AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Forty-one
Heidi stands in the middle ofthe street, crying and issuing apologies to all within earshot. “I’m so sorry,” she mutters repeatedly.
“This wasn’t your fault,” Maggie assures her.
Heidi looks toward where Mark stands on the grass in front of his grandmother’s house, Julia’s protective arms around him. “I don’t know what to say,” she tells him, “except I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what got into Aiden.”
Mark nods. “Not your fault,” he mutters, echoing Maggie’s sentiments.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Julia asks her grandson, caressing his long hair.
“Yeah. Just a little shook up. How about you? You look kind of pale. You’re not going to pass out, are you?”
“No, darling.” Julia takes a deep breath to still the rapid beating of her heart. “At least, I hope not.”
“Give me your wrist,” Nick Wilson says, kneeling beside her. “Let me check your pulse.”
“Okay, kids,” Olivia says to the three young boys giggling nervously on the sidelines. “Five dollars to whoever picks up the most pieces of pie. And no putting any of it in your mouths,” she calls as they rush off before she can finish the sentence.
“Five dollars?” Sean asks. “Isn’t that a little extravagant?”
“We’re a two-income family again, remember?” Olivia says.
Is she being sarcastic? Sean wonders, watching Maggie’s daughter, Erin, as she hovers by Mark’s side. Stupid girl almost ruined everything. Just his luck she was at MacArthur Beach on Monday afternoon, a beach he’d specifically selected because no one he knew ever went there. And that’s the beach she had to pick! He shakes his head, knowing that he’ll have to be more careful in the future. He can’t risk any more sightings of his “clone.”
“Your beautiful pie,” he hears Erin moan.
“It’s okay,” Mark tells her. “I made two.”
Erin smiles, laying a gentle hand on his arm.
“Are you really only sixteen?” he whispers out of the side of his mouth.
“Does it matter?”
He grimaces. “Yeah. It kind of does.”
Erin withdraws her hand, glares at her mother.
“Heartbeat’s a little elevated,” Nick says to Julia. “Which under the circumstances, I’d consider perfectly normal. Maybe someone could get Mrs. Fisher some water?”
“I’ll go,” Olivia volunteers, disappearing inside her house and returning with a full glass.
“What about you?” Maggie asks Heidi. “How are you doing?”
“It’s Aiden’s baby,” Heidi says. “I swear it is.”
“Of course it is. I know that.” Maggie spins Heidi around to face her. “Listen to me, sweetheart. Your mother-in-law is an evil witch. She got Aiden all riled up. What happened here is not your fault.”
“I can’t go back to that house. Not with her there.”
“You don’t have to go back.”
Tears fill Heidi’s eyes and spill down her cheeks. “I have nowhere else to go.”
“What about your parents?”
“There’s no one.”
