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Sam had been taken to Radiology to clear him of any spinal injuries, while Max and Maddie waited alone in an exam room in the Emergency Department, sitting side by side, their hands clasped together.
Her hand trembled slightly, the events of the entire evening getting to her. It was so fantastical…yet, even before she asked Max the question, she knew it was true. She felt it in her gut, in her soul. Max Hamilton really was her brother.
Maddie glanced up at him and smiled. Max was right. They did have the same eyes, an unusual hazel that had a sunburst gold pattern around the pupil surrounded by an iris of greenish brown. When she had first met Sam, he had called her Sunshine because of her eyes, saying that the pattern around her pupil reminded him of the sun. Later, he said he called her that because she was the light in his life.
Max squeezed her hand a little tighter. “It’s true. I had to be sure before I said anything, but I felt it in my gut. I knew the moment I saw you that you and I were somehow related.” Pulling his hand from hers, he dug his wallet from his pocket and sifted through it, extracting an old photo, a small picture resembling an old high school photo. “This is our real mother,” he explained, handing the photo to Maddie. “It was her high school graduation picture. You look so much like her.”
She took the photo, examining the youthful face and carefree smile. The woman did look like her, with flaming red curls and hazel eyes, her features very similar to her own. “Is she still alive?” she asked curiously. “Have you met her?”
Max ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “No. She died in the late nineteen-eighties, a car accident with husband number three who was drinking and driving.”
Maddie had never known the woman. Still, she felt a sense of loss. Maybe she had always hoped that someday her real mother would find her, that the woman who had given birth to her had actually wanted her, but had had to give her up. Admitting to herself that shehadprobably hoped for that rose-tinted scenario, Maddie knew it was the reason she had never really dug much into her records or tried to look for her birth mother. If she didn’t know the truth…there was always hope, right? In her youth, the illusion that her mother would look for her eventually had carried Maddie through foster home after foster home, desperately clinging to the hope that her parents had actually wanted her but couldn’t keep her, that they had actually loved her. Later, she had simply no longer wanted to know the truth, her heart battered and bruised from too much rejection and hurt.
Fingering the picture, Maddie answered softly, “I don’t know much more than the fact that her name was Alice Messling and my father’s name was Victor Dunn. Obviously they weren’t married and both of them were barely eighteen,” she mused, staring at her mother’s photo. “Do you know anything else?” Maddie questioned, ready to hear the answers. She had Sam now…and Max. Whatever was in the past wouldn’t hurt anymore.
Max took her hand again as he answered, “They weren’t married when you were born, but they married before I was born. You were two years old and I was an infant when our father died. He was hit by a car when he was on his way to work one morning, leaving our mother with nothing except two kids and no money, no way to survive.” He sighed heavily before continuing, “From the information I could piece together, she had to give us up. I like to think she was thinking about our wellbeing. She went on to marry two more times, probably because it was the only way she could survive.”
Turning toward Maddie, a remorseful look on his face, he added, “I didn’t know, Maddie. If I had known, I would have moved heaven and earth to find you. I was lucky. I was adopted almost immediately. My parents were already wealthy and I was completely spoiled while you were passed around the system. I’m so fucking sorry.” His voice cracked with emotion and regret. “I thought I was alone after my parents died.”
Maddie looked into his contrite eyes, her chest aching from unspent tears. “I didn’t know either. It’s not your fault, Max. I’m just glad you’re here now.” And she was happy; her heart was overflowing with joy.
She had Sam, she had a brother, and she had friends who cared about her. For a woman who had once felt unwanted, it was everything she had ever needed.
“Me, too, Maddie. I want to get to know you, to be a brother to you. Will you let me?” Max asked hesitantly.
Tears flowed down her cheeks as she looked at her compassionate, caring brother, still looking incredibly handsome even though his tux was somewhat wilted. “Of course. I’ve always wished I had a sibling,” she told him wistfully, releasing his hand and wrapping her arms around his neck, clinging to him as though the bond had already been sealed. From day one, Max had brought out her protective instincts, a need to soothe his pain. It might not happen today or tomorrow, but she was determined to see him happy again in the future.
Maddie sighed as Max’s arms came around her, pulling her into a fierce hug. “Finding you was something I never expected, but I’m grateful. I just wish I could have found you earlier. I hate what you went through in your childhood. It couldn’t have been easy for you.”
She clung to him, tears streaming down her cheeks, already sensing that Max was a man who felt deeply.
Oh, Max. You need to heal. I can feel so much pain inside you.
Maddie could feel Max’s loneliness in the desperation of his embrace. Her brother was in pain, but she could do nothing except hold him tightly, hoping her joy in finding him could somehow touch his empty soul.
“Hey…take your grimy paws off my fiancée.” Sam’s teasing growl sounded from the door. Max and Sam exchanged grins, both of the men looking relieved that they didn’t have to brawl anymore.
Maddie released her brother, turning to Sam with a worried frown. “Did the doctor say you could be walking?” she asked, her voice admonishing.
Her heart did a happy dance as she looked at Sam, still in tuxedo pants covered with a hospital gown. He was battered and bruised everywhere, but he had never looked so good. His smile was slightly pained and his normal fierce stride was slower from the pain of his injuries, but damn, he looked good, especially since she had feared he had been badly hurt, or worse.
He gave her a wicked, lopsided grin. “Yes Dr. Demanding, he did. I made him come to Radiology to look at the x-rays immediately. I wasn’t staying strapped on the damn uncomfortable board any longer than I had to be.” He walked toward her slowly, and gave her a lingering kiss on her cheek.
Maddie’s breath hitched, wondering how an innocent kiss could feel so sensual.
Because Sam’s every touch is filled with intimacy and it gets to me. Bad.
“So you’re throwing your financial power around again, making the medical staff do your bidding?” Maddie asked, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. She was fairly certain Sam hadn’t asked the physician politely. Sam had demanded…and because he was a generous donor to the medical facility, he got whatever he wanted.
“You’re a doctor, and it’s never worked on you,” he muttered, disgruntled.
Maddie folded her arms in front of her, lifting a brow as she met his gaze. “That’s because I’ve been onto you for years. That charming smile doesn’t work with me,” she informed him, trying to keep a straight face.
Honestly, she could barely refrain from throwing herself into his arms and clinging to him until she convinced herself he was going to be okay. Memories of him vaulting onto that railing and leaping over a treacherous drop to get in front of her to protect her kept haunting her brain over and over like a horrible nightmare. What guy did something like that?
A man who cares about me more than his own life.
“You love me. You know you do,” Sam said huskily, a teasing yet vulnerable timbre in his voice, the back of his hand smoothing over her cheek as he said it.