These Ties That Bind

“You’ve done a fine job of raising Finn. He’s a great kid.” Rem was ready to stop thinking of Finn as Sara’s son and to start accepting him as his own.

“Get used to this, Sara, ’cause I’m not backing down. You’re not going to win this fight.”

Something more flared in her eyes, something beneath the anger she wore like a badge. He thought it might be fear. He wracked his brain for a way to convince her that he was serious about changing, about becoming stronger, and that everything would work out fine, and he hit on one thing.

“Since the day Finn was born, I’ve been helping to support him, starting with your hospital bills when he was born. Every month without fail, I’ve sent you money for him. In twelve years, I didn’t miss once. I’ve been responsible. I’ve proven that I have staying power. Right?”

“You never missed a payment,” she acknowledged.

“I won’t relapse, Sara.”

She wouldn’t look at him.

“Fine, if you can’t do this for me, do it for Ma. She has a right to know Finn. I’m going to tell her.”

“Don’t,” Sara rasped. “Just don’t.”

“It’s no longer your choice to make.”

Beneath the defiance and fear on her face, he saw devastation. Her world was about to change.

Too bad. Rem needed everyone to know that he was Finn’s father.

He stalked out of the emergency room.

It was long past time to be a father.

SARA PRESSED A HAND AGAINST her stomach.

The controlled, defined, safe world she’d struggled to build since her son’s birth was about to crumble. She’d worked so hard and Rem could rip it all apart with a few words.

Don’t hurt my baby.

Rem was a master at finding chinks in her armor.

He didn’t understand the chance he took. His decision didn’t affect only her. Didn’t he know how hurt Finn could be if Rem let him down, if he couldn’t carry through as a father? Once he started, there was no turning back.

She listened to the familiar sounds of the hospital, her home away from home, but saw only the small recovery room she’d been in after Finn’s birth. She’d thought things were going to work out for her. She’d been so wrong.

It hurt to remember how excited she’d been and then how devastated after Rem had rejected both of them.

After she’d buried her emotions and thought things through rationally, she’d realized that she and Finn could survive just fine without Rem. And they had.

That day, she’d decided that she’d work her butt off for independence, to support herself and Finn, and the hell with Rem. She didn’t need him. She and Finn were on their own and that’s how they would stay.

Sara and her son had been a team—until lately, at any rate.

Now Rem was changing his mind and he expected her to fall into line.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Sara still stood in the small, curtained emergency room with the familiar equipment that could mend broken bodies, that could take blood and mess and dirt and transform the chaos into the order she craved.

She brushed off the past.

She would get through this. She always did.

Taking an antiseptic wipe from a container, she ran it across the small counter and into every corner and cranny.

She replaced the sheet of protective paper on the bed.

Rem had disappointed her before and there wasn’t a speck of doubt in her mind that he would do so again. She just didn’t want him pulling his old tricks on Finn.

No matter what it took, she’d make sure Finn didn’t get hurt. She’d bet her last dollar that Rem had gone up to visit Nell. She was going to march up there right now to lay down a few parameters, rules that Rem had to follow.

She would see Nell then, too. Rem had hit a nerve when he’d talked about his mom—a problem she’d been aware of since Finn’s birth.

Sara had loved Nell ever since she was a child and running everywhere with Timm and Rem. Nell had treated her as her own daughter. Over the years, Sara had worried about keeping Finn away from Nell, about how it would affect Nell if she ever found out. Nell didn’t know she was a grandmother and the guilt ate away at Sara.

Nell had had three strokes and now Rem was talking about the very real possibility of her death. It was hard to think of Nell dying without ever learning the truth. Rem was right.

Fine, Nell could get to know her grandson, but Sara would have to make sure she understood that Finn wasn’t to know whose mother she was. No way would Sara let Finn find out that Rem was his father.

Sara would keep as much control of the situation as she could.

Finished with her straightening of the room, Sara stopped and gripped the counter, overwhelmed by Rem’s threat. She squeezed her eyes shut, but still saw his face and that body she wanted to hold despite his past betrayals.

She snapped her eyes open.

Mixed in with all of that desire was a backwash of emotion too toxic for her to sort out—guilt, anger, tenderness and even love. And that terrible and unrelenting darkness.

Her head had to rule. Experience had taught her that Rem could cost her pieces of herself that she didn’t want to give. But she was faced with the same old struggle between desire and reality.

Over the years, she’d grown so good at quashing her dreams of Rem, of suppressing memories and desires. But today, at this moment, Sara Franck still wanted Remington Caldwell.

You poor unfortunate fool.

REM TOOK THE ELEVATOR to Ma’s floor, to make sure she was all right and to let her know he’d made the arrangements for her homecoming.

At least he’d had the chance to tell Sara what he wanted with Finn. She was dead set against him getting to know his son. Surprise, surprise.

Calming himself before entering Ma’s room, he put aside all thoughts of Sara.

When he approached the bed, Ma’s eyes followed him, but her head remained still. This latest stroke had immobilized her so much and it hurt to see her like this.

“What?” she asked, glancing at his bandaged hands. Her speech had been affected and her words clipped short. “What happen?”

He raised his hands so she could see them better. “It isn’t as bad as it looks. I pulled a girl out of a car fire.”