Claire’s POV
I had barely processed the news before George rushed toward me and crushed me in his embrace. Whatever hesitations he had previously shown toward me were gone in an instant, and he held me like he was proud of me, like we had been reunited after a long time apart.
Maybe this was true, but it was all new to me. He might remember holding me as a baby, but I was unaccustomed to being so easily accepted.
“My darling daughter,” he said, and his voice was wet. That alone, among everything else, was enough to bring tears to my own eyes.
I lifted my hands, pressed them to his back and held him as tightly.
“Too many years I’ve spent without you,” he whispered. “I had been so sure you perished like your mother. But now you are here. You are here and I am blessed once more. And wi
