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.“I’ll always be your friend,” she said at last.“Forever?”Where did the kid get this forever-obsession from?“Forever,” she said.She’d never forget the two girls.Or their father.It was a safe promise to make.Lana yawned.“I’m going to ask Daddy to marry you.”Sylvie’s heart contracted.“Oh, honey.No.Please don’t do that.”“Why not? Don’t you want to?”Sylvie gulped down air, and tried to figure out what to say.Nothing intelligent came to mind.“Honey.” She put her arms around the child.“It doesn’t work that way.People only get married if they want to.If they love each other.Not because their kid asks them to.That wouldn’t be a good idea.”“Don’t you love us?”Kids, Sylvie sighed inwardly.Manipulative little heartbreakers.“I love all three of you.That’s not the point.”“So are you going to say no?”“Your father isn’t going to ask me, Lana.”“He won’t say no if we ask him to,” Lana said, her eyes wide and innocent, yet full of childish guile.“I know he won’t.”Oh, God.Sylvie felt despair well up from withi.Despair and sadness, and the need to fling herself into bed and have a good cry for about seventeen hours.She hoped and prayed Lana wasn’t right.“Lana,” she said firmly.“That is not how these things work.”The child’s eyes filled with tears.She tore herself away from Sylvie and ran into her room.Sylvie groaned as she heard the sound of sobbing.She gave herself a few minutes, then knocked on the door to the child’s room and entered.She sat down on the bed and took Lana into her arms.She struggled a bit, then rested against her shoulder, still hiccupping, her face wet with tears.“I’ll always be your friend, Lana,” she said.“No matter what happens.Forever.Okay?”Lana didn’t respond, but she didn’t pull away either.Her sobbing slowed down, and then her breathing calmed, and she was asleep.Sylvie debated with herself for a while – the kid was still dressed, and hadn’t brushed her teeth, but in the end turned off the lights, made sure the night-light was on, and left the door half-open.Her father could brush sleeping teeth when he got home.Nick closed the door into the girls’ bedroom.He took her hand and walked into the living room, where he wrapped his arms around her and hugged tightly.“Thank you,” he said into her hair.“Thanks for being here today.For helping me out.”“You’re welcome,” she mumbled into his shoulder.All sorts of feeling vibrated through her body.All she knew was that she didn’t want him to let go.But then he did.And she remembered Lana’s words, her innocent appeal, and the proposal she would undoubtedly suggest soon.She looked up into Nick’s eyes and tried to focus on what she saw in there.I am happy.For them – or for his girls?Nick touched her face, and she stepped back.“Lana had a total breakdown when she couldn’t find her sister,” she told him.Nick’s hand fell to the side, and she saw question in his eyes.She looked away, avoiding the answer.“I’m sorry.” Nick said.“I should have warned you.Lana’s very protective of her little sister.She does tend to panic if she doesn’t know where Emily is.”“Do you know why?”Nick shrugged.“She’s always taken the big sister role very seriously.I guess she feels responsible for Emily.”Sylvie sat down in an armchair.That way he wouldn’t be able to sit down next to her, and blast her good sense with the magnetic effect he had on her.She needed to tell him about Lana’s revelation.She wasn’t sure how significant it was, but he needed to know.Only problem was, this was none of her business.“Nick – we need to talk.”“I agree,” he said, and took a seat on the sofa.“Why don’t you move over here for our talk?”His eyes were glinting with mischief.It wouldn’t do.“It’s about the girls.”“What about them?”She took a deep breath.“Have you talked to the girls about their.paternity?”His head lifted.His eyes narrowed, and he looked angry.“What are you talking about?”“Emily.”“How do you know?”“Lana told me.”Nick looked down at the carpet.“I see.I guess I’d hoped they’d forgotten.”“She’s worried about losing Emily because she’s not your real daughter.”Nick’s eyes flashed in sudden anger.“Not my real daughter? They’re both my real daughters.I was there when they were born, both of them.I raised them.I changed their diapers and I will probably – God help me – be the one who gives them away at their wedding.They’re both mine.Equally mine.”“But not genetically,” she said.“Right?”“Yes.” His jaw clenched.“But it doesn’t make any difference.Not legally, not emotionally.My name is on both their birth certificates.I suppose you want to know what happened?”“No―““My wife cheated on me.” He shrugged angrily.“Not a fun admission, but it’s true.The marriage was over by then, but we decided to give it a try for Lana’s sake.” Nick recited this in monotone, detaching himself from it.“When Emily was a few months old, my mother commented on her eyes.Brown.My eyes are blue.So were Clarissa’s.I didn’t want to hear it.After all it can happen.It is possible for blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child, although it’s rare.But in the end I checked her medical file.Her blood group didn’t match mine.She couldn’t possibly be mine.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes.“I still didn’t want to believe it.The blood results are conclusive, and when I confronted Clarissa she didn’t deny it, but still, I had DNA testing, and when she was eight months old, I finally admitted to myself that I couldn’t be her biological father.”“Oh, my God.I’m so sorry, Nick
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