I forced my gaze from the screen that was now blank and looked down at Emmie. Her eyes were bright, but she hadn’t let her tears spill over yet. “So, he’s okay? Everything is okay?”

He nodded. “Looking good. Your fall earlier hasn’t affected the baby in any way.” Standing, the man nodded at me and I gave him a tight smile before he pushed the machine out the door. “Good night.”

The door closed behind the tech and I laid Mia down in a more comfortable position beside Emmie before doing what I had been aching to do from the moment we had heard the baby’s heartbeat. I kissed her, devouring her lips as she clung to me. Tonight had been hell, absolute fucking hell. But the ending—getting Lucy back, finding out that our child was still safely growing deep inside of Em—all of that was the ending I had prayed for.

Chapter 24

Lana

The phone was ringing and I was too tired to care. The cordless was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed, but I had no energy to roll over and answer it. The last few weeks had caught up with me at last and I had been walking around like a zombie from the moment we had landed in New York three days ago.

Drake and I had stayed in California for another two weeks before finally flying home and only then because I was told I wouldn’t be able to fly if I waited much longer. My doctor had said I wasn’t going to be able to fly at all in the last six weeks of my pregnancy. So I had to leave then or wait until the baby was born, because there was no way I was driving from California to New York when I had to pee every twenty minutes. It would take me two weeks to get home at that rate.

At least Layla was home now, so I didn’t have to worry about her as much. Lucy’s face was starting to look better as well. Her left eye had lost all the swelling but was still a vibrant black and blue mixture. Jesse had told me that she was having nightmares though and most nights he crawled into bed with her so that both of them could actually get some sleep. It was the twins that I hadn’t wanted to leave. My nephews were still in the hospital. Their sleep apnea alarm was still going off at night and they wouldn’t be released unless they had three consecutive nights without it going off. The doctor had assured Layla that because of their early births, the twins were unlikely to come home until closer to their original due date.

I had hated leaving Layla when she was so devastated over not getting to take her babies home. She had been an emotional wreck the last couple of weeks. Her OB/GYN was concerned with all the crying she did, her only sign of postpartum. Considering everything she had been put through emotionally since Shane’s wedding, I thought she was handling everything really well though. Sure she got a bit hysterical the first day Lucy went back to school, that was normal in my book. Of course Emmie had helped out with that by putting a guard on Lucy much the same way she had for Harper. Now everyone was able to breathe a little easier when Lucy was out of sight.

The phone stopped ringing and I breathed a sigh of relief as I relaxed against the pillows once more. Drake was at work and I was supposed to meet him in the city for dinner later. That was hours away though and I just wanted to sleep…

When the phone started ringing almost immediately after it stopped I pulled the pillow close and screamed into it even as I reached blindly for the cordless. Without glancing at the caller ID I put it to my ear. “Yeah?”

“I actually have a day off!” Dallas informed me with a laugh. “I can breathe. I can breathe. Want to do lunch?”

I raised my head enough to see the clock on Drake’s bedside table. It was ten after ten. I sighed, feeling sleep slip away from me. I hadn’t seen Dallas since the wedding and I really missed her. We hadn’t really hung out in forever and I missed the bitch. “Sounds like fun. I’m craving Greek anyway. I’ll meet you.”

“I’m not a fan of Greek, but since it’s for the little demon princess growin’ inside of you, I’ll force it down.”

“Aww.” I sat up in bed. “So it’s only for your niece and not me? I feel so loved…” Dallas snorted and I grinned. “I’ll see you in about an hour. Don’t keep me waiting, woman.”

“Hurry up, ho. I’m hungry.”

I took my time getting ready. I was really feeling the jet lag and the baby was punching me from all angles. By the time I walked out the door of the house we had bought just a few months ago, the town car that Drake made me use whenever I went into the city without him was already waiting. During the twenty minute ride I caught up on my text messages. There were several from Shane, Harper, Emmie, and Layla. Two from Lucy that I immediately answered back.

There was a text from a number I didn’t recognize so I didn’t even open it right away. Probably some random wrong number. It wouldn’t be the first time. For privacy’s sake we all had unlisted numbers so that crazy fans wouldn’t be able to terrorize us. Of course that hadn’t stopped at least two female fans from getting Harper’s number and sending her threatening texts.

A few blocks from the restaurant where I was meeting Dallas, my phone buzzed with yet another text. A goofy smile lifted my lips when I saw it was from Drake. The smile turned to a frown, then a glare when I saw that it was him canceling our dinner date for this evening. There was a meeting.

Part of me wondered if it was yet another fake meeting set up by Bethany. That bitch was trying her damnedest to get Drake’s attention. The rational part of me knew that Drake wouldn’t ever do anything like that. The irrational part—the part that seemed to grow bigger and bigger with each passing day—couldn’t help but wonder if he was tempted. I was getting huge, and Bethany was decently hot.

Instead of answering Drake’s text—because I was suddenly in raging bitch mode—I turned my phone to silent and tossed it into my purse. When the car stopped I didn’t wait for the driver to open the door for me. Instead I stepped out and slammed the door behind me. Then I just stood there, my nostrils flaring and my hands fisted at my side.

Damn it! Now I was acting like a stupid, petulant little girl. Mia acted more mature than I was at that moment. Angry, frustrated tears burned my eyes and I closed them to keep the damn things from falling. Slowly I sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten.

“Are you havin’ contractions?”

My eyes popped open to find Dallas standing a few feet away. She was wearing a pair of pink sweats with a matching top and jacket. Her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head and the left pant leg was rolled up to her knee, showing off the tattoos on her calf of a Cinderella all inked up. I knew for a fact that Ariel was on her right calf just as bad girl tatted. Focusing on the tattoo I started to gain control over my emotions. Leave it to Dallas to be girly enough to want a Disney princess tattoo—and to punk it up.