Hidden Legacy by Sylvie Kurtz

Author:Sylvie Kurtz [Kurtz, Sylvie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Suspense
Amazon: B005I6B3DE
Barnesnoble: B005I6B3DE
Goodreads: 16104594
Publisher: ePublishing Works
Published: 2011-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Emotionally and physically drained, Juliana lay between the sheets of her bed. She wanted the oblivion of sleep, but could not find it. So she stared at the full moon through the open curtains, hoping it would hypnotize her. A cold breeze ruffled the curtains’ hem, making the moon’s light waltz on the maple floor.

She listened intently as she’d done so many nights before for the noises coming from her daughter’s room. Not hearing the rustle of Briana’s sleep movements, but instead the steady turn of pages where she’d recorded each step of Briana’s life and exposed her feelings for her daughter, felt strange. Stranger still was the sound of the emotion-filled voice of the man she’d loved as he laughed and cried his way through his daughter’s life.

She closed her eyes and willed herself not to think. Regrets would get her nowhere. Tomorrow she would start putting Lucas’s replica together. And once he’d caught the Phantom, she would piece her life back together. She’d done it before; she could do it again.

Her bedroom door opened. Lucas’s silhouette detached from the gray light of the hall and came toward her. In the murky light his shadow seemed to fill the room. Her heart sped in gnawing anticipation. She crushed the top sheet nearer to her chest.

He knelt beside her bed. The heat of him invaded her, causing a flash of unwanted physical response. He crooked a finger and slid it gently down her cheek. She instinctively turned toward the gentleness of his touch.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice strangely choked. “For sharing Briana with me.”

Unable to speak, she nodded.

“Why couldn’t you tell me you were pregnant?” he asked. There was no rancor, no accusation in the question, only a neediness she found she could not deny him.

“I was scared. I thought you wouldn’t want her.”

His face crumpled with hurt. “What made you think that?”

“You were working on the library thefts. It was the day you captured the thief. That morning I found out I was pregnant. I tried to reach you, but you weren’t available. My brother Jonah called and asked me to come over. I figured it would be a way to pass the time waiting for you to come back. So I went.”

“Something happened there. I sensed old hurts between the two of you.”

“The doctor had told me something I didn’t want to hear. Jonah and I argued.”

She rolled onto her back, snapping her gaze away from Lucas’s too compelling eyes. Pain, a squadron of it, trooped through her already weary body, trampling her emotions.

“Tell me,” he insisted.

“Have you ever heard of hyperstormic atrophy?”

He shook his head.

She searched her mind for the explanation the doctor had given her all those years ago. “I’m not really sure how it works, but apparently there’s a mutant gene that has a timer of some sort on it, and when a man reaches the age of forty, it activates and makes the body self-destruct from the inside out.” She choked on the tightness in her throat.

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