I back up slightly, so she can see me while I speak. “No God I want anything to do with would kill a baby to punish you. Just as he wouldn’t kill my baby to punish me. Don’t you remember what you said to me all those years ago?”
She shakes her head, wiping her tears. “I wasn’t in the best place that day.”
“You said, God has a plan for each one of us and one day I would understand why things happen the way they do. I didn’t get it at the time, but losing my daughter led me to Nevaeh. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Susan smiles softly. “She’s the best thing to happen to me too, along with her brother and my husband.”
“Then why would you treat your kids the way your mom treated you? Nevaeh’s tried for so long to be the perfect daughter, to live up to your ridiculous expectations, meanwhile, you of all people know firsthand about not being perfect and being exiled and punished for it.”
“I know,” she sobs. “I know it’s my fault. I just didn’t want my children to live with the pain and regret I had to live with. I tried to make sure they would never be in the position to make the same mistakes I made.”
“By making them live with guilt and judgment? By makingthem feel like they weren’t ever enough? Nevaeh deserves to know everything.”
“You’re right,” she says. “I know you are. I just wished I had realized it sooner, before I lost Stephen.”
“Well, you haven’t lost your daughter yet. But if you don’t tell her the truth, you will… Nevaeh deserves to live, and I’m going to make sure, even though I don’t deserve her, she lives and loves and is happy.”
THIRTY-ONE
NEVAEH
The first thingI hear when I come to are monitors beeping. I must be in a hospital… Why am I in a hospital? I try to think back to the last thing I can remember, but everything is fuzzy. And then it hits me.
Meeting with my dad and mom.
My mom storming out.
Texting Rosco.
Felix kidnapping me and stuffing me in a trunk.
My brain feeling like it was going to explode and then me blacking out.
Does the beeping mean I’m alive? Have I been sold? Did Ethan find me?
The only way to find out is to open my eyes. With great strength, I wrench my eyes open and look around. Ethan is sitting in a recliner, his head back, and his eyes closed, sleeping.And he’s never looked as beautiful as he does right now.
I clear my throat and his head pops up, his red-rimmed eyes flying open. “Angel,” he breathes, standing and cutting across the room to my side. “You’re awake, baby.”
I nod, my voice too scratchy to speak.
“Here, have some water.” He pours some into a glass and helps me take a sip. “We’ve all been so worried about you,” he says, dragging a chair over to sit next to me. “You’ve been asleep for three days.”
When my eyes go wide, he explains how I was found on the side of the road and was brought in. I suffered a concussion and some brain bleeding, and it took a little longer than they thought for the swelling to go down, but it finally did, which is why they woke me up.
“Oh, Nevaeh!” My mom comes barreling into the room and envelops me in a hug. “You’re awake.”
Tears stream down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done. I love you.”
“Mom,” I choke out. “What’s going on?”
“I have so much I need to tell you,” she says. “I should’ve told you a long time ago.”
“Let’s give her a few minutes,” Ethan says.
I expect her to argue, but she just nods.
Ethan stands, so she can sit, and he goes out to get the nurse to check me out. After she asks me a few questions, she tells me the doctor will be in shortly to assess me further.
