“Hi.” Her lungs stopped working. Why couldn’t she ever get over this reaction she had to children? Lots of people lost babies. It didn’t stop them from living. “I’m looking for Theo Lapierre. Is he home?”
“Yep,” she said bouncing up and down, opening the door wider for Chelsea to enter. Turning, she yelled, “Daddy.”
Daddy. He had a child. And she didn’t. How was that fair?
“Thanks for dropping her off, Angie,” Theo’s voice drifted in from the kitchen.
“It’s not Angie,” the child yelled back, then glanced at her again, her expression puzzled.
“Who—” Theo stopped in the doorway, holding a child’s lunch box, his eyes wide and almost…scared.
“Chel.” Their eyes met and something passed between them that hadn’t been there this past week. What was going on? Was it because she showed up at his house? Was the scantily clad mom going to show up next?
The sound of a car pulling up front and a door slamming roused her from the trance she’d been in. Theo seemed to realize it too as footsteps pounded up the stairs.
“Sorry I’m late. I—” The blonde woman from the lake pushed through the screen door.
Before the apology could be finished or introductions made, Theo shoved the lunch box into a small mermaid backpack, then thrust the bag into what she assumed was Angie’s hands.
“Time to go, peanut, or you’ll be late for daycare. Love you.” He all but dragged her to the door.
“Daddy.” The little girl’s face twisted comically. “You know I can’t go until you kiss me.”
Theo’s eyes flew to Chelsea, and fear radiated from them. Leaning down he reached for the child, who tipped her head and giggled.
“You know where.”
He planted a kiss on the child’s neck. Not exactly what you would expect, but…Chelsea raised her hand to her own neck, then stared at the girl. Yes, there it was. A heart-shaped birthmark. Like the one on her neck. And her mother’s. And grandmother’s.
It had been Theo’s little joke. It showed him where to kiss her.
Ice filled her blood, and her heart pounded so viciously in her chest she barely saw the woman and child leave. How could this be? She’d wished and dreamed for so long that there had been some mistake and her baby was still alive. Almost four years old. That’s what age her child would be now. About the same age as the little girl who’d just left.
The child who had a birthmark exactly like hers. Theo’s face swam in her vision as the room spun in circles. Her baby was alive. And she’d been with her father this whole time. The world went black.
Chapter three
WhatwasChelseadoinghere at the house? Had she come for Jordan? Five days of cleaning the trails without a word about their child and suddenly she shows up here.
After hustling Jordan and Angie out, he turned back to the woman who’d changed his world in so many ways. Color drained from her face as she stared out the door, then her eyes rolled back in her head. What the heck?
Her body crumpled, and he caught her before she hit the floor. How had she lost so much weight? Pushing her hair out of her face, he touched her forehead, then felt for a pulse. Rapid and strong.
“Chelsea. Chelsea?” Should he put her in the SUV and get her to the hospital? Who knew how long it would take for an ambulance to get here? He tapped the side of her face, and she began to stir. Thank God.
Her eyelids fluttered open briefly, closed, then opened again, panicked.
“My baby. You have my baby.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as her voice cried out.
“Chelsea, what…?”
“You stole my baby!” Her shoulders rose and fell as sobs ripped from her lungs. “She’s alive. How could you do that to me?” Her cries echoed loudly through the room as her body trembled.
“What are you talking about?” What was happening here? Why was she hysterical? “I didn’t steal anything. You wanted nothing to do with her.” The day Jordan had arrived here was ingrained in his mind.
Rearing back, Chelsea’s eyes narrowed, then glazed over, focused on the doorway Jordan had walked out of. “They told me she was stillborn. That she died.”
Stiffening, it was his turn to stare. Was this true?
