Page 57 of Aidan (The Doherty Mafia)
“Even if you don’t forgive yourself for it, I forgive you. I understand why you had to do what you did. You did it for him,” I said.
“I love you Aidan Doherty. I have never loved anyone else.”
Thirty
Leah
Aidan carried me to the bedroom where he smoothly laid me down on the bed.
I felt hot tears burning the backs of my eyelids. I was in tears because of how happy I felt. I didn’t think I could be happy like this again. I didn’t think I deserved it.
But there he was, stretching his muscular strong body over me. He framed my face with both arms, covering me completely, kissing me. I felt so small underneath him. He could crush me any moment if he wanted to, but instead, he handled me like I was a delicate flower.
I definitely didn’t deserve it.
I kissed him back passionately, sucking on his bottom lip, undoing his buttons with fumbling fingers. I pushed his shirt off to feel the toughness of his muscular shoulders.
He pulled his mouth away from me so he could look at my face.
“Do you even know how beautiful you are?” he asked.
“I haven’t felt beautiful in years. Not since I left this town.”
“I want to help you get over the guilt, Leah. You can’t live like this. You can’t allow your past mistakes dictate your future.”
I blinked the tears away and nodded.
“I know. You’re right. Since we’re together, I will finally have something to look forward to. A life.”
He kissed my forehead and I couldn’t help but smile.
“I’ve already wasted a lot of time blaming myself for pushing you away, for losing you. I thought it was my fault,” he continued.
I shook my head as hard as I could.
“It wasn’t you. It was my father. He masterminded the whole thing because of his religious beliefs. He made my mother follow him blindly, and made me believe that I had no other choice.”
Aidan sank on top of me. I could feel his heavy weight cover me and I basked in the glory of the comfort and safety. Nothing else made me feel like this.
“I’ve missed you so much, Leah. I want to do whatever it takes to make up for lost time.”
“Me too.”
“I want you to live with me. Leave this stupid apartment. Quit your job and move in with me.”
I was hot all over. I couldn’t keep up—things moved fast now. The past five years had moved so slow it felt like a decade.
“I enjoy my job there, but yes, I’ll call my manager tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll be happy for me. I just want to be with you.”
“You’ll find something to do here that you equally enjoy. We’ll figure it out,” he said, covering my face with kisses, making me giggle.
When he looked into my eyes again, I knew I had to tell him. I couldn’t keep the excitement all to myself.
“There’s something else that I’ve figured out,” I said. He furrowed his brows for a moment while I grinned wide. “We can meet our son.”
Aidan had to sit up in bed when he heard what I had to say.
I sat up too. I beamed with joy and I knew he felt it too.
“You’re not making this up?” he asked. I shook my head with a big smile on my face.
“Mom gave me the idea today at the hospital and so I called the social service agency that worked with me during the adoption. As it turns out, the parents left it open ended. Meaning it is up for discussion.”
Aidan rubbed a hand over his face frustratedly.
“Which means that we can get in touch with them and hope they haven’t changed their minds.”
I bit on my bottom lip hard.
“They haven’t. I called them straight away when I got their number.”
Aidan jumped off the bed. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him this excited and happy about anything.
“Are you serious? What did they say?”
I sat on my knees on the bed, with my hands clasped in my lap. I was so happy I got to share this with him.
“They’ve named him Ralph. He just turned four—which I already knew. But yeah, they said he’s amazing. So curious and smart. Asks a lot of questions. They have already told him he was adopted because they wanted to have an open and honest relationship with him. They said he’s happy. He’s too young to feel any sense of anger towards me for giving him up I guess.”
Aidan listened to every word intently.
“So, if we meet him now…if he is a part of our lives in some way now, we can bypass the angry phase.”
I nodded. “We can be honest with him too. He should know the truth. He should know his father would have never given him up if he knew.”
“And his mother would have been the best mother he could have hoped for, if only the circumstances were different.”
