The Runaway Bride by Patricia Johns

Author:Patricia Johns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BERNIE SPENT THE morning with Lucille and Ike. Ike was restless and clingy. He didn’t want to watch TV or play, and he wouldn’t relinquish the photo of his mother. Bernie spent a good deal of time looking at that photo—Leanne’s smiling face looking so peaceful and relaxed. She had been pretty, Bernie thought. She could see why Vince had zeroed in on her, but all that beauty and potential was wasted on her cousin. Vince knew how to get what he wanted, whether that was a woman’s body or her silence.

“I don’t understand why Leanne would have risked everything for Vince,” Bernie said. Ike was sitting beside a window, the photo tucked under his arm.

“She and Liam married young,” Lucille said. “And when hard times hit, they didn’t pull together. That’s the thing with relationships—you either pull together or end up fighting each other.”

Her parents didn’t seem to have that problem. They knew what they wanted, and they worked toward it as a team. Bernie could remember many times when her parents would stand together in their kitchen, mugs of coffee in hand, as they came up with a plan to get their way. It might have been a deal they wanted on a classic car, or rezoning a piece of land. Whatever they’d put their minds to, they got. And as a girl watching her parents plot, she’d thought that was what a successful relationship looked like: two people on the same team no matter what.

But the team wasn’t just Milhouse and Kitty—it was the whole Morgan clan. And her parents hadn’t stopped with real estate deals or political dreams. They’d wanted a baby, and they found a way to get one...and Aunt Ellen had made it happen.

“Makes you wonder what’s worse,” Bernie said quietly, “the couple that splits up over wanting a baby, or the couple that stops at nothing to get one.”

Lucille picked up Ike and put a hand over his forehead. “I am sorry, Bernadette... I know what the truth has cost you, and I didn’t want to tell you earlier because I didn’t want to ruin what you had. None of this is your fault, dear. None of it.”

“Except now that I’ve told my father about Ike, I’m part of the machine. One day, Ike will learn the truth about his parentage, and I don’t want to be the relative that helped my parents get their way at all costs.”

The Aunt Ellen. The willing helper. The one who used money and position to soothe her conscience. Her parents’ laser focus was now cast in a sinister light. If they’d steal a baby from a teenage mother in order to make their dreams come true, what more would they do to protect those dreams? She used to feel safe in her parents’ protective circle, but now she felt stifled.

“We won’t let that happen,” Lucille said. She felt Ike’s forehead again. “You aren’t alone in this, Bernadette. You have me.”

Bernie watched as Ike rubbed a chubby hand over his eyes.

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