My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides. A child. I could’ve been a father. Damn it. Everything our entire lives could’ve turned out differently if I had only known.
I stepped back, dragging my fingers through my hair as the realization weighed me down. My mother... it was her. She had orchestrated it all. She was the reason Zinnia lost the baby.
“I would’ve protected you. Both of you,” I said, the words grinding out between my teeth, my eyes fixed on Zinnia. “I would’ve found a way to keep you safe no matter what my mother tried.”
The anger ran hot beneath my skin, pulsing through me and tightening the dull, hollow ache in my chest a strange kind of grief that didn’t seem to have a proper place.
Tears streamed freely down Zinnia’s face.
“You don’t understand,” she choked out. “I
