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I broke down, my body racked with emotion. I didn’t like to fucking cry, but I couldn’t hold any of this in. It was too much.
I came away with my brother’s hands on my face. He wiped away the tears. “Maybe you should sit down.”
I wanted to, but I knew something I wanted more. “Have you heard from Dorian?”
He blinked. “Dorian?”
“Yeah. He tried to call me yesterday, but that’s when Dad grabbed me. I need to talk to him. I need to see him.”
He couldn’t make this better. He couldn’t make these feelings, this fear disappear or anything else. He could help though, and I needed to tell him something. If my last twenty-four hours told me anything, it was that there wasn’t time to waste moments.
Every minute means something. Every hour. Every second.
Those were Dorian’s words in one of his notes, and it was time I started living too. “Can I use your phone? I need to call him.”
My brother let go off me, scanning my eyes. He directed a thumb toward the door. “Dorian… Dorian’s here.”
I shot back. “What?” How was he here? I mean, how did he even know I was here? I just got here myself. “Did you tell him I was coming here?”
My brother just looked at me, his head cocked. “The whole world knows you’re here right now, Sloane. They’re following your story, and the only reason that door isn’t bursting down is because Callum had the hospital secure the whole floor and parts of the hospital. Dorian and his family showed up not long after that. They came for you with the Ambroses, Reeds, and…” He pocketed his hands. “Well, the Mallicks. At that point, the hospital was already secure, and from what I understand, things got pretty heated when the families found out. The news is saying they’re talking to judges and getting the courts involved so they can physically come in here and…”
My brother’s words drifted off, my hand up. I raised the other one. “Why would they all come here?”
“Well, for you, of course.” My brother’s mouth parted, his eyes narrowing. They flashed. “Did Lucas not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“We’ve been informed that Baby Girl Mallick is somewhere in the facility.”
I turned toward the television. It was a reporter who’d spoken.
My brother was watching the news. Well,
at least he had been, and what I saw on the screen caused my brow to jump.
I was on the screen, the video recording from only moments ago. Lucas was rushing me inside this hospital while photographers snapped my photo and reporters stalked me. The footage reported what had just happened outside, and since I was there, the footage didn’t surprise me. I mean, Lucas said they were there about my story.
I eased away from my brother and took a seat when I read the caption on the screen. It said Mallick Baby Girl Found, and in the right half of the screen, the news put a picture. The image was a little baby in a blanket, and on the blanket was something I hadn’t seen in years.
I used to wear a charm bracelet my parents gave me. I’d worn it, but I’d lost it one day, and the sole charm on it was fastened to the blanket.
I reached toward it, as if I could physically touch the charm, but ended up sitting back and refocusing on the whole screen. For some reason, the news was running the image of the baby next to the feed of me racing inside the hospital with Lucas.
“I don’t understand,” I said because I didn’t. Why were they putting me next to this baby? Why were they running that caption?
The seat beside me sunk down, my brother quiet. He put a hand on me. “Sloane—”
“Why are they showing this?” I asked, and the next image I recognized. It was the picture Wells and I had talked about, Ares’s parents and the two babies. One of them was him, the other his twin. I blinked. “Why are they showing Ares’s twin? That’s disrespectful. Why are they showing that?”
The girl was… gone. He hadn’t said how, but I’d assumed, in the moment, she’d passed. He’d been talking like that was the case, so showing her now was completely disrespectful.
My brother’s throat jumped. “You know about her?”
I did, but not really. I mean, I’d just found out.
I faced the screen, and my brother squeezed my shoulder.
“They’re saying that’s you, sis,” he said, my heart pounding. “That girl in the photo? Ares’s twin? They’re saying that’s you, and that you’re a missing person.”
