His wife’s eyes widened. “What are we going to do, Gavin?”
His gaze was steady as he stared back at her. He curled his hand around her knee, not wanting to take her hand away from the baby.
“We’re going to do as we were asked and raise her as our daughter.”
TWO
FIVE MONTHS LATER . . .
GAVIN had always had an understanding for what money and power could achieve, but it wasn’t until Arial, the name they’d chosen for their precious baby girl, that he fully appreciated or felt there was a purpose for the wealth he’d accumulated his entire adult life. As though he’d always been preparing for something so important. In the moment that innocent baby girl had arrived on their doorstep, he’d known that his wealth would finally serve a greater purpose.
It had all come down to this and to what he had been able to provide his wife—and now his daughter.
Ari was theirs. There was a paper trail he’d meticulously crafted documenting his wife’s pregnancy and the fact that after so many miscarriages he’d taken her away and kept her in complete isolation and privacy to give birth to their daughter.
A birth certificate listing date of birth, his and Ginger’s names as the parents, even the small clinic he funded where she’d been “born.”
Now, for the first time, they were returning to the United States with their daughter, assured that Ari’s past was airtight. That all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed. All they had to do was resume their lives, but even with the confidence that Ari’s past was unshakable, Gavin wasn’t fool enough to ever even think about relaxing his guard. Their lives would be forever altered, and he didn’t have a single regret for the changing course of their destinies. He had all a man could ever hope for—wish for. It was all finally his, a fact he gave thanks for every single day since that snowy Christmas night when Ari had entered their lives.
He’d carefully explained to Ginger the changes to their lives that would occur, that they would have to exercise complete caution in every aspect of their day-to-day lives. He’d worried that Ginger would feel imprisoned, that she’d grow tired of living such an isolated existence, but he should have known that his wife—like him—would do anything at all to protect their daughter.
An unbreakable bond had been formed that night when Ari had been left on their doorstep. It was inexplicable and instantaneous, as if she’d always been meant to be theirs. And that bond had only strengthened until neither of them could remember their lives before Ari was a part of their family.
The very first thing Gavin had done in his preparation to return to the United States was to quietly sell his house in Connecticut, because he wanted no trace of their past before Ari. No chance of Ari’s mother showing back up at the same place she’d left her baby, asking for her back.
He’d systematically worked during the months they were out of the country to remove them from the public eye. He’d sold off several of his businesses and invested the proceeds so that his family would always be secure.
He’d bought a huge home under a dummy corporation that could never be traced back to him and made sure that the security was impenetrable. And then he’d worked to turn it into Ginger’s dream home. A place she would love and wouldn’t be upset over being confined to so much.
She laughingly told him that she had everything she could possibly ever want. A husband she loved and a daughter she adored. No sacrifice was too great for her if it meant keeping her family.
Seeing Ginger so happy for these last months had given Gavin a sense of purpose he’d never before experienced. After so much sorrow and loss, the woman he loved sparkled with life, love and laughter. Every day she delighted in discovering something new about motherhood and their precious baby girl.
Gavin knew in his heart that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect them both. No price was too high to pay. No, he hadn’t done it cleanly or by the book. He should have notified the police and social services. And pursued adoption through the proper channels.
But he only had to look into his wife’s eyes as she stared at that tiny baby girl and he knew he could never risk losing their daughter by doing things the “right” way. He could live with his conscience and even live with his soul forever being damned just as long as Ginger was happy. He’d brave the fires of hell and the devil himself before ever being the cause of her eyes losing their shine.
In His Keeping (Slow Burn #2)
Maya Banks's books
- A Princess of Landover
- Alex Van Helsing The Triumph of Death
- Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead
- Angel Falling Softly
- Awakening the Fire
- Becoming Sarah
- Biting Cold
- Black Moon Beginnings
- Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel
- Broken Wings (An Angel Eyes Novel)
- Cast into Doubt
- Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series)
- Defying Mars (The Saving Mars Series)
- Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy)
- Destiny's Fire
- Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One)
- Dominion (Guardian Angels)
- Fire Within
- Flirting Under a Full Moon
- Garrett Investigates
- Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles)
- Hyacinth
- In the Arms of Stone Angels
- Industrial Magic
- Infinity Chronicles of Nick
- Influential_Magic
- Invincible (A Centennial City Novel)
- Invincible Chronicles of Nick
- Jenny Plague-Bringer
- Keeping Secret (Secret McQueen)
- Landed Wings
- Legon Awakening
- Living with the Dead
- Melting Stones
- Metro Winds
- Mind the Gap
- Mourning Cloak
- Neverwinter
- Nightingale (The Sensitives)
- Not Magic Enough and Setting Boundaries
- Of Wings and Wolves
- Possessing the Grimstone
- Prince of Spies
- Reckoning
- Serafina and the Silent Vampire
- Serafina and the Virtual Man
- Sin of Fury
- Sins of the Father
- Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow
- Sudden Independents
- Tainted Night, Tainted Blood
- The Beast Within (The Elite Series)
- The Breaking
- The Godling Chronicles The Shadow of God
- The Living Curse
- The Living End
- The Magic Kingdom of Landover Volume 1
- The Original Sin
- The Reaping
- The_River_Kings_Road
- The Sentinel Mage
- The Source (The Mountain State Vampire S
- The Turning Tides
- The Warring States (The Wave Trilogy)
- Through the Door (The Thin Veil)
- Towering
- Villains Inc. (Wearing the Cape)
- Vindicated
- Virtual Virgin
- Waking Dreams (The Soul's Mark)
- Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack Series
- Wicked Destiny
- Wings of Tavea
- Wings of the Wicked
- Winterblaze
- Woman King
- Dawn of Swords(The Breaking World)
- A Draw of Kings
- The Finisher
- Infinity Blade Awakening
- The Darkest Craving
- The Spider(Elemental Assassin series)
- A Witch Central Wedding
- The Indigo Spell
- The False Princess
- Skin Game: A Novel of the Dresden Files
- The Queen of the Tearling
- The Blinding Knife
- Monster Hunter International
- Sins of the Demon
- The Shadow Prince
- Skinwalker
- Feral Sins
- Dark Instincts
- Becoming Jinn
- An Ember in the Ashes
- Pall in the Family
- Nobody's Princess
- Sphinx's Queen
- Sphinx's Princess