Harper's Secret by Holly Reign & Krissyann Granger

Author:Holly Reign & Krissyann Granger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tug Hill Publishing Company, LLC.

Chapter Thirteen

Adelaide opened her eyes in the dark. The damp walls were closing in around her. She stared at the peeling wallpaper and the moldy gray ceiling. She was nine again, and the heavy weight of responsibility was crushing her.

Why had her baby sister not woken her yet? Adelaide sifted through the worn blankets, reaching for the one Gertie had been wrapped in. A terrible premonition overwhelmed her, and her hands shook. She pulled back the once-pink veil and revealed her sister's motionless form.

Adelaide's little heart pounded in her chest as she tried to wake the precious baby. She cried out and shook her. She jumped up to her knees and hovered over the little angel, calling her name and begging her to wake up. But there was no response. Her tiny body was cold and unmoving.

She wailed then in the past and in the present, her heart racing, sweat beading on her brow. Adelaide sat straight up, and a vise locked around her body as she screamed, “Gertie!”

“It's ok.” Jeff pulled Adelaide against his chest and held her tight with one hand cradling the back of her head to his shoulder.

Jeff.

Adelaide gasped, catching her breath as the pain and terror of the past ebbed, and the present rushed to soothe her. The balm of time was not enough. She pulled her knees to her chest, leaned into Jeff's embrace and sobbed.

“Adelaide?” He said more gently. “Are you ok?”

Wiping the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands she sniffled, “It’s nothing, I—” The tears cut her off, and she garbled her words trying to gain composure. “I had a nightmare.”

A cool, dignified air crept into her tone, and she resented it.

“Didn’t sound like an ordinary nightmare. You were thrashing about. I half thought Sookie finally decided to make good on all those growls.” He made a joke, but there was no laugh in his voice. Addy listened to his pounding heart; she'd really frightened him.

Adelaide laughed, though she didn’t find it particularly amusing. “It was less of a nightmare and more of a memory.”

Jeff was quiet for a moment, and Adelaide caught her breath. He didn't let her go. His hand gently ran up and down her back, and he rocked slightly from side to side. She'd never felt so comforted by anybody in her life.

“Those are the worst kind,” he said grimly.

“Yeah,” was all she could muster.

Silence fell between them, and she laid back down. Jeff sat beside her, but aside from the dip of the mattress and sound of his breathing, she wouldn't have known. She stared up into the abyss of blackness above her. The night was so dark, not even moonlight illuminated the room.

She was surprised he'd made it across the room in such darkness.

“Who’s Gertie?”

Adelaide sighed, both wanting and not wanting to tell him about the sweet baby who never had a chance.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” He blurted quickly, and in the darkness, she smiled. He sounded unnerved.

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