Their housekeeper, Janie, walked in from the kitchen with a stack of mail. She clutched several envelopes to her chest, her eyes filled with dread and worry.
“What’s the matter, Janie?” Susanne asked, her voice urgent.
“I’d forgotten to get the mail earlier and went out to retrieve it now. There’s something odd. Is Brooke sick?”
Susanne set her fork down with a clatter on her plate. “No. I don’t think so. Why?”
“There’re several statements from the insurance company and a hospital addressed to her. And this.” She held up the cream-colored envelope. “A card from a funeral home.”
“What?” Susanne snatched the mail from Janie. “Thank you.”
Janie walked away, leaving the family to deal with their own business.
Cody’s stomach went tight as Susanne opened the first envelope, scanned the statement, pushed her plate away, and tore open another envelope. Then another. And another. And another, until they were all spread out before her on the table.
She opened the card and tears fell from her eyes as she covered her gaping mouth with her fingertips, making Cody’s heart race.
“Susanne, what is it?”
She held out her hand, waving her fingers in a gimme motion, her gaze filled with a panic that set off all kinds of alarms inside him. “Your phone. I left mine upstairs. Give it to me.”
Cody handed it over into Susanne’s shaking hands. She tapped at the phone, fumbled the number, and had to try again. She held the phone in a death grip as she listened. “Voicemail. Voicemail. Damnit, Brooke, answer the phone. Answer the phone.”
She dialed again and listened, then slammed the phone on the table.
He snatched back his phone. “Susanne.” Even his sharp tone didn’t get her attention as he tried to see what the statements said without pulling them out from under Susanne’s hands.
Openly crying now, Susanne shook her head from side to side.
Kristi’s gaze bounced from him, to her, then back again.
Cody’s gut twisted, his chest so tight he could barely take in a breath. He desperately needed Susanne to tell him what happened. “What’s wrong with Brooke?” His mind spun tales of what might have happened to her. Everything his mind conjured scared him half to death.
“This can’t be true.” She slammed her hands down on the papers. “This can’t be true!” She picked up the papers. “Blood work. A gestational diabetes test.”
He didn’t know what that was.
“Obstetrician visits.”
Oh God.Cody’s mind reeled as his stomach knotted.
“This is why she hasn’t come home for months. Not for a weekend, or her birthday. This is why she planned to stay with Mindy Sue for a few weeks before coming home after she graduates. All this time…she was pregnant.”
With my baby. It has to be mine.
Wait.Was pregnant.
Cody went stone still.
Tears streamed down Susanne’s face. She held up the card. “Condolences on the loss of her child.” Misery filled her every word. “This can’t be true.”
Cody felt the cold reality of it sink into his bones, like claws biting into him.
“No!” he wailed and swept his arm across the table, sending his plate, wineglass, and silverware flying across the room and shattering on the floor.
Kristi flinched and stared at him, eyes wide with shock.
He grabbed the papers and tried to concentrate and sort out what he read in black-and-white, but couldn’t seem to take in as real.
