Chapter 15 - The House With Four Bedrooms
Samuel remained hospitalized for another seven weeks.
Seven weeks can change a family.
Kayla became almost unrecognizable from the frightened woman who had returned to the NICU.
She knew every medication.
Every appointment.
Every warning sign.
She completed infant CPR training twice because she did not trust herself after the first class.
Wade completed it three times because he refused to let Kayla beat him.
They argued about bottles.
Car seats.
Sleep schedules.
Wade bought too many stuffed bears.
Kayla returned half.
Wade bought them again.
I watched them learn each other.
Kayla discovered Wade hated tomatoes, loved old country music, and cried at dog movies while denying it.
Wade learned Kayla took her coffee with too much sugar, became quiet when scared, and had inherited Sarah's habit of tapping her fingers against tables.
Sometimes he stared at that gesture too long.
Kayla would notice.
“Grandma?”
He nodded.
Those moments hurt.
But they also healed.
Frank pleaded guilty to charges related to financial fraud and obstruction in the old Collins scheme.
Malcolm Hayes cooperated with investigators.
Margaret was cleared of involvement in the threat against Samuel.
Richard's death remained under investigation, but evidence increasingly suggested he had been attempting to expose decades of financial wrongdoing within the Collins estate.
The threatening text was eventually traced to Dean.
He admitted sending it to frighten Wade away.
It had been Travis's idea to gather leverage.
Not to hurt Samuel.
Still wrong.
Just not the conspiracy everyone had feared.
The blackout had been Richard's attempt to access hospital records proving Hayes's involvement in the original deception.
A reckless decision.
But not an attempt on Samuel.
The truth was messy.
There had been no single mastermind.
Only decades of selfish decisions piling on top of one another until a newborn became trapped beneath their weight.
Then discharge day arrived.
Samuel weighed five pounds eleven ounces.
Tiny.
But strong enough.
Kayla dressed him in a blue outfit with little motorcycles printed across the chest.
Wade stared.
“You bought that?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Moose.”
“Of course.”
Outside, twenty-seven members of the Iron Haven Riders waited.
No roaring engines.
No spectacle.
They stood quietly holding signs.
WELCOME HOME, SAMUEL.
Kayla stopped.
“Oh my God.”
Wade smiled.
“I told them to keep it small.”
“This is small?”
“For them.”
She laughed.
Then cried.
Then laughed again.
The child welfare caseworker met them at Wade's house.
The nursery was ready.
Pale green walls.
White crib.
Rocking chair.
Medical supplies neatly arranged.
On one shelf sat a framed photograph.
Sarah at twenty-three.
Beside it was a photograph of Elizabeth.
Kayla stared.
“You put them here.”
“They're his family.”
She touched Sarah's photograph.
“So are we.”
Wade nodded.
“So are we.”
The first night was terrible.
Samuel cried.
Kayla cried.
Wade accidentally warmed a bottle twice.
At 3:17 a.m., all three sat in the kitchen looking exhausted.
“I can't do this,” Kayla said.
Wade handed her coffee.
“You've said that before.”
“I mean it this time.”
“You meant it last time too.”
Samuel cried louder.
Kayla looked down.
“What does he want?”
“If I knew, I'd tell you.”
“You're supposed to be wise.”
“Who told you that?”
“You're old.”
Wade looked offended.
“I'm fifty.”
“Ancient.”
Samuel suddenly stopped crying.
They both looked down.
He had fallen asleep.
Kayla whispered, “We did it.”
Wade shook his head.
“He did.”
They sat in silence.
Then Kayla asked something Wade had been avoiding.
“Do you wish Grandma was here?”
“Every day.”
“Are you angry at her?”
“Sometimes.”
“Can you love somebody and still be angry?”
Wade looked at her.
“That's usually how family works.”
She smiled.
Then she became serious.
“I was angry at you.”
“For what?”
“For not finding me.”
Wade absorbed it.
“I know that's unfair.”
“No.”
“It is.”
“You were allowed to wish I'd found you.”
Kayla's eyes filled.
“I used to imagine my father.”
“What was he like?”
“Different every year.”
Wade smiled.
“When I was eight, he was an astronaut.”
“Good career.”
“At twelve, he was a secret agent.”
“Better.”
“At sixteen, I decided he was probably just some jerk who didn't want me.”
Wade looked down.
“And now?”
Kayla leaned her head against his shoulder.
“Now he's a giant biker who buys too many teddy bears.”
Wade swallowed.
“I can live with that.”
Three weeks later, a certified envelope arrived.
The Collins trust administrators requested a meeting.
Kayla almost threw it away.
Wade convinced her to open it.
Inside was a revised accounting.
Thirty-eight million dollars remained protected for Samuel.
But Sarah had created another account before her death.
Not millions.
Forty-three thousand dollars.
Her personal savings.
She left it to Wade.
He stared at the letter.
“I don't want it.”
Kayla read the handwritten note attached.
Then smiled.
“What?”
“She knew you'd say that.”
Wade took the note.
Sarah had written:
Buy something ridiculous. You spent too much of your life being responsible for ghosts.
Wade laughed until he cried.
Two months later, he bought an old red pickup truck.
It barely ran.
Kayla hated it.
May you like
Samuel eventually loved it.
And for the first time in decades, Wade owned something that had absolutely nothing to do with regret.
