Chapter : 844
Judy’s POV
The drive home was longer than expected; Gavin kept glancing at me periodically like he expected me to just vanish at any moment. I felt like I might if I were to be honest with myself. I felt like I was about to sink into the chair and allow the world to swallow me whole. I felt breakable, like I might shatter if touched.
I didn’t expect my conversation with Cora to end the way it did. I’m not sure what I was expecting… but to be the heiress of the Blackwell family, it was a little bit too much for me to handle. I felt a bit sick to my stomach at the very thought of it.
That meant my family… my birth family… had been right under my nose the entire time, and Lila was meant to be a Montgomery… not a Blackwell. That didn’t sit right with me either; I loved my adoptive parents. They were everything I needed and then some… I knew Lila would never appreciate them the way I did. Then again, maybe she would be different if she grew up with them.
Then would I be different as well?
I wouldn’t need to make money because I would have the Blackwell fortune, so I wouldn’t need to work as a tutor to Matt, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten to know Gavin the way I did.
Would Lila be the one who worked for Gavin? Would she be the one he fell in love with? Had a baby with?
I felt green at the thought and a bit woozy.
“Where did you go?” Gavin asked, reaching over and taking a gentle hold of my hand, bringing me back to the present moment.
I blinked a few times and looked over at him.
“I just got lost in thought,” I admitted. “Things would have been so different if we had never been switched.”
He frowned, and I felt his thumb tracing small circles on my knuckles.
“But you were switched. You shouldn’t be thinking about the what-ifs.”
I knew he was right, but I couldn’t help myself.
“It could have been her you fell in love with—”
“I’m going to stop you right there,” he said a bit too sharply. “Because I could never fall in love with anyone else other than you. You are my mate, and I don’t think your upbringing has anything to do with that. No matter what life we live, I will always find you.”
My heart swelled at his admission, and tears suddenly filled my eyes. He glanced at
me, a smirk playing on his lips.
“Are you crying?” He asked, teasingly.
I felt my cheeks heating as I wiped away the tears.
“Pregnancy hormones,” I said with a choked laugh.
“Mhm,” he said, clearly not believing me, but he had a smile on his face, which caused a smile to form on my face as well.
When we pulled into the villa lot, I was surprised to see Nan’s car in one of the parking spaces. The moment was out of the car, Nan rushed down the front steps of the villa and towards me. Her eyes were wide with worry and Lcould practically see the anxiety rolling off her in waves.
Before I could open my mouth to say anything, her arms were wrapping around me,
and she was pulling me into a tight hug.
“Judy, you had me worried sick,” she breathed. “How could you not answer your phone? I called you like a million times.”
I frowned at her words as I pulled back. She was pale, and it was clear she was stressed. I hated that caused her worry but wasn’t sure what I had done to make her worry so badly.
I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone, trying to turn it on, and I frowned even deeper.
“Sorry, I guess my phone died,” I informed her before shoving it back into the bag and turning to look at her.
She tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear and peered at me with glossy eyes, making my heart feel even heavier in my chest than it had been previously.
“Is everything okay?” I asked her. “Is it Emalyn? Chester?”
Suddenly, panic was seizing me, and I was coming up with the worst scenarios.
“They are both fine,” she told me, waving off my concern. “But Erik told me where you were going and why, and I was beyond scared that something would happen.”