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“Darlin’, calm down. I’m sure she’ll explain,” Brody said, and I glanced over at him. His gaze flung back and forth between Lola and Belle. “Let’s get her home so she can rest, and then we can all talk as a family.”
Lola blinked at him, and my hands drifted off Belle’s shoulders as she stepped away from me. I gazed back at her, wondering why she was moving away, but her head was down now, and her chest was heaving as if she was trying to hold her emotions in. I wanted to tell her she didn’t need to do that. She was home now, and I’d make sure she was safe—we all would.
“You didn’t think to tell me she was pregnant when you called me earlier?” Lola asked Brody, her hands planted on her hips.
Pregnant?
“It wasn’t my place to tell you,” Brody ground out.
“Mom,” Belle whispered, and Lola spun around to face her. Lola’s expression was a mix of anger, sadness, and relief, but I could also see the utter happiness in her eyes too. “I was going to call you,” Belle continued.
“You were?” Lola asked, stepping toward her. “When?”
“Before all of this happened. I’d…I’d charged my cell and was going to tell you I was coming home.” She paused, and I stared at the two of them, trying to read between the lies, but it felt like an impossible task. “I was going to tell you.”
“This is big,” Lola told her. “Really big.”
; “I know,” Belle replied, and her gaze flicked back to mine and away again. Gone was the Belle who had flung herself at me, and in its place was the Belle who was trying to hide. The same Belle who had won when she’d run away and not contacted any of us.
“I’m going to be a grandma.” Lola scrunched up her nose. “I think we need to find a better word than that. It makes me sound old.”
Grandma? What the hell was she—
I finally tracked the length of Belle’s body, and I stumbled, my back colliding with the wall. She wasn’t in pain when she was hugging me, there was just something in between us. I must have made a noise because both Belle and Lola stared at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I realized I’d felt like that a lot lately. I’d been floating on the wind with nothing to weigh me down, no purpose since I’d been back home.
“We need to take swabs before you leave,” Jord said, but his voice sounded far away. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, my pulse thrumming at an alarming rate.
Belle was pregnant. She was having a baby.
And every thought I’d had since I’d seen her drifted away. She’d been gone for six months, and she’d come home pregnant. And it was then I realized I had no idea what had happened that caused the team to go to her aid. I was thinking of her as if it was six months ago, when the reality was, time had passed.
She’d changed. But so had I.
“Ford,” Belle whispered, but I shook my head in response. I couldn’t listen to her. I couldn’t stand here any longer. She was hurt, bruises covering almost every part of skin I could see, and all I could think about was the baby she carried inside her and how she’d let someone else touch her.
It shouldn’t have hurt so bad, but it did. I rubbed my palm over my chest as Lola pulled Belle toward Jord so she could get swabs taken, and as soon as they were out of sight, I closed my eyes and tried to get myself under control.
“Ford?” Brody’s deep voice asked. “You okay?”
I snapped my eyes open and pushed off the wall. “Yeah.” Clearing my throat, I stepped toward him. “Just tired. I was up all night watching that house again.”
Brody nodded, but his lips were in a straight line as he stared down the hallway where the lab was. “I’m taking them home, but we need a meeting in the morning to go over everything.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe she’s back.”
I made a noise in the back of my throat, not sure what else to say. My emotions had spanned a width I hadn’t known was capable, and now exhaustion was setting in. It was early afternoon, and I hadn’t slept in nearly thirty-six hours. Maybe I just needed to go home and get some sleep. Everything would look better after that. I hoped.
“I’ll be here at nine,” I told Brody, stepping past him. “I’m heading home too.”
I didn’t stick around to hear what he would say. I wasn’t sure there was anything he could say which would explain the situation at hand. I’d been a fool to think Belle and I could pick up where we left off. I’d been living in a fantasy land, but I’d been brought back down to earth with a bang.
* * *
BELLE
The house looked exactly the same as it always had. The driveway was clear, the lawn cut, and the chime I’d helped my mom attach next to the front door was still there. It drifted as the wind flowed over it, and the sound of the wooden middle connecting with the chimes had my shoulders relaxing.
This house would always be home. It would always be the one place I felt truly like me. But so much had changed since I’d left here six months ago, mainly the fact that I was eight months pregnant…and also a killer. I winced at that thought and tried to scrub the images out of my mind, but it was impossible to erase Curtis’ pale face and dead eyes.
