Surviving the Pain (A Baby Saved Me Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

hard to construct over the year he’s been absent. If she was to continue with her promise to not only herself but her son too, then he needed to stop. Sage was not here, and he never would be. He didn’t want Ember, only sex. That was what he’d said to her so callously a year ago. Ember could still remember that day like it happened yesterday. No, it was bad enough she still dreamed about him and that moment, she didn’t need this too.
    “Emmy, I know he hurt you, but I really think he may be in some serious trouble.”
    Sighing heavily, she looked at her father’s concerned face. He always did love Sage, figured he was the best thing to happen to her. Maybe he’s having a hard time letting go too. Maybe he’s having a hard time accepting the fact that he made a mistake – just as Ember had – and it cost his only child their heart and many tears.
    “Daddy, I love you. I really do, but I can’t keep holding on to hope. Do you know how many times over the past year I have gone over that day and tried to see something that was missing – something that was never really there? I screwed up and loved the wrong man, but I won’t let that mistake ruin my life or bring my son down. He’ll know who his father is. I’ll tell him all the good times… but that’s it. I need to let go and so do you.”
    Reaching over, Everett took his daughter’s hand in his. “I know this is painful for you to talk about, but I thought you might like to know that his words may not have been the truth. If he’s in trouble, he could have been saving you.”
    Shaking her head, she clenched her eyes shut tightly. “No,” she whispered. “I can’t give him credit where he failed.” Ember opened her eyes and looked at her father. “I love him, Daddy. I always will, I think. No one will measure up to him, but he knew we’d help him if he were in trouble. He knew he wasn’t alone. You can’t make any more excuses for him and neither can I. We need to focus on Hudson. We need to make sure he’s loved enough that his missing father won’t bother him so much. Your grandchild should be your focus, not on the man that doesn’t even know he’s a father because he tossed the mother aside like yesterday’s garbage.”
    “Honey…”
    Ember cut off her father’s sentence. “I know you care about him. I think you viewed him as the son you never had. If you want to keep following him, by all means do it. Please, please, don’t involve me in on it. My heart can’t take it anymore.”
    Her father sat back in his chair for a moment, chewing on his upper lip. This was a classic sign that he was thinking. It wasn’t so much the lip he was chewing on, but the mustache that covered it. There was more he wanted to say, more that he wasn’t sure Ember wanted to know. Looking at the struggle on his face, Ember broke. She sighed heavily.
    “Tell me, daddy. Tell me whatever else it is that you’ve found out. Then once you’ve said your peace we need to drop it. Okay?”
    His head dropped to his chest, and he took a long deep breath. “Maybe we can save it for another time?” He asked lifting his head and his eyes hopeful.
    “Fine, Daddy, but when you do tell me that’s it. Okay? Promise me.”
    He nodded his head sadly. “I promise.”
    They stared at each other for a moment before Ember’s mom’s voice broke into their private conversation. Her mom strolled in carrying a fussy Hudson in her arms.
    “I think someone wants their mommy,” she smiled sweetly at her.
    Taking her son from her mother, she kissed him on each cheek. Smiling down at him, Ember talked softly and soothingly to the miracle that she brought into the world. A miracle she’d worried might have been lost to her just as his father was. A miracle that looks so much like the pain of her past.
    A sigh filled the quietness that settled around her and her son. She looked up and saw her mother with tears in her eyes. A small smile played on her