Page 16 of Island of Secrets and Scars

Her heart sped, pumping fear through her veins. “Yes, you will,” she bit out. “Because I’ve got nothing for you, and you can’t stay here.”

She didn’t wait for his response. The capability to keep her emotions contained had long passed. She pushed past him and raced out of the clinic. As soon as she made it through the door of the hospital, she ran. It was only a matter of seconds before the dam inside her broke, and she wanted to be as far away from Ian and Keso as possible when that happened. She ran, legs pushing, arms pumping until her feet met the sand, and her sobs made it too difficult to breathe. Dropping to her knees, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and the emptiness she still felt there after six years. When she closed her eyes, she saw Ian, his gaze haunted and dark as he sat with her hand in his at the side of her bed in Africa. She’d stopped herself from asking if their daughter was okay, because the devastation in his eyes had been answer enough. As she’d rolled away from him, ignoring the pain that raced through her body at the movement, she’d been surprised the pain registered at all when she’d felt as if she were already dead.

She opened her eyes now, forcing herself to see something other than that makeshift hospital room where she’d come to years before and the sad eyes of the doctors who’d been her friends and yet unable to save her unborn child. Tears slid down her dirty cheeks and though she tried, she couldn’t contain her sobs. Cramming her fist into her mouth, she screamed—against the pain she felt then, against the loss of her child, the man she’d loved, and the life she’d planned. And now she screamed against the fear of losing Arabella and the uncertainty of how to face Ian. She braced herself and let the storm inside her rage. Then she wiped the tears from her face, smearing the day’s blood across her skin. Pushing to her feet, she began the trek to her cottage to shower before she would return to her daughter.

Through her turmoil, she didn’t see the shadow of a man who watched her at the edge of the trees.