Page 69 of Until Nalia

“Really?” She glares at me.

“Babe, you got pissed at me the first time we met because I told you I wasn’t charging you for repairing your Bronco.”

“Yeah, and I told you I don’t like owing people.”

“And I never said you owed me.” I close the dishwasher after loading the last of the plates inside.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t feel like I have to repay people when they do me a favor.” She makes air quotes.

“Then I guess that’s something we’ll need to work on since it’s rare that people do a favor for others expecting something in return, and I for sure don’t want shit back when I do something for you.” I cross my arms over my chest as she continues to glare at me.

“Do you expect to get paid when you return your cart at the store?” Nico asks her.

“No.” She rolls her eyes.

“What about if one of your sisters asks for a favor? Do you expect them to pay you back?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why would you think that anyone else would expect different from you?”

“I don’t know.” She tosses her arms in the air. “I just don’t like it.”

“Do you feel like you owe Daddy and me when we help you?” Sophie asks gently, and she swallows as she turns to her mom.

“I…” She shakes her head. “You guys do a lot for me.”

“No more than we’ve done for any of your siblings when they have needed us over the years.”

“Yeah, but they came into the family with a clean slate.” She instantly pales, the admission obviously catching her by surprise, while Nico’s head jerks back and Sophie gasps.

What the fuck.

“You didn’t come into the family owing us shit.” Nico’s gruff voice breaks through the heaviness that has filled the silence of the room. “We didn’t do you a favor by adopting you or your brother. Neither of you were some kind of charity case to us.”

“Can we talk about this another time?” she asks with her voice shaking. It kills me to stay put and not walk across the room and pull her into my arms when I hear it, but it’s obvious to me that this is a conversation that is long overdue, and I don’t want to intervene.

“No.” Nico’s jaw clenches. “How long have you felt like this?”

“Dad.”

“How long?” He clips, and I tense.

“I don’t know.”

“Jesus.” He drops his head back to his shoulders. “We didn’t have to sacrifice anything for you, Nalia, not happiness, not time, not money, but we would sacrifice everything we have for you and your siblings.”

“Dad.”

“It kills me that you’ve felt like we did you a favor by bringing you into our family and that you never told us.”

“I’m sorry.” She looks between her parents. “I’m just grateful for everything that you’ve done for me, for the life you gave me and…” She swallows. “And I know that I will never be able to pay you back for that.”

“There is nothing to repay us for.” Sophie reaches for her daughter’s hand as tears fill her eyes. “You have given us so much more than you could even understand, and we are so lucky to be your mom and dad, Nalia. You and Sage made our family whole.” She pulls her into her arms. “And like your dad said, we didn’t do you a favor by adopting you or Sage; we adopted you both because we wanted to add to our family, and the stars aligned and brought you two to us,” she whispers as Nico wraps his arms around both women.

“We love you.” The pain in Nico’s voice is hard to hear as a dad, but it’s also hard to hear as the man who has come to care about the woman standing in front of me, who obviously needs to work through some shit that she hasn’t dealt with. I had assumed that her childhood could have played a role in why she is so guarded, but hearing that she thinks that she, in some fucked up way, owes her parents for adopting her guts me.

Wanting to give them a minute alone, I step out of the kitchen and almost bump into Zuri, who is hidden around the edge of the doorway.