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“Of course I do. There is nothing about my family I do not know. You are family, Lila, however unfortunate.” She crossed one ankle over the other and sighed. “I’ve kept my eye on you, just to make sure you didn’t cause trouble for Sebastian. I was delighted when your brother took it upon himself to solve my little problem. I even helped him. And still, he couldn’t get the job done. Such a disappointment.” She tsked softly. “And now here we are.”

I had a bad feeling about where here was.

“I wish there was another way. Truly, I do. But I know my son. He would follow you to the ends of the earth. Which means, I’m afraid, that you must leave it.” She rose and came toward me. “I’ll top you off now. Don’t worry, dear. You won’t feel a thing.”

I wasn’t worried as I watched her slide a needle into my vein. But, oh, I was sad. I would be nothing but stardust and Seb would still be flesh and blood. This would break him. I didn’t want him to break. I didn’t want to leave. I loved him so much. I tried to fight, tried to move, but I only sank deeper into the darkness.

And then there was nothing.

38

SEB

“Mom? What are you doing here?” I paused, confused, in the doorway of Lila’s room, then stepped inside.

Her fingers moved at Lila’s neck, like maybe she was brushing her hair from her jaw, and then she straightened, running her palms down the pockets of her wool pants before she turned to face me. “I told you I was coming, Sebastian.”

“You said next week.” I dragged a hand through my hair. I loved my mother. I did. But damn, I didn’t need this right now. Mom had a way of sucking up all the attention in a room, and I wasn’t interested in catering to that shit right now. For the next few weeks, Lila was getting one hundred percent of my focus.

“Honestly, Sebastian. You cannot tell me that Lila is in danger and then expect me to sit idly by. I go where I am needed. Of course I’m here. You don’t have to endure this alone.”

I frowned. Had I told her Lila was in danger? No, I didn’t think so. But I’d been frantic to get off the phone, and my mother was an astute woman. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to talk herself into believing there was a crisis only she could solve.

“How long has she been asleep?” I asked. Mom stood between me and the hospital bed, and I couldn’t get a good look at Lila’s face.

“She only just drifted off.”

I took a step closer and shifted toward the foot of the bed to verify Lila’s condition for myself, but Mom waylaid me with a cool, pale hand on my arm.

“Don’t pester the poor girl,” she chided in exasperation. “She needs to rest, and that’s hard to do when nurses are waking you up every hour to check your vital signs. Why don’t we go to lunch?”

Shaking my head, I dropped into the plastic-and-chrome chair and grimaced. If Lila intended to keep landing her sweet ass in the hospital, maybe I would invest in a portable cushion. “Go ahead. I told Lila I wasn’t leaving the hospital, so she’ll expect to see me when she wakes up. I already grabbed a burger in the cafeteria.”

“I see.”

The movement of her fingers toying with a pearl button on her blouse caught my attention and sent my eyebrows flicking upward. Mom wasn’t a fidgeter.

And she was still fucking standing there. I was starting to get twitchy, not being able to see Lila’s face. Nearly losing her to her crazy half-brother had that effect on me. But what was I supposed to say? Please move so I can watch my wife sleep for the next couple hours in a totally normal, not creepy way?

“Well, then, we might as well make ourselves useful,” Mom said, and I stifled a groan. Useful was her highest praise, followed closely by productive. “Let’s go have a chat with the nurses and make sure everything is up to par. They might also be able to tell us what she’ll need at home. I can stop in town and pick up whatever she needs.”

Well, shit. Now I felt bad for wanting her gone. “I’m sure Lila would appreciate that.”

“She’s family,” Mom said with a little sniff.

My eyebrows went up again. When I first introduced them to Lila, Mom had tried to convince me to get an annulment. “Really,” I said flatly.

She waved a hand. “Oh, I know we have a complicated relationship. I suppose you think I’m the wicked mother-in-law in all this, but I’ve only ever had your best interests at heart.” She moved toward the door with brisk strides. “Are you coming?”

There’s my girl. The knot of tension in my chest eased somewhat at the sight of her. She was safe. Sleeping peacefully, her body completely still except for the slow, nearly imperceptible rise and fall of her chest.

“I’m coming.” I followed her to the door.

Lila doesn’t sleep peacefully.

Intuition prickled the back of my neck and down my spine. My gaze shifted to Lila again. Earlier, her sleep had been fitful. She’d tossed and turned and whimpered.

“Sebastian,” Mom said impatiently.