The scream was collective. Four small bodies launched themselves at Elena. She fell to her knees, burying her face in their necks, smelling their hair, checking them for injuries.
“I’m here, I’m here, I’m never leaving you again,” Elena sobbed.
Marcus stood by the door, feeling like an intruder. He felt unworthy to breathe the same air as this family he had destroyed.
Then, Olivia, the protector, pulled back. She looked at her mother, then at the tall man in the cashmere coat standing in the shadows.
“Who is he?” Olivia asked suspiciously. “Is he the lawyer?”
Elena wiped her eyes. She stood up, holding Ava’s hand. She looked at Marcus. This was the moment. She could destroy him. She could tell them he was nobody. She could tell them he was the villain of their story.
But Elena looked at Marcus’s face. She saw the red eyes. She saw the agony. She saw the man she had fallen in love with fifteen years ago, stripped of his arrogance.
“Girls,” Elena said, her voice trembling. “Do you remember I told you that your father went away a long time ago? That he was lost?”
The four girls nodded, their green eyes wide.
“Well,” Elena took a deep breath. “He found his way back.”
Silence filled the room.
