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“Rhia just asked me if you were angry because she gave me her nasty germs.”
Logan reared back and shook his head.
“Of course not, munchkin.” He stepped over to them and ruffled Rhia’s curls, before he held his arms out. After a momentary hesitation Rhia all but jumped at him. Hannah collapsed back against the settee, and his chest started to ache again. Maybe he should see the doctor and get himself checked out. This couldn’t be normal.
“Not your fault at all, but those pesky germs. Besides, you do a fantastic job helping me look after Hannah, and you know what? We really ought to tuck her back up in bed. Gonna help me do that, munchkin?”
“K.” Rhia squirmed to be put down, and pulled at Hannah’s hands to get her off the settee the minute her little feet hit the carpet.
“Come on, Mummy.”
Mrs. Offrey gasped, Hannah’s eyes went wi
de, and Logan’s damn heart felt like it was about to burst out his chest bone. The only one who didn’t seem at all perturbed by what she’d just said was Rhia herself.
“Daddy, help me.”
Another punch to the gut, right there.
“You heard Rhia, Mr. Bryce. Do take care of your wife. I have all I need for today, anyway. Regarding the other matter, we were discussing before…” She paused and pulled a leaflet out of her thick file. “This will explain what will happen next. Also, the person in question has stressed that the child this concerns ought to stay where she is.”
Logan shut his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, it was to see the other woman smiling at the three of them.
“There is still a lot of red tape to wade through, and evidence to collect, but I’m reasonably certain this matter will be resolved with the best interests of the child in mind, and that will always be a place where she is loved and cared for.”
Mrs. Offrey stood up, gathered up her belongings, and extended her hand. This time Logan took it.
“It was enlightening to meet you in person, Mr. Bryce. Mrs. Bryce, I hope you feel better soon.” She smiled at Hannah and then got to her haunches to address Rhia.
“You look after your new mummy now, won’t you, sweetheart?”
“Yes, Miss.” Rhia mumbled her reply, and Mrs. Offrey straightened up.
“Right, I’ll see myself out. Good luck, all of you.”
With that she strode from the room and it was only with the click of the front door heralding her departure that it shook Logan out of his temporary stupor.
“Right, you heard the lady. Let’s take care of you, Mrs. Bryce.”
Chapter Eleven
Hannah was dying. In fact, she had to be dead already and burning in hell. That was the only explanation for the shivers that wracked her body, the stabbing pain in her throat, and the way she was coughing her lungs up. Then again, would she have need for lungs if she was dead? And would it hurt this much to breathe?
She forced an eyelid open and promptly shut it again. Hmm, maybe not hell. Surely that would be dark and red, not this bright light that increased the pounding in her head. From somewhere a deep voice registered, and that annoying beep which sounded like a jackhammer in her head got faster, more insistent. She whimpered at the pain.
Make it stop. Please make it stop.
“Nurse, get your ass in here now. She’s waking up, and she’s in pain.”
That voice again, rough, gravelly, with that deep command which sent a flurry of activity around her. The hairs on her arms rose in response to the air displacement around her. Maybe she was in heaven, and she was floating? She flinched as something cool touched her forehead, and tried to turn away, but that just made her head thump even more.
“Hush, little dove, lie still. Let the nurse take care of you. You’ll feel better soon.”
That sounded like Logan, but that made even less sense. If it was him, he didn’t sound like himself at all, all choked up and just, well odd, as though he cared, and she knew he didn’t. Not in the way she cared about him, not in the way she needed him to. Tears rose behind her closed eyelids, as she drifted back off to sleep. Every time she struggled back to consciousness that crushing weight on her chest got heavier, as she recalled what led up to her being here, in this hospital bed. She finally realized that’s where she was, hooked up to machines and with oxygen tracks under her nose. Hospital made so much more sense than dying. If only she could remember why she was here. She’d been ill, she remembered that. Rhia’s virus, the visit by the social worker. Logan’s fury at hearing his brother had to all intents and purposes abandoned Rhia, and his utter bafflement when she’d said he loved Rhia.
Hannah woke up with a start, silent tears running down her face. That horrible weight on her chest had gone, at last, but her heart was breaking in two.
With a clear mind came the realization what she had to do. To stay in this marriage, when Logan would never return her love, it hurt too damn much. Rhia was getting too attached to her as it was. That moment she called her Mummy…
