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I nodded. None of the children we had located were deceased and appeared to be thriving—at least superficially. However, Barney’s ledger was outdated, and tracking down the other children proved to be more time-consuming than I had expected.
Perhaps it was the impending birth of our daughter that made me feel as if we were on the clock, but I grew more disheartened every day that Rachel and I didn’t find our sisters while simultaneously wanting to leave the matter in the past.
“Uh… guys?”
We raised our heads as Rachel shuffled into the doorway, her face pale.
“What is it, Rachel?” Ash asked.
She stared at me, dazed and unspeaking. I struggled to stand up, and Ash immediately moved to help me. A hand cupping my belly from beneath my maternity dress, I waited in uneasy anticipation for Rachel to speak.
“I just got information on Annabelle… our mother,” she mumbled. “I know where she is.”
Epilogue
ASH
Ilooked desperately for Rachel and found her talking quietly with Bea—another one of Briar’s sisters—in the kitchen.
I met Rachel’s eyes, and she must have seen the desperate worry on my face.
The bond between Briar, Rachel, and Bea had blossomed since they reunited, but not all the sisters were ready to rebuild the bridge with their biological family and only maintained minimal contact.
The irrevocable damage Barney had done could never truly be fixed, but with time, his victims’ wounds were starting to heal.
When all was revealed to her, Briar’s mama, Annabelle, had moved back to MacShire, and she gladly accepted our invitation to live in our home. The reunion of mother and daughters was a major breakthrough in healing the damage from Barney’s actions.
“Would you calm down?” Rachel snickered, taking me by the arm and steering me out of the kitchen toward the stairs. “Your mate is doing great. Annabelle is up there with her. You can trust her. She’s been a midwife for more than two decades, and she is your mate’s mother, after all.”
“I thought rabbits were supposed to have quick births,” I said, and I tensed again, thinking something was wrong.
“I promise you, Ash, she is fine. The issue is that stubborn demon bloodline fighting to remain comfy cozy in the womb,” Rachel said, but her words didn’t offer any comfort.
“That’s it,” I grumbled. “I’m going in there.”
“Come on, Papa,” Rachel chuckled, steering me into the study. “Just close yourself off in here, and I’ll come get you when Annabelle says you’re allowed upstairs.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t get in the middle of Annabelle’s process. Briar wanted her mother there for the birth, and I would give my mate anything she desired.
I caught a blur of movement out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned to capture it, it was gone. I was exhausted, mostly emotionally so, but it didn’t surprise me that my eyes were wearing me down.
Gritting my teeth, I looked around the study for something to occupy my time. At the back of my mind, a memory tickled at me, fleeting, like déjà vu and gone just as fast.
A knock on the door propelled me toward it, but to my disappointment, it was only Draven.
“You left your cell phone in the living room, sir,” he announced. “That’s the second time in as many minutes, sir,” he informed me.
Nodding, I closed the door and eyed the screen suspiciously. Unknown numbers could mean many things, but in the middle of the night, it rarely meant anything good and, on the night that my daughter was due to be born…
I ignored it, tossing the phone onto my desk and flopping onto the chaise. The vibration stopped and started again.
Someone was persistent.
Now my curiosity was piqued, and I was irked. I reached for the phone as the door flew open.
“It’s time!” Rachel exclaimed, motioning for me to follow her.
Forgetting about the phone, I rushed toward the stairs as Rachel bounced ahead of me. As I neared the door, all the tension I had been harboring immediately burst through the dam into full relief.
