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“He only does one cheek,” she defended.
Like that was a good thing?
“One’s ample. Are you sure you’re not happy he’s been arrested? I mean, it’s one way to get rid of him—”
“No! Aoife, I don’t want him locked up for something he didn’t do. I-I…” Jen heaved a sigh. “You won’t believe me.”
“Babe, I didn’t think you could kill someone, but I believe that,” I said carefully. “Trust me, I don’t think there’s much you could say that would surprise me.”
“I love him.”
She loved him.
I stared at her for a second, wondering if she’d started talking Urdu or something and I just hadn’t realized it, but before I could even say a word, the dizziness and the spots dancing in front of my eyes turned into an all-out Irish jig.
There was no longer only one Jen looking up at me—there were five.
Suddenly, the muscles in my body that kept me seated upright seemed to turn to soup, and I felt myself falling forward just as that stabbing sensation in my belly morphed like the knife was being twisted and my insides were being attacked.
When the darkness came, and it brought with it some relief from the pain, I embraced it but it wasn’t a total blackout.
I almost wished it were.
I still felt like my stomach was being torn apart but it was muted, like a shadow of the full sensation.
Jen caught me under my armpits. It hurt as she struggled to settle me on the ground. In the background, I could hear Jake sobbing, and I realized that was why the blackout wasn’t total.
I could hear him.
He needed me.
As I tried to force myself to stir, to find out what the matter was, I heard Jen muttering something under her breath, and Jake stopped sobbing like his heart was breaking.
The waves of pitch black started coming in thick and fast as I smelled him—that sweet scent that was the baby cologne I sprayed him with and baby wipes—and I knew she’d brought him to me. Something that was confirmed as he started playing with my hair.
As he tugged on it hard enough to hurt, a moan escaped my lips.
Pain lashed at me with barbs that dug into my flesh and, eyelashes fluttering, I slurred, “Probably…call—Finn,” and that was the last thing I remembered.
