Page 79 of Don’t Open Your Eyes

She had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. She saw Chase glance over at her from the corner of her eye. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, quite sure. Not only that, but we found your daughter’s backpack in the house as well.”

Annabelle’s pulse raced. “So that means—”

“It appears as though Chase Sommers is the one who hit your daughter.”

Scarlett

Dad and Olivia hadn’t found her mother. Her dad kept trying her mother’s cellphone.

“Maybe she went to get you something special,” he said to Scarlett. Before she could answer, her grandparents walked into the hospital room, and she smiled as they approached the bed.

“Darling,” Gram said. “Thank goodness you’re awake.” She kissed Scarlett on the cheek. Her grandfather went to the foot of her bed, picked up her chart, and read it. “Looks good,” he said to James, then came over to her.

“You had us very worried, young lady!”

“Sorry, Grandad.”

“Mom and Dad, would you take Olivia up to the cafeteria and get her something to eat?”

“Oh, okay,” Gram said, looking surprised.

After they left, James pulled a chair up next to her. “Scarlett, I know you wanted to wait for Mom, but you need to tell me what happened. Who was this boy you thought you were texting? Who did you think you were meeting?”

She started to cry. “My brother.”

“What are you talking about? You don’t have a brother.”

“Dad, I did the 23andMe test. I forged your signature on the waiver. It came back with a match to a sibling on Mom’s side. She had another child before me. Did you know that?”

He was looking straight ahead, not speaking, a look of pure shock on his face.

“Dad? Did you know that?”

“It must be a mistake.”

“I have the report. But it wasn’t Ben at the café. It was some man. I don’t understand. But there is someone out there who’s my brother. I guess Mom gave him up for adoption or something.”

“Your mom didn’t give a baby up for adoption. But—” James stood up and started pacing. “The baby died.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us? What happened?”

He sat back down on the bed and took her hands in his. “It was before your mom and I were married, and um…it was complicated. We were friends at the time. I was with her when she delivered. The baby died.”

Scarlett shook her head. “That’s just it. He couldn’t have died. I found him!”

He put his head in his hands. “Oh, Scarlett. What have you done?”

Annabelle

It took everything Annabelle had not to react to the news that Chase was the one who had hit Scarlett. She had to get out of this car! But they were on the highway and she couldn’t just jump out. She had to pretend everything was okay. She modulated her voice and acted as though she was talking with James. “I’m with Chase now. I’ll ask him to bring me back to the hospital, James.” She didn’t end the call but turned the volume down. Maybe they could track her phone and find her. Or maybe she’d watched too many police shows on television. “That was James. I need to get back to the hospital right away. Something’s going on with Scarlett,” she bluffed.

She couldn’t get a breath. She put the window down and leaned out to get some air. This couldn’t be happening. How could she have so badly misjudged Chase? He’d made her feel so comfortable. She had poured her heart out to him, told him things she’d never even told James.

“Take me back, now!”

“Okay, okay. But we still need to talk about Lucas.”