Chapter 74. Family Long Forgotten

Liam

I don’t even have time to answer before I’m engulfed in a sea of arms, hands clutching at my shoulders, my face, everywhere they can touch.

“I can’t believe it,” someone says. “It’s really you.”

The warmth of their bodies, the scent of their skin—it’s all so familiar, so achingly home that it knocks the breath out of me.

My throat tightens while I try to focus through the emotions crashing inside of me like tidal waves, trying to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks like they’re threatening to. A few of them fall without warning, hot as they streak across my skin.

I’m pulled into hug after hug, people I haven’t seen in close to two decades squeezing me tight. Their faces that I’d once lost to my mind blocking out those memories for my own sanity are now coming back in full force, hitting me hard.

It’s hard to breathe through but oh, goddess, I’m afraid they’ll disappear if I let go.

“You’re alive,” I whisper, my v