That was when I felt every single one of my brothers look at us with confusion on their faces, but it was Powers that asked with a raised brow, “Wait? What? Her mother is standing right here.”
Conleigh tilted her head back and looked up at me, “You didn’t tell them?”
“Figured that was your story to tell, Baby girl. In my eyes and everyone else’s, she’s yours.” I told her as I pressed a kiss to her temple.
That was when my woman smiled up at me, and then looked at my brothers, “I’m not Collins’s biological mother. My sister Hazel is. She didn’t want her. When she found out she was pregnant, she wanted to have an abortion. I talked her into having the baby and I would raise it. She didn’t even want to know if the baby was a boy or a girl. Hours after she gave birth, when I went to the bathroom, Hazel left. And I haven’t heard from her since.”
Every single one of my brothers had varying degrees of respect on their faces for my woman. I was glad that they didn’t feel as though they had been betrayed. They understood. Thank fuck.
And of how proud I was of her? I couldn’t even fucking tell you.
“How old were you?” Skinner asked.
Ever since he got with his woman, Harlow, he was talking a lot more and I was grateful for that. So fucking grateful.
“I was seventeen when we had that talk. The day after Collins was born, I turned eighteen. I went to a judge, and he granted me guardianship over her until I turned twenty-one. And on my twenty-first birthday, I celebrated that as being a mother. That was when the judge signed the adoption paperwork.”
“Damn you for finding her first,” Zeke grumbled.
Which had me smirking at him. Sucks to be you.
“Can anyone ask to be tested or…” I didn’t know how to word the rest of it.
“Yes, anyone can be tested. The more people that are, the more likely it is to find a match.” The doctor said.
With zero hesitation, I said, “Test me.”
And that was when every single one of my brothers stepped forward.
It was then that I felt Conleigh’s body shutter. “Y’all don’t have to do this.”
“Darlin’, you being my brother’s woman, says we get tested. But even if you weren’t his, getting to know Collins? I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t want to get tested. The world needs more people like her.” Lincoln said with a smile on his face.
Powers nodded and looked at the doc, “And if none of us are a match, we can place a call to our mother charter and the other MCs that we are allies with. They will get tested, too.”
After that, we all signed paperwork and got tested. Every single member of our charter and their ole’ ladies minus Michelle, who had stayed behind to watch the kids that were piled into Collins’s room for a Pokémon battle complete with every single Pokémon stuffed animal in a fifty-mile radius.
And a week later, when we got the results, I looked over at my brother as he signed his name on the papers. But he made them swear they wouldn’t put their hands on him until he was asleep.
He even told them that his ole’ lady would be doing his IV, so there was no need for them to touch him until he was unconscious.
This had all been relayed by simple words and only shaking his head in the negative when they tried to change his mind.
My brother wasn’t having it.
Even though my brother had been put through hell, Skinner amazed me at every fucking turn.
So there I sat on one side of Collins while the other part of my heart sat on the other side, holding her hand.
As for my beautiful buttercup, she sat there in the bed with a smile on her face.