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“Why’s that?”
“Because us being together is like mixing fire and gasoline. We can’t coexist.”
“We coexisted for years. Quite well,” he reminded her.
“That was before.”
“Before?”
“Justice.”
“Justice is all the more reason for us to coexist.”
* * *
Which was exactly why Brielle couldn’t even try. She couldn’t be her mother. Hadn’t she seen the devastation that forcing a man into marriage caused?
“You are welcome to see him. He misses you.”
“I miss him.” Ross raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Look, Brielle...” he glanced around the for once almost empty emergency department “...we need to talk. Not here. Not at your place with Justice there. Just you and me.”
“I don’t see the point.”
“Then give me the opportunity to show you the point.”
She sighed. As much as she didn’t want to have the conversation with him, she knew that eventually she’d have to. He was her son’s father and would always be a part of her life.
“Fine. We’ll talk, but I have to pick Justice up from his preschool after-care when I get off work, so not tonight.”
He seemed ready to argue with her, but the vibration of her cellular phone in her pocket and her pulling the phone out to check the number stopped him.
She rarely got a phone call at work.
The preschool.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Brielle, this is Rachel. I don’t know how to tell you this, but...Justice is missing.”
Brielle’s heart stopped. “Missing? What do you mean, missing?”
“We’ve looked every where at the school and can’t find him. He’s gone.”
Brielle couldn’t say another word, could barely stand. Her gaze met Ross’s concerned one and she held the phone out to him in a hand that visibly shook.
He took the phone. “This is Dr. Ross Lane. What’s going on?”
Brielle moved in a daze as Ross had her get her purse while he informed Administration that they were both leaving. Fortunately, it was close enough to shift change that their replacements were already at the hospital.
Wordlessly, she climbed into the passenger seat of his car, rode to the preschool with panic and fear foremost in her heart and mind.
Missing. Justice was missing.
Ross had called the police the moment he’d hung up from the preschool, reported what the preschool teacher had told him. Although not enough time had passed for them to file an official missing-person report, they were sending an officer to meet them at the preschool.
When Ross reached across the car seat and took her hand into his, she didn’t pull away. Somewhere in the horror of the moment she registered that his hand trembled. Yet she drew great strength from knowing he was there, that he was with her and she didn’t have to face this alone.
She acknowledged she was in shock.
