“Can I get you anything?”Desi asks.
“My boy.” I choke and have to walk outside to get some air. I stand in front of the treehouse Ember spent all night building. Brody screamed in excitement when he saw it. He kept blinking to make sure it was really there.
I was terrified the first time he climbed into it, but hearing his shrieks eased that for me.
“Come on in, Mom. This is the best treehouse I have ever seen,” he’d shouted.
“I have no idea if we can both sit in there, Brody. What if I’m too heavy.”
“We did the calculations. This treehouse can take Luke, Ember, and me.” Of course, they did.
“Okay, then.” I caved and climbed in, one ladder step at a time. I felt light-headed when I made it up, and it wasn’t even that high. I had to sit in a corner with my eyes closed for a few minutes to gain my bearings, but when I finally opened my eyes and saw my son grinning, it was all worth it. We talked about how awesome the house was and whether I thought Ember would come and help him paint it.
It would have a red door and blue walls. The inside would be green, and he just had to have three small bean bags and hisboredgames, as his father used to call them.
I climbinto the treehouse the way I did the day before. I don’t think I can face anyone right now. I just want to be alone, not hear Grady and Grant’s angry voice or see the fear in the eyes of the women. I want to sit in here and wait for my son to come to find me. And he will. Ember promised me that he would bring my boy home.
I curl into a ball on the floor; the tears burn my eyes. I gasp and choke and curl myself tighter.Oh, please keep my baby safe. I don’t know who I’m praying to, but there must be some force of good out there. I’m not a religious person, and I didn’t believe there was any good in the world for a long time after Drew died, but I made it through five years, my heart opened up again, enough to fall in love. That tells me good still exists, and goodness will wrap itself around my son right now.
“Oh, Drew. I wish you were here right now. You’d know exactly what to do,” I say out loud, then let the tears fall.
My eyes fly open. “You wouldn’t sit around waiting for someone to bring your son home, would you?”
I climb down the ladder and walk quickly around the house, making sure not to be seen. If Grady sees me leaving, he’ll follow after me, and that was the last thing I needed. That could jeopardize everything, but if she has a weapon, if she hurts Ember, my son will be alone, and that isnotsomething I am willing to risk.
Chapter 24
Ember
She’s sitting on one of the rocks close to the water, and Brody isn’t anywhere that I can see him, not even in the car. I glanced into it as I made my way closer to her.
“Katie,” I venture. “Are you okay?” I want to ask her where Brody is, but I know that I have to play it cool. She was unhinged, and anything could set her off.
“Come, sit with me,” she slurs, and I know she’s been drinking.
I sit next to her. “We haven’t just sat like this in such a long time, Ember. Do you remember when I first came to town? I was just passing by on a road trip with the girls. Then I met you, and it was love at first sight.” She leans against my arm.
“I do.” I smile down at her.
“It can be that way again, can’t it? We can be happy again, you and me and our son.
I close my eyes and swallow. “Katie, we can, we can be happy, but this boy, he isn’t our son.”
“But he could be. He loves you already. I can tell by the way he speaks about you. He could love me too when he gets to know me.” She smiles at me, her eyelids drooping.
“Where is he, Kitty Kat?”
She looks at the waterfall. “I didn’t mean for Bailey to die, Ember. When we got the DNA results, and Alex realized that the baby wasn’t his, he said such hurtful things,” she sobs.
“He didn’t really love me, not the way you did. But I knew that I’d burned that bridge.”
I don’t respond because she did burn that bridge. I wouldn’t have ever left her and my boy, but I could never forgive a woman who just up and left in that way.
“I tried to revive him, you know, I tried and tried, but I couldn’t. I called Alex, and he told me how dumb I was.”
“It was an accident, Katie.”
“But we can start over now, the three of us.”
