Chapter 10
Three months later…
She had left him to deal with things alone, and this time DJ was determined not to forgive her. After a wonderful night of lovemaking, he had woken up to find his wife’s side of the bed empty. Well, at least this time she had left a note explaining why she had disappeared from his life. And to be honest, DJ was more upset with himself. He had asked Evie to raise Andrea’s baby with no consideration as to how she would feel about it. Evie had lost two children of her own, and here he was insensitively asking her to raise a child from a madwoman. It was still his child.
The little notes from ‘concerned’ claiming that he had a daughter had stopped. The letter had arrived a day after Evie had left. That piqued his interest. It was too much of a coincidence. It was either that someone had been trying to separate them and thought that they had finally succeeded, or it was all true and Evie had managed to silence them somehow. DJ’s suspicious nature had prompted him to hire a private investigator to look into it. Sure, the man hadn’t yielded results in finding his sister Rhyne, but he hoped he would have better luck with the mysterious notes and the baby in the picture.
Until he had more information he was in New York, trying to get on with his life the best way he could. Andrea had imposed herself on him. She had forcibly moved into his apartment and had already turned one of his four bedrooms into a nursery. DJ tried to have as little contact with the woman as possible. However, he did go to the doctor’s appointments and give her his credit card to shop for the baby. But her presence in his home didn’t feel right. Sometimes he would fade into a fantasy where it was Evie’s heavy with child, getting on his nerves with her pregnancy hormones and making unattainable demands. He had a feeling that he would have enjoyed that a whole lot more.
DJ walked into his office and immediately froze. His family was there—Reno, AJ and his father and godfather, and it looked like they had gathered for another one of their DJ interventions. “I’m not drinking, doing drugs or having orgies, so why exactly are we gathered here today?” DJ looked around the room and realized Catalella was nowhere to be seen. Katherine wasn’t usually part of the audience at these meetings, but it was odd to see AJ without her. In fact, DJ couldn’t pinpoint a moment he had seen her in the past three months. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Rich or Rosalinda either.
DJ’s sixth sense was the reason why he was a brilliant lawyer. It might have been disconnected in the past few weeks, but right now it was ringing loud and hard. Something was going on behind his back and his family was keeping it from him.
“Sit down,” Reno ordered.
“Don’t you have an empire to run, big brother?”
“I do, but my baby brother keeps getting into sticky situations.”
“I appreciate how patient you’ve been with me, considering…” After a side glance at his father, DJ opted not to finish the statement. “I’m not in trouble, so I don’t understand why you guys are here. Someone could be dying, AJ, and you are here.”
“My brother comes first,” AJ said.
“Great, now I have two big brothers.” Exasperated, DJ dropped into his leather office chair and ignored the sofa where Reno and his father were sitting. “My wife left me. She felt guilty about potentially keeping me from my baby. She loves me and wants me to fulfill my dream about being a dad. I’m not saying that my heart isn’t broken or that I will ever forgive her, I’m just saying that I am choosing not to deal with it. She always has a way of coming back to me—she came back to life, for fuck’s sake. So, no need to worry.”
“I threatened to sue the clinic for negligence,” Dennis Senior said.
“Why—”
“It was my idea.” Adrian’s senior cut him off. For some reason, DJ could never muster up the balls to argue with the man. There was something quite intimidating about him. DJ wasn’t sure if it was his deep baritone or his size, or the way he said ‘because I said so’ with just a look.
“Okay.”
“They gave me the security tapes. Honestly, I don’t know why they hadn’t destroyed them yet,” Dennis Senior said.
“No offense, I’m not trying to be rude, but can we move this along? In my opinion, I think we should all be at Adrian’s mother-in-law’s house, stopping Danny from making the biggest mistake of her life. But I guess my drama is more catastrophic,” DJ snapped.
“Andrea stole your embryos—or Evie’s embryos, I’m not quite sure how that works.”
“Sorry, what?” DJ was sure that he had heard wrong. “Could you repeat that?”
“My dad told me what they saw on the security tapes. I had the sample from the amniotic fluid tested against Rich’s blood, because Evie wasn’t here. They share genetic markers. And Andrea isn’t related to Rich in any way, so…” AJ handed him an envelope.
DJ didn’t bother opening it. He tossed it on his desk. He was dumbfounded, awestruck. He still couldn’t believe it; he couldn’t let himself believe it. Life always had a way of dangling good things in front of his face before yanking them away. Emotion gripped tightly around his neck and, with unshed tears clouding his vision, DJ turned his gaze to Reno. “Are you here for moral support or do you have a bombshell of your own to drop.”
“They found her,” Reno said.
“Rhyne?” DJ rose to his feet, his heart now pounding out of his chest, glad that there was a doctor in the room. All this news was getting a bit too much for him.
“No, not Rhyne. They found Sophie.”
“Sophie is dead, Reno.”
“No, your Sophie. We don’t have the details yet. The jet is fueled and ready on the tarmac if you want to find out.”
What the fuck!
* * * *
Three months ago, Evie had found herself balancing on a precipice. She had left her husband’s home, determined not to stand in the way of his happiness. She was being brave, Evie thought. It hadn’t been easy leaving him. Hours after she had left her home, she had found herself in a taxi on the way to the airport. However, she didn’t get there. Instead, she ended up at the E.R. Somewhere between getting into the cab and the emergency room, Evie had lost consciousness. Worried, the taxi driver had taken her to the hospital, and it so happened the closest one was Lennox Hill. When she came to, she was glad that it hadn’t been AJ or Katherine standing over her.
It was when she received her lab results that she had asked for Katherine. Evie had seen the shock on Katherine’s face when she had pulled the curtain back and found her there. News of her disappearance had spread fast, like wildfire, and she had only been gone for three hours.
“I should call DJ.” That had been the first thing out of her mouth.
“No, please. I need you to keep this between us,” Evie pleaded, “I didn’t even tell my brother I was leaving when I asked him for money.”
“Why?”
“Just in case life decides to step in once more and ruin everything.”
Katherine arched her brow and gave her an amused look. “Evie, you aren’t serious, are you?”
“If you can’t…won’t…be my doctor and keep the fact that I am still in New York a secret, I will leave.”
“Fine. What’s going on with you?” Katherine picked up the chart the nurse had left behind. She looked it over, and Evie watched as her normally slit eyes grew saucer wide. “It says—”
“Not out loud.”
“You are just like Catalella.” Katherine put the chart down and sat on the bed next to her. “Saying it out loud doesn’t mean that something bad is going to happen. It’s okay to be happy, to plan…your life is about to change. This is just a symbol of your love, it’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I’ve lost two children before. I don’t want to take the chance. I may sound silly, but it makes me feel better.”
“Okay.” Katherine hopped off the bed and donned surgical gloves. She turned on the ultrasound. “Lay back and let’s take a look. Do you mind briefing on your previous diagnosis?”
Evie’s heart had migrated from her chest and into her mouth. She could feel the hard thumping on her tongue. “My mother said that the doctor said my womb was destroying. That I would never be able to carry to term.”
“Hmph! Your mother told you?” Was all that Katherine said, before studying the ultrasound in silence.
Evie swallowed hard, her clammy hands gripping a fist full of linen. She was so nervous; her whole body shook. Katherine pulled the joystick away a couple of times and gave her a sympathetic look.
“You can sit up now.” Katherine pulled her gloves and lab coat off. “I know how it feels to lose a child. The sad thing is, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted my first one until I lost it. Rosalinda was there for me, and I guess I am here for you. There is a lot of scar tissue from your first C-section, but your womb isn’t destroyed.”
“I didn’t have a C-section,” Evie mumbled.
“I understand that you were in a coma for almost a year. They had to deliver your stillborn baby somehow.”
“No, you don’t get it. My mother said I miscarried in the accident…something about the impact.”
“Okay, do you remember the name of the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Later you can give me that information. Evie, there is a high chance that you will miscarry this baby. You have what we call a hostile uterus.” Katherine put her hand on Evie’s, and she held onto it for dear life. Evie felt like she was drowning and the only thing keeping her afloat was Katherine’s hand.
“Catalella had her twins.”
“The doctors told Catalella she was infertile because of all the chemotherapy and radiation she was going through. In your case,” Katherine sighed and shook her head. “It looks like someone cut you open with a butcher knife. At first glance, I could see the incision point. It’s the scar you have on your belly and it’s not from the car accident. Someone ripped that baby out of you, and the trauma and scar tissue on your uterus proves it.”
“Right now, I can’t—my mother…” Evie didn’t care about the past, about the baby that never was or the lies her mother had told. Right now, her mind was on this baby and the fact that its odds were so slim. “What do we do now?”
“I recommend bed rest. Your body has already been through a lot. You need to give yourself the best chance to carry this baby to term. But you are not alone. I am here to take you the rest of the way.”
“Should I tell DJ?”
“As your doctor, I’d say get your family on board. You are going to need round the clock care. As a sister, I say don’t say a word. This family has a whole lot of drama, and right now DJ is bearing the burden of it all. You need to stay out of it. When I got pregnant, I told Rosalinda. My mother is not…well, she’s, my mother.” Katherine smiled and rolled her eyes. “When I lost the baby, I talked to Rosalinda. AJ wasn’t speaking to me and…well, that’s a long story. If you are comfortable with it, I will call her. She won’t tell anyone, not even her husband, and neither will I.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s your decision, a peaceful atmosphere in the Hamptons with the most incredible Mama in the world, or New York dealing with DJ’s psycho stalker. What’s best for your baby?”
Evie made the decision when she was in the car Katherine had called for her from a car service. It was a three-hour drive to the location Rosalinda had given her. It wasn’t their house and that made sense, because there was no way Rosalinda could hide her in a house she shared with her husband and, at times, her children and grandchildren. Even though Evie had Katherine and Rosalinda, it took an instant for her to decide that she wanted—no, needed—her big brother by her side.
A few hours after Evie had arrived at the tiny cottage three miles from the Ross’s Hamptons mansion, Rich was at her side. He didn’t speak much. He just stared at her, his eyes saying that she was going about this the wrong way, but his lips never judged her.
“What did I tell you about the Irish magic?” He teased.
“How did you do it?”
“What?”
“Marriage, fatherhood? DJ and I don’t seem to be doing it right.”
“That’s only because you are sharing the power. Wives run the marriage and the home. How else do you get it right?” Rich joked.
“I’m glad I have a brother. You make me feel normal in a way. Having someone else in this world besides Mother is wonderful.” Rich’s smile dropped and his demeanor changed. She noticed this reaction each time she would bring up their mother.
“You should get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast. A nurse will also be coming, since Rosalinda and I can’t be with you all the time.”
“What about Catalella, won’t she ask where you were?”
“Unlike you I don’t keep secrets from my spouse,” Rich chuckled. “She won’t say anything. If I hadn’t told her, she would have ripped New York apart searching for me, then DJ would find out where you are.”
“She is his best friend.”
“She’s my wife first.”
“Mi amor.” Rosalinda walked into the room with a tray. “Some soup and bread for you, then you’ll have a fruit salad later. We have to put some meat on your bones and keep feeding that baby so that he will grow strong and healthy.”
“DJ wants a girl.”
“This one is a boy, trust me.” Rosalinda winked at her and set up the tray by her bedside. An answering wink came from Rich, and he left the two women together.
The next day, Katherine had brought her a new truth. Evie’s medical records had been faxed over from the tiny hospital she had attended in Nice. Katherine had explained it to Evie just as her trauma surgeon husband had explained it to Katherine. She had suffered a blow to the head that had caused her brain to swell and that he had put her in a coma. She’d also had a slight bruising on her spinal column from being thrown out of the car during impact.
“I already knew all that,” Evie said.
“There is nothing about abdominal trauma or any injury that could cause such a scar. This is a curved scar, much like the ones women would have a hundred years ago after a C-section. They did record your pregnancy and there is nothing about a miscarriage. Evie, your baby was delivered.”
“Dead?”
“No, your baby was alive. The records show your mother and the baby’s father were there to give consent.”
Evie wanted to laugh then. She was sure Katherine’s information wasn’t right. “DJ wasn’t there, and my mother wouldn’t keep my baby from me.”
It was then that her nightmare came to her, as bright as day. It was a memory and not a dream. But Evie wasn’t sure how that had happened. “I keep having this dream that someone was taking my baby from me, and my mother just stood there.”
“Coma patients being aware isn’t unheard of.”
“This isn’t happening.” Evie’s body cringed as pain shot through her belly.
“I tell you to live away from your husband to reduce the stress, and here I am stressing you.” Katherine pulled out her medical bag and took Evie’s pressure. “Breathe and calm down. You might not want to, but high blood pressure is a leading cause of premature labor.”
“Thanks for those facts,” Evie cried as her arms went around her abdomen. She took deep breaths as she counted down from a hundred. Slowly, the pain subsided. “DJ kept on getting those notes. I thought that the handwriting looked like my mother’s, but I didn’t want to believe—”
“My mother did some—I don’t want to say unforgivable—things because she thought she was acting in my best interests. But I’ve met your mother, and she is…well, she’s Elizabeth.”
Katherine turned the cottage into a mini hospital, moving in equipment she said she needed. Evie was hooked to different machines, but the only one she cared about was the fetal monitor. Every day for three months, she fell asleep to the sound of her baby’s heartbeat and woke up to it. She left everything else in Ethan, Katherine and Rosalinda’s hands. She knew that, somehow, they would find her daughter. She just didn’t know if they would tell DJ about Sophie or the baby she was expecting now. Evie wasn’t sure that he even cared, because he had apparently moved Andrea into the apartment they were supposed to turn into a home.
“Mi amor,” Rosalinda called out to her pulling her out of her thoughts.
“I need to tell you something,” Isadora sat beside her on the bed and held her hand. “They found Sophie.”
Maman!
Eyvette grabbed at her chest when it tightened, and she couldn’t catch her breath. Her daughter was alive!
* * * *
Dad, I’m sorry. DJ played back the moment he had with his father. It had only lasted five seconds and, in a way, healed over five years of pain. Here he was, about to go get his daughter, while his father still searched for his. So, DJ was sorry for not being the son his father needed and he was also sorry for the loss of his sister, but to him he saw it as another man’s daughter. He could only hope that one day they would all be reunited.
“Get off the plane, buddy.” Reno stood at the exit, his duffel bag in his hand and a perplexed look on his face. “Let’s go.”
DJ wasn’t sure he wanted to move—being in Nice a few weeks after Evie had walked out on him was proving difficult. Nice was their love bubble, one that had already burst. He was sure that he would walk into the café and Evie would be behind the counter, Philippe hovering over her and, quite probably, their daughter playing with the pastries or something. Reno hadn’t mentioned Evie at all. Maybe it was Reno’s tactic not to frustrate him more than he already was.
DJ unbuckled his seat belt and grabbed his suitcase. He followed Reno off the plane, and that was when it hit him. His life was about to change in ways he couldn’t imagine. DJ grabbed at his T-shirt, its V-neck collar suddenly choking him. He was having a heart attack. He was sure of it. DJ fell to his knees as he struggled to get air into his lungs. No matter how hard he tried it wasn’t working.
“What’s going on, DJ?” AJ was at his side in a second, his fingers pressing against the pressure point of DJ’s neck.
“What’s wrong with him?” Reno asked.
“Panic attack. He’ll be fine,” AJ responded. “Do you need a bag to breathe into or can you get over this episode on your own?”
It sorts of seemed like AJ was teasing him and that got DJ mad. Immediately he forgot about the tightness in his chest and got to his feet. DJ wanted to swing at him but starting a fight at an airport was only going to get them arrested and keep him away from his daughter.
“Can we go?”
“Can we?” Reno asked.
“Don’t do that.” DJ headed for the SUV parked on the tarmac. He settled into the back and Reno sat by his side. “So, where are we going?”
“To the hotel, to meet up with Rich, first.”
“He’s here too? What is this? A boys’ trip?” DJ snapped.
“Okay, check your attitude.” AJ turned around to glare at him. “Rich has been here for the past week, away from his children, looking for your daughter, his niece.”
“I don’t understand why I wasn’t told when you guys found out. I should have been the one here looking for her.” DJ was now banging on his chest in frustration.
“Relax, DJ. You don’t handle disappointment very well. We didn’t want to raise your hopes then have them destroyed.” Reno patted his back. “Plus, you were in an odd state after Evie left, and then there is Andrea.”
“Andrea, the baby thief.” AJ chuckled. “I’ve heard of girls getting pregnant to keep a guy, but never heard of them stealing embryos. Then she moved into your house. If it was Katherine, she would have killed the bitch.”
“Lisette would have killed both of us.”
“My wife chose to run away. I guess you two knew what you were doing in choosing wives,” DJ mumbled.
“Don’t judge her too quickly,” AJ said, staring straight ahead, the tone of his voice saying he knew more than what he was saying.
“Do you want to share what you know with the rest of the class?” Reno asked. It was clear that DJ wasn’t the only one who had picked up on AJ’s evasiveness.
“I’m just saying that, when you get back to New York, you and your daughter might want to visit a certain French Ross-Kent at the guest house of the Ross’ Hamptons mansion,” AJ muttered.
“What?”
“I’d like to stay married, so that is all I am saying.”
DJ was about to interrogate AJ when Reno held him back. “One thing at a time.”
They got to the hotel and Rich was waiting for them in a four-bedroom suite. There was lunch set out for them on the table and, hopefully, an abundance of promised information. DJ sat in the living room with the patience of a volcano. These three men didn’t seem to understand just how strung out he was. He watched as they freshened up and as they ate their food before erupting.
“You all have your children nestled at their mothers’ breasts right now, while I don’t even know where my daughter is. I know you want to enjoy Nice, it’s a beautiful place, but I am about to lose my mind!”
“We noticed,” Rich said. “Are you ready?”
“No, but neither were you guys.”
“Well, we knew ours were coming and where they were. Let’s go,” Rich said as DJ followed him out the door. He had absolutely zero information, but there was only one thing he needed to know—where his daughter was.
“Where are we going?”
“To a café next to the beach,” Rich smiled. “Evie told me about it, about your cottage, the girls, and everything that a big brother shouldn’t be privy to.” Rich visibly shook as he frowned.
“Now you know how I feel,” AJ said.
When they got to the café, Philippe stood behind the counter. There was no sign of Evie, but there was a brunette standing at his side. DJ wasn’t surprised when he met Philippe’s glare, but it was the little brunette girl that stunned him. She ran from behind the counter and jumped on top of him. Instinctively, DJ caught her in his arms, but he immediately let her go, his hands going to the back of his neck to untangle the girl.
“I think you were missed, baby brother,” Reno laughed.
“Rich, the locals sure are friendly,” AJ teased.
“I can see that, but I don’t need my brother-in-law to return the enthusiasm. Put the girl down, DJ,” Rich barked.
“She won’t let go,” DJ groaned.
“Dennis Rogers, I knew you would come back,” the brunette said in her thick French accent.
“Dennis Rogers, huh?” AJ and Reno laughed at his back. It was just making him even more frustrated.
With more force than was needed, DJ pulled the woman’s hands apart and she went crashing to the ground. “Sorry about that,” DJ said as he stepped around her. “Philippe, how are you?”
“I was better before I ever met you,” Philippe said.
DJ welcomed the hostility. There was nothing that he wanted to do more than reach over the counter, grab his head and bash it into the display glass. “Why did you tell me she was dead?”
“She was mine first. You came here charming all these girls. They weren’t enough for you. You just had to have my Evie.” Philippe’s normally pale face was slowly turning red. “I was taking my life back. Then we found out that she was enceinte. You stole everything from me.”
“That still didn’t give you the right to do what you did. Where is my daughter?”
“Your brother and Evie’s brother said that you will be involving the police,” Philippe stammered, turning white as a sheet.
“Where is she?”
“Elizabeth, she came in the morning after Ethan, and I talked. She took little Sophie. I was taking care of little Sophie. I was going to keep her, but Evie…she called me crying, wanting the truth. I couldn’t tell her, though. But when Ethan came, I knew I couldn’t continue keeping her.”
“That’s kidnapping, you son of a bitch.” Before DJ could take his rage out on Philippe, Reno held him back.
“Let’s go.”
However, before they could leave, the café the door swung open and Elizabeth walked in, a little girl walking by her side. The child looked incredibly tiny as she waddled in, as if she had just started walking. DJ couldn’t move. He was cemented to the ground, his eyes glued to the emerald, green eyes in her tiny face.
“She looks just like—”
“Me, I know.” Elizabeth cut DJ off, frowning at the little girl. “She wouldn’t sit still, so I thought we could make our deal here.”
“Deal?” Rich asked. “What sort of deal, Mother?”
“I think I deserve compensation for taking care of that brat for the past two years.”
At the back of his mind, DJ could hear Elizabeth spewing her venom, but he didn’t care. Sophie was now crawling under the tables and chairs. She held onto the leg of a chair and pulled herself to her feet. She began drumming on the wood and singing. It was loud and unmelodic, but still the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. DJ crouched next to her. Sophie moved away and it seemed like she was trying to ignore him. After a while, though, she seemed to realize that DJ wasn’t going to move. She stared at him, her emerald eyes growing wider and wider, her jet-black hair forming ringlets around her face. Her nose scrunched up and she frowned. Sophie watched him for a few seconds before going back to her drumming.
“Sophie?”
“She won’t respond. I think she is stupid or something.”
“Mother, shut up.”
“Sophie.” DJ held out his arms, and this time she walked into them. He held her and her tiny fists grabbed hold of his hair. “My precious Sophie.” DJ got to his feet and walked past Elizabeth and straight out the door. He heard Elizabeth’s shrieks behind him, but he didn’t dare turn around.
* * * *
“Muy linda.”
Evie could hear Rosalinda’s voice from the bedroom. She was curious as to what had got her gushing so much until she heard DJ’s voice. Rich hadn’t called her, ever since telling her that DJ had arrived in Nice. They had traced Sophie back to Philippe and Elizabeth and that was all the information she had. What she didn’t expect was that DJ would track her down a day later. She wondered who could have told him. Evie was sure that he was bringing her bad news—why else would he come to see her?
Evie prepared herself for a huge blow out. There was absolutely no way DJ would miss her large, round belly. There was nothing she could do to hide it. Evie sat up in bed, putting the pillows next to her, trying to create an illusion, make it seem like it was the pillows that were forming the bump and not her belly.
“Promise me you will behave, DJ,” she heard Rosalinda say.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Breathing was already quite a feat, with the baby pushing up against her lungs. However, the anticipation turned the short spurts into even shorter ones. The door swung open, and DJ stepped in. His eyes flitted about the room, obviously trying to look at anything but her and finding too much to take in to stop on any one thing in particular. It was a good thing, Evie supposed. If he wasn’t actually looking at her there was no way to discover her secret.
God, he was handsome. Evie studied him, how his dark hair fell forward above his brow, its raven color accenting the bronze of his skin. His cheek bones and jaw carried the strong, masculine perfections of a Greek god. The broadness of his shoulders stretched his T-shirt into submission. She had missed his shoulders and how she had held onto them in the heat of passion. She had missed DJ.
“Are you sick?”
Evie shook her head in response, not trusting the sound of her own voice or her mouth from spitting out the truth.
“What’s that sound?”
Our baby’s heartbeat. That’s what she wanted to say but, instead, she said, “What did you find out? Do we really have a daughter?”
“Yes, we do. She is in the living room with Rosalinda. I thought we could talk first.”
“What?” Evie was shocked. Usually, when one found a long-lost child, the first thing one did was give her to her mother. “What do you mean?”
“You have chosen to live here. It’s clear that you don’t want to be married anymore. So, I am going to keep Sophie in the city with me.”
Panic flared through her body. Evie tossed the cover aside, not caring whether DJ would discover her secret or not. She tore off everything she was connected to, clumsily got off the bed and walked past DJ as he picked his jaw up from the floor. Evie wobbled into the living room, DJ hot on her heels.
“What’s going on with your stomach?” he yelled from behind her.
Evie froze when she saw the little girl in Rosalinda’s arms. She wanted to take her in her arms and hold her but was too afraid that she would disappear.
“Evie!”
The little girl was startled and began to cry. It was then that Evie’s motherly instincts took over. She rushed over to the little girl and took her from Rosalinda’s arms and into her own. Evie rocked as she made shushing noises, trying to calm the little girl down. Soon the cries turned into to sobs, then silence. Little Sophie was asleep in Evie’s arms, and her heart just swelled.
Evie turned to face DJ, as angry as he was. He wasn’t immune to the touching moment. His glistening eyes proof of that. “She’s here, in my arms. I can’t believe it; we are a family.”
DJ closed the gap between them, placed one hand around her and Sophie and the other to rest on her belly. He didn’t say a word, but he was here in their love bubble.
Loud pounding had them all turning toward the front door. Uninvited, Andrea marched in, maddening anger etched on each plane of her face. “What is this? You are supposed to be with me.”
“No.” DJ stood in front of Evie, blocking Andrea from her. “You need to leave, Andrea. I know what you did. I know that’s not your baby.”
“What?” Andrea screeched.
“I know you stole our embryos from the clinic.”
“What!” this time it was Evie reacting. Her loud exclamation woke Sophie up.
“Let me take her,” Rosalinda said as she coaxed Sophie back into her arms.
“DJ, what are you talking about?” Evie stepped out of his protective shadow. She stared at Andrea’s belly as Andrea’s hand furiously rubbed over it.
“Andrea stole the embryos. She implanted one in her body. I didn’t get her pregnant. You left me for nothing,” DJ said bitterly.
“You moved her into our home,” Evie spat back.
“She moved herself in. You weren’t there, remember. You were here, hiding another baby from me!”
“Ah!” Andrea doubled over as liquid pooled at her feet.
“She’s in labor,” Evie gasped. “We need to call an ambulance.”
“Rosalinda!” DJ yelled.
“I said an ambulance, not Mama!” Evie helped Andrea ease onto a sofa. The only reason she was helping the crazy woman was because Evie’s baby was in her body. It was incredible how Everything seemed to be happening in just one day. “Just breathe.”
“I am not going to let you have this baby!” Andrea said viciously.
“What is it with women always trying to keep my children from me?”
A short while later, Andrea didn’t have a choice but to push. Evie’s baby slid into her arms. She wrapped her tight in the towel that Rosalinda handed to her. Evie got comfortable on the sofa and rocked her new baby boy as DJ sat by her side with their little girl. There was nothing that could ruin this moment for her. A knock on the door announced the arrival of the paramedics. They began working on Andrea, putting her on a stretcher and rolling her out. Evie handed the baby to the EMT and hovered over him as he examined the baby.
“Ouch!” Evie rubbed the base of her belly as pain slashed through her.
“Are you alright?” DJ hunched over her, worry lines marring his face.
“Yes, we just need to get Katherine down here.” Another wave of pain went through her as her belly tightened. “Oh no!” Evie gasped as her cotton pants soaked up the sudden flood of liquid. “It’s too soon.”
“Evie?”
“It’s too soon.”