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“Either or,” I murmured. “Stay with them.”
“I will, dear. I will,” she lied.
I reached up with my hand—at least it moved this time—and caught her hand. “I’m not kidding.”
She patted my chest and said, “I know. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Why did I not believe a word that came out of her pretty mouth?
“Promise me,” I ordered.
“I’ll keep an eye out,” Braxton offered.
“You’ll go fuck yourself,” my mother snarled.
Apparently, more had happened.
I couldn’t wait to hear.
But right now… I was getting super tired.
As in, if I didn’t close my eyes, I might very well die.
• • •
The next time I opened my eyes, the pain was much better. Or, maybe more under control.
That and my eyesight was clearer.
I looked around the room, and there wasn’t a single person inside it.
Well, not that I saw.
Until I heard… a baby cry?
What the fuck?
I turned as best as I could toward the sound to see a baby in the bed with me.
An actual child.
In the bed.
With me.
“Hello?” I croaked.
What the hell was going on?
“I’m in the bathroom!” I heard my mother cry.
Okay, well I wasn’t alone. But that didn’t explain the child in the bed with me.
The toilet flushed and then there was my mom, looking frazzled.
“I never thought that I would be a mother again at sixty, but here I am, barely doing it.” She pushed her sleeves up and sighed.
“A mother?” I asked in confusion. “What?”
She moved so that she was next to the bed, then stared down at me.
“There’s a whole story here,” she said. “How much do you remember?”
“Leaving your house with a ring in my pocket, getting sideswiped on my bike… then waking up here telling Luce she needed to be guarded,” I said. “Not much.”
“Well, it goes like this.” She took a seat on the side of my bed, looking down at me with worry in her eyes. “We got the call that you were in the hospital from some nice man that said he was Luce’s best friend, Matilda’s, dad. We hopped on this super big boat that looked like it was military. Then we rode to a helicopter. Which dropped us straight off here. When we got in the door, it was to be told that not only were you just out of surgery, but that Braxton refused to take care of the child that he created. He said he was going to drop it off at the fire station at his first opportunity.”
That dick.
“That explains the kid.” I shook my head. “How long have I been out?”
“Four and a half days.” She sighed. “This little one was just released today. I’m not officially the guardian until Braxton decides to pull his head out of his ass. Which I don’t think is going to happen.”
“Weird.” I looked down at the now quiet child. “What about the mother?”
“The mother is in jail for running you over with her car.” She paused. “Did you know that Braxton took a life insurance policy out on you when you were in jail?”
“No,” I admitted. “But it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Well, that’s exactly what he did,” she said. “And the girl, after this supposed hit was called off on you, decided that the next best thing was to collect your life insurance claim. Which, by the way, is nuts.”
My brother was an asshole. What could I say?
“Your dad is with your wife,” she continued.
I blinked. “Wife?”
“Wife,” she confirmed, making wide eyes at me. “Though, she had to lie through her teeth to save your life.” She blew out a breath. “We’ve disowned your brother.”
I blinked. “I kind of figured that seeing as you have his kid.”
I looked down at said kid again.
It was a cute little thing, it lay there, between my two broken legs, not realizing what a nutcase his mother was, or an asshole his father was.
“It is a he, right?” I asked.
“Girl,” she shook her head. “And we disowned your brother because when Luce made it to the hospital, your brother was trying to tell the doctors and nurses to stop doing extraordinary measures to keep you alive. He lied and said that you had a DNR when that didn’t work.”
I sighed. “Do you think he was trying to collect my insurance?”
“I don’t know what he was doing,” she admitted. “But what I do know is, I’m not going to be playing that game with him anymore. He’s, as of right now, I suspect, been written out of our will. That’s where your father is.”
“What about Luce?” I wondered.
“I’m right here,” she said quietly from the doorway. “I was getting a shower because your mother told me I stunk worse than the baby since I haven’t left since you got here.”
My lips quirked up at that.
That was my mom, always giving out her blunt statements, regardless of whether they were hurtful or not.
