It's okay."
"I wouldn't even have her back if it weren't for you so thank you, Tyler," I said sincerely.
He pulled me close to him and kissed the top of my head. "We can talk about this later. She's starting to give us weird looks. Let's get something to eat."
I took the seat from across Tyler and Honor. I just couldn't stop staring at her. I felt like my life was finally complete. That hollow void inside me was getting filled up slowly. I don't remember how many times I'd fantasized of being with her like this knowing that it was impossible.
"I'm staaaarrrrving..." she said slurping the drink loudly and then looked at me with those big expressive blue eyes, "what were you guys talking about?"
I shrugged when Tyler came to the rescue. "Honor, there's something in your hair."
She grinned at him touching her hair. "No there isn't."
Tyler used that trick with her that he used to do with Hazel when she was a kid. He reached to touch the silver locks of her hair and produced a packet of m&m's, "Oh, look what I found."
Honor's eyes went wide and she snatched it out of his hand, "How did you do that?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets." Tyler said, "You know what's funny, Honor? That's your mom's favorite chocolate too. She used to eat it when she was pregnant with you."
Honor turned to look at me, "You did?"
I nodded, "Yeah."
The waitress then arrived with the food. Tyler had already ordered a bunch of varieties. There was a margarita Pizza which was Honor's favorite, then there was pasta, and some vegan food that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
"You look like me!" She pointed out taking a bite of her pizza slice, "We have the same hair color. In school, they used to say I looked like a fairy."
"I think you do." I said, "Honor, sweetie, would you like to come stay with me?"
She stared at me for a good few seconds before asking, "Do you have pets?"
I liked how straightforward she was.
"I...I don't. But we could get one if you want." I was resorting to baiting the child.
Ha. I was pathetic.
"How about a pet lizard?" she asked.
I blanched. Tyler saw my expressions and laughed. Asshole.
"We can get a dog or a kitty," I suggested.
She shook her head, "I've had those before but I wanted a lizard and Alison wouldn't let me keep one. Tyler said he has four, with other reptiles. He also promised to get me a Chinchilla. I wanna live with Tyler..." she looked up at him in blatant admiration. He'd worked his spells on her, she was completely charmed.
I felt a twinge of envy gnawing my insides. I had carried her for months and she chose him over me!
Tyler stared back at her with fascination. He looked so proud. "We'll get anything you want."
She smiled at him, those adorable dimples in her cheeks, "Anything?"
"Try me."
I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he trying to impress his almost ten-year-old daughter? He was pulling all those cheap stunts because he knew I couldn't get her any reptiles. He'd one-upped me again.
"A unicorn pony." She said and laughed.
"We have a white pony on our property. We can cosplay her."
"Wow, really? We can do that?" Honor was super excited.
He picked up her hand in his and kissed it several times. "Of course."
So basically they were just going to ignore me and treat me like a third wheel.
I cleared my throat and the spell broke between them.
"You could come live with us Vicky. It would be fun." Honor suggested.
My face fell.
"Yeah, Vicky," Tyler gave me that mischievous smirk, "Come live with us." He teased, "I can show you fun. I promise."
Did he really think I couldn't detect the innuendo?
Psychotic Billionaire Trash.
She looked between Tyler and me. "Aren't you guys together?"
"Um..."
"Are we together, Vicky?" Tyler was having a little too much fun with this. "Your mommy likes to play hard to get, honey."
"Aw. That's a shame." Honor said and she even looked a bit disappointed, "I think you should resolve it. It would be nice if I don't have to keep switching between houses."
"You won't. I'll...I'll come live with you guys." I said finally.
"Yes!" Honor exclaimed. "It would be soooooo much fun."
We ordered desserts later on and shared a large banana split with lots of whipped cream and choco-chip and rainbow-colored sprinkles.
My heart was so full of happiness; I thought I would die from smiling and grinning so much.
Honor had given my life a purpose.
* * *
Hey guys, EPILOGUE (Final Chapter) is already posted on Inkitt! Link in the Bio.
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