Free ALoveSoDeep by Lili Valente Page A

since coming home from the surgery, I’ve felt like a guest at Darby Hill. Darby Hill isn’t my home, my home is five feet, one inches of hard-working, hard-loving, fearless, fragile, beautiful blonde and I never want to leave that home again.
    “I’m not going back to Darby Hill tonight,” I say, gazing across the office to where Caitlin sits cross-legged in Charlene’s chair, clicking through her email. “I won’t be able to resist the urge to strangle my parents.”
    Caitlin doesn’t say a word, and I’ve started to think she hasn’t heard me when she says—
    “We can’t go back to Hawaii, either.” Her voice is trembling, and I know she’s found something bad, even before I cross the room to stand beside her and she looks up at me, a haunted expression on her face. She points to the screen in front of her. “Look at this.”
    I lean down, rubbing her back in gentle circles as I read through a series of emails between Charlene and two lawyers on the island of Maui. She solicited them to assist her in transferring a property to “a deserving young family” who would only accept the property if it seemed to come to them through the will of a dead relative. I read the entire string of messages, but I realize by the third response from Sumiko and Associates what has happened.
    “My parents bought you the house in Maui,” I say. “To make sure there were a few thousand miles and an ocean between us.”
    Caitlin’s breath rushes out. “And you were right. My dad was in on it. They paid him ten grand to help them pull off the inheritance story, and get me out of town. I found an email Charlene wrote to him before I found this one, but it didn’t mention anything about why they were offering the money, or why he’d agree to it.”
    I brush her hair over her shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”
    Her cheeks puff as she blows out a long stream of air. “I mean…my dad is breaking my heart all over again, even though he’s dead, and the kids and I are homeless, but…”
    “You’re not homeless.” I urge her up out of the chair before taking her place, and pulling her into my lap. “The house is in your name. There’s no reason you can’t keep living there.”
    “It feels tainted now.” She curls into me, wrapping her arms around my neck, allowing me to comfort her in a way that makes me feel like the luckiest man alive. I never imagined being there for someone could feel like a gift instead of a responsibility.
    I also never dreamed it would be so devastating to learn I was almost a father.
    The thought makes my stomach turn to lead, so I push it away, even as I hold Caitlin closer. I can’t think about how things might have been different—if Caitlin and I had been allowed to stay together, if she’d been there for me after the surgery, and I’d been there for her during the pregnancy. I can’t imagine a scenario where our child lived without wanting to kill my parents for what they’ve done more than I do already.
    “Finding answers sucks,” Caitlin says, reaching out to click the browser closed.
    “But we still have one very big question left.”
    “Why did they go to all this trouble,” Caitlin says, completing my thought with an ease that is more evidence that we belong together. “All told, this deception must have cost almost a million dollars.”
    “And even to my parents, that’s not a small number.” I hum a tune I can’t put words to, but for the first time since the surgery, the hole in my memory doesn’t bother me. I recovered the most important part of who I used to be, and she is threading her fingers through my hair, twisting it in idle circles as she thinks.
    “Your mom was angry with me,” Caitlin says. “She said she only put up with having me around because she hoped I would convince you to have the surgery, but that she should have known better. She said she never should have trusted a girl who could fall in love with the heartless person you’d