The moment they were gone, Dakota kept her eyes closed, but the tears she had been struggling to hold back finally began slipping down her cheeks. She remained silent, her breathing uneven as everything she had been trying to keep buried came rushing back with painful clarity.
She had left Cooper behind at the Cross Estate because Ethan had been the one raising him since birth. At the time, Dakota had convinced herself that she was doing what was best for her son. She hadn't believed she could become the mother Cooper needed, and after everything that had happened in Silver Ridge, she had believed Ethan was a good father who could give Cooper the safety and stability she couldn't provide.
She had walked away without demanding her baby back because she had trusted Ethan to protect him.
But Ethan had never been Cooper's father.
That realization weighed on her now with a cruelty she could barely bear.
