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“Then she smiled and said that was just fine and threw her arms around my neck, kissed my cheek, and ran back to her toys. She never failed to surprise me with the things she would say or do.” Her mother sounded so soft, so loving.
“I think she still surprises you,” Bliss said softly. “She told me once when I asked her about her mother that she lost her momma. And she looked away. Talking about it hurt her. Like talking about her hurt you.”
How had Bliss known that? Angel wondered. She thought she’d been so very careful.
“How did you know she was your sister?” Chaya asked as Angel felt a feathery caress over the top of her head.
“The knife,” Bliss said softly. “She was cutting a pizza box with the knife and it turned just right. It was like the word on the blade just jumped out at me. It was the same knife in the pictures. I knew who she was right then.”
Angel drifted closer to the surface, desperate to be a part of the laughter and warmth she could feel around her now.
She liked this, though. They weren’t watching what they said; they were talking and including her. She liked that very much.
“Every time I saw her, I could feel her hiding from me, lying to me,” Chaya said then, her voice low, but so gentle. “When she tried to tell me who she was, I couldn’t speak. I thought it wasn’t possible. She couldn’t be Beth, but I wanted her to be. I wanted it so bad I couldn’t speak for the need. And I was just too damned blind to see the truth.” That soft caress to her brow was light, but it sank inside her.
“She told me once that when she was really little, she heard her dad arguing on the phone with her mom. That her dad was really mad and wanted her mom to come pick her up, but she wouldn’t. She thinks you didn’t want her, Mom.” She was going to have to be careful what she told Bliss in the future. The girl told her mother everything, it seemed.
“That’s not what happened, Bliss. She was supposed to be in Canada with my sister. I had no idea she was in Iraq or even with Craig until one of my agents rushed to the hospital with the news.” Why did Chaya sound so sincere? So sincere that Angel couldn’t make herself disbelieve her. “My agent had to fight the guards to get to me that day in the hospital. When she told me Craig had my baby in that old hotel, I went crazy!” Her mother’s voice hitched. “I died with her that day. For years, Bliss, I was a ghost, running from myself, from your father, from the knowledge I’d failed her. . . .”
“Don’t cry, Momma. We have her now,” Bliss whispered. “She’s here with us and we’ll make her understand. She’ll know you tried. And she still loves you so much. And you just know Dad is going to adopt her. Before you know it, she’ll be fighting with him just like I do.”
“And how do you know that, sprite?” Love whispered through Chaya’s voice, warmed Angel, pulled her closer to wakefulness.
“She told me so,” Bliss revealed. “She said there were three people in the world that she loved above all things. A man on her team, a sister that didn’t know her, and her mother. Now who do you think she was talking about?”
Jeez Marie. What the hell? Couldn’t that girl keep a damned secret at all? Someone gag her already. . . .
“Shhh.” She tried to shush her sister before she completely spilled every word Angel had ever told her. “Shhh.”
For a moment, silence filled the room. She didn’t want that. She wanted them to talk, to remember again.
“Uh-oh.” Bliss giggled. “I’m in trouble now.”
Not in trouble, Angel thought. Never in trouble. But she might have to explain the sister rules to her baby sister.
“Angel, are you awake, little baby?” her momma whispered softly, her fingers against her forehead. “Wake up for Momma now.”
She didn’t want to wake up, not yet. She wanted to hold this to her for just a little while longer. Just for a bit, so she could pull the warmth around her, inside her.
She realized, though, the wounds that had once been so torn inside her soul weren’t as ragged anymore. She wasn’t as cold as she’d once been. Duke was there, she thought, content with that knowledge. And he’d slowly been drawing the edges of those wounds closer together.
“She was going to leave and never come back the day those guys tried to take me,” Bliss said, her voice soft, so soft Angel had to strain to hear her. “I could hear it when she came to tell me good-bye. That was why I was so angry with you that night.”
Angel knew she’d tried so hard to keep Bliss from knowing that. She hadn’t wanted her sister to miss her, just remember her; that was all.
“We’ll find a way to get her to stay.” Her mother sounded so fierce, so determined. “I don’t know why Craig brought her to Iraq, or why he murdered my sister, but I’ll find a way to make her believe me. I never would have left her with that bastard. . . . I never would have left Jenny with him either.” Her voice hitched again. “Oh, Bliss, I would have saved that baby if I could have. Both of them. I never would have let them be separated if I had known. . . .”
But hadn’t she known?
Angel had heard Craig on the phone. He told Angel and Jenny when he hung up that Chaya was a bitch. She thought no one wanted her, not even her momma.
Had he lied to her? Had he just wanted to hurt her? She had screamed at him to take her and Jenny to her momma, over and over again.
“Sweet baby,” Chaya whispered, brushing a kiss over her brow. “No matter what happens when you wake, take this with you. I always loved you. And I would have loved Jenny more than you know. You have always been my sweet little heart. . . .”
She drifted closer, forced her eyes open, and stared up at her momma’s face. Damp with tears, her brown eyes soft and filled with love.
“Momma . . .” She sighed, fighting to hold her eyes open, to hold this vision as long as possible.
