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Suddenly, I was alone.
Well, not quite.
I was alone with Marianne.
I stood awkwardly in the center of the room for a few moments, suddenly unsure of what to do with myself.
Did I sit down in Tony’s armchair to wait? Put on a movie, like I’d planned to suggest? Sit at her bedside and hold her hand?
None of it felt right.
Instead, I moved to the window and peered out the blinds. In the parking lot below, a car pulled up alongside the building. A woman with a stroller approached it as a man got out of the driver’s seat. He kissed her cheek, then helped get their toddler into its car seat.
A sharpness caught in my chest, like my heart had snagged on barbed wire. Even from three stories up, I could feel their happiness, could see they were in love.
That’s what we could have had, I found myself thinking. What we should have had.
But we’d never gotten a chance.
“Xander?” a voice rasped behind me.
I drew in a sharp, quick breath as my heart jumped.
When I turned, I saw Marianne’s eyes were open. They darted around the room as she tried to lift her head.
“Marianne! You’re… you’re awake.” I gasped, rushing to her side. “Don’t get up too quickly. Take things slowly. I’ll go get a nurse and—”
As I tried to move for the door, she reached out and caught my wrist with a surprising strength.
“Xander,” she hissed, squeezing so hard it hurt. “My son. Where is he?”
“He’s… he’s in Las Vegas, Marianne.” I tried to tug my wrist away from her, but she held fast. “Please, let go of me. Everything’s going to be okay. You’ve been unconscious for a while now, but Tony is here, and Dylan’s just in the bathroom—” I turned to the door again, raising my voice to a shout. “Nurse!”
There had to be a call button around here somewhere. My heart raced as I scanned the frame of Marianne’s bed. Her nails dug into my skin.
“Las Vegas. Why?” she demanded. “Tell him to come back. Come back now.”
“We can call him in just a moment, Marianne, but first, you need to calm down.” I met her eyes. “You’re hurting me.”
After a moment, her grip relaxed. I found the call button a second later and pushed it several times.
“The boys. The boys are in danger,” Marianne said, her voice scratchy but still full of urgency. “You have to believe me.”
“We know,” I said as Dylan burst from the bathroom, shirtless.
His eyes widened as his gaze fell on us. “Mom?”
She barely gave Dylan a glance. “You know?”
“After you were attacked, Melony Houghton came to Morrow Manor. She took the boys,” I explained. “We have Rylan back with us now, but Ryder—”
“So, they’re already gone.” Her chest heaved. She closed her eyes. “How long—”
“You’ve been out for about two months. The boys were taken… twenty days ago, I think.” I glanced to Dylan, sorrow roiling inside me for him. He hadn’t moved toward the bed. Marianne still hadn’t acknowledged his presence.
“Where’s your phone?” Marianne asked me. “Call him. Call Xander right now. Vegas is just a distraction. A waste of time.”
I frowned, reaching into my pocket. “What do you mean?”
