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“Good gods, how many more of them are there?” I moaned, looking at Rachel.
“I think this is the last of them,” she reassured me with a laugh. “But it’s good news, right? The more information we have, the easier it will be to track everyone down.”
I shifted the pillow behind my back and turned back to the files I’d been looking at, peeking at Ash through the glass of the office doors. His face was intense, eyes dark as he spoke, and I wondered if he was getting anywhere with the Library of Archives.
“Are you having second thoughts about doing this, Briar?”
Rachel’s voice brought me back into the room.
“Second thoughts about finding our sisters?” I demanded. “No way! Why would you ask that?”
The guards set the boxes down and led the others silently outside, leaving Rachel and me alone. This office had been set up specifically for me and my research into my family. It was behind Rachel’s front office and next to Ash’s inner one—a part of his larger structure, but a room he rarely used.
Right now, it was filled with hundreds of wayward pieces of paper from Barney’s files and research material that Rachel had dug up on her own.
“I don’t know. You just seem a little… out of sorts lately,” Rachel commented.
“Well, I’m carrying around a watermelon that likes to kick my bladder several hundred times a day,” I joked, gesturing at my ballooning belly. “It’s hard to get comfortable, and proper sleep is a distant dream.”
Rachel eyed me. “Is that it?”
I sighed and put the paper that I was holding down, wishing that Rachel wasn’t so astute.
“No,” I admitted. “I’m not sure if we’re doing the right thing by looking for them.”
I blurted it out without meaning to, but Rachel didn’t judge me.
“Why the change of heart?” she asked simply.
I frowned and looked away.
“Because…” I sighed. “Because knowing now what Barney was, who knows where these girls ended up? He didn’t care about the babies any more than he cared about their mothers.”
Rachel offered me a sympathetic look. “You’re disheartened because of the birth mothers we’ve located of the other sold children,” she murmured.
I swallowed, shame consuming me. “Some of them would have been great moms,” I whispered. “I guess there is some consolation in knowing that most of the kids ended up in loving families. But the birth mothers didn’t even get a chance to know they’d been taken advantage of.”
“The ones who died can’t be reunited with their children now, Briar, that’s true. But the ones who are still alive have the opportunity to connect with their kids. We can’t do anything about the past, but we can do our best to make this right. That’s why we are doing this, right?”
I gave a half-hearted nod as Ash sauntered into our office, wearing a peculiar expression on his face.
“I just got off the phone with the Library of Archives,” he told me.
We looked at him expectantly.
“They’re turning over all records pertaining to Dr. Madison’s ‘adoptions’ by the end of the week.”
Rachel chuckled. “It pays to have a powerful mate,” she told me, winking.
The phone began ringing in the front office, and Rachel jumped up to answer it, leaving Ash and me alone.
“Are you making any progress with finding your sisters here?” he asked, sitting down next to me.
His hands automatically moved to caress my stomach, and I relaxed under his touch.
“I’m not sure. Everything is such a mess,” I sighed, throwing my hands around as if to prove my point. “And frankly, I’m worried about opening Pandora’s Box.”
“Rachel ended up in a great family,” Ash reminded me. “And the other children we tracked down seem to be doing well.”
