Forgiving You: A Switched Series Novella (The Switched Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

you. Just get here as soon as you can. We’ll be waiting,” he says calmly. When I don’t reply, I guess he takes my silence as an okay and hangs up on me.
    “What’s going on?” Collin asks.
    “Maya is at Callie’s. She wants to talk,” I say, still feeling shocked.
    “Let’s go meet you daughter then,” he says, trying to make me feel better. For some reason, I just feel dread. If those pictures are real, then how do I really know that little girl is mine? I guess there is only one way to find out.
    I turn my truck around and head back toward our home town. I punch the gas and pray I can get there before she changes her mind and runs from me.
     
    A little over an hour later, I finally pull up to Ash and Callie’s house. Collin opens the door and hops out of the truck while I just sit back and stare at the front door. I want to go in there, and I want to grab Maya, and I want to meet my daughter, at least one part of me does. The other part of me wants to run in there grab Maya by the neck and demand to know what the hell has been so important the past five years that she couldn’t have shown up on my doorstep sooner with my daughter.
     
    I finally force myself to get out of the truck and head up the steps to face my past. I walk up the front steps and open the front door to find Callie standing there.
    “Hey,” she says quietly. “She’s in the living room.” I smile and nod my head at her before pulling her into my arms and giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.
    “Thanks for being you and getting her here,” I whisper. “Do you really think she’s mine?” I ask quietly. I had completely given up on the idea of ever having kids. If I couldn’t have them with Maya, there was no one that would ever be good enough in my eyes.
    “Yes, I think she’s yours. Just so you know, Ava’s not here.”
    “What do you mean, she’s not here?” I ask, starting to get mad. How can she show up here and still keep my daughter from me?
    “Maya said she needed to talk and explain some stuff and she didn’t want Ava to hear any of it. Leighton took all the kids to mom and dads,” she says. I don’t know if Callie realizes what she said or not, but that is the first time she has referred to my parents as mom and dad. I’ll have to remember to tell them about that. I’m starting to understand what that would mean to them. “I think she may be in some kind of trouble. I don’t know what’s going on, but she has a serious obsession about keeping Ava safe and she says that’s why she came back.” Great, what has Maya done now? I need to ask why she thinks Maya is in some kind of trouble, but a movement at the doorway keeps me from saying anything. I look up and straight into eyes that I never thought I would see again, but have imagined every day.
    “Hi,” Maya whispers.
    “I’ll be in the living room,” Callie says, walking out of the room. I completely ignore her and continue staring into the most gorgeous green eyes I have ever seen, eyes that I used to get lost in daily. I have imagined this day every day for the past five years. What I would do, what I would say if I ever got the chance to confront her about what she did. I know I should have asked a long time ago, but I was so hurt, I just wanted her gone and because of that decision I have missed out on so much of my daughter’s life. That little bit of anger is the only thing stopping me from running straight to Maya, pulling her in my arms and pretending the last five years never happened, especially when I see the tears pooled in those eyes and watch them spill over onto her cheeks.
    “Hi,” I whisper back. “Are you in some kind of trouble?” I watch her eyebrows scrunch up while she gives serious thought my question.
    “I don’t know yet. I have some questions and I need to tell you where I’ve been the last five years,” she says.
    “Then I get to meet my daughter,” I say, knowing it sounds more like a question than I meant