Conceal (The Vindicated Series Book 5) by Addison Jane & K E Osborn

Author:Addison Jane & K E Osborn [Jane, Addison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

MOLLY

“Come on, Dove,” I whisper. “Come on, it’s okay, I’m here.”

I rock her, bouncing her tiny body in my arms as she screams and screams. I’ve spent the past hour walking a path around the house, while over and over I whisper soothing words and try not to burst into tears myself.

Her crying for hours isn’t a new thing.

Especially not in the middle of the night like right now.

When she was little, she had bad colic. If I didn’t get her to burp straight after her feed, it was like it got trapped in her belly, sometimes taking a couple of hours of walking, bouncing, and patting to bring it up.

This though, it feels different than that.

When I was trying to bring up wind, she would still soothe for little bits of time and her cries were different.

Softer.

More uncomfortable whimpers.

These cries right now are loud and feel like they are produced by complete and utter pain. Tears streak down her cheeks, and when I place my lips to her head, her hot skin feels like it could burn them. I pull back, shaking my head.

“No, no, no,” I whisper, hurrying to my bedroom to grab my phone off the nightstand. “You’re okay, you’re gonna be okay. Mommy isn’t going to let anything happen to you.”

That bubbling fear builds like molten lava in my belly.

It’s hot, and it’s dangerous, and it threatens to break through the surface and cause complete and utter destruction if I don’t get a hold of it.

I should know.

It’s happened before.

The same fear I got when I found out I was pregnant, that same feeling of dread and devastation—knowing that I’d already lost one baby, that my body had failed once to keep a child safe, and that I had failed once to keep a child safe, so losing another was inevitable.

I’d thought my body was not made to be a mother.

And I thought I’d gotten past that feeling.

But as it turns out, maybe it’s not my body that isn’t made to have children.

Maybe it’s me.

My hand shakes as I skim my thumb across the phone screen and hit Lily’s number.

It’s always the first.

Even before Noah.

Though, with Dove, I would usually call him. He seems to be the one who is able to calm her, to settle her—the love for her Dad is so obvious since the moment he held her in his arms. But Noah and the team are out on a mission, an important one, and I know not to ring unless it’s an emergency.

I don’t know what this is.

My brain still hasn’t figured it out.

Is it an emergency?

Don’t babies get sick all the time?

Isn’t this normal?

The one thing I know for sure is that Dove is in pain, and I need to make that pain stop. That is my job. My responsibility. So it means I must make a decision. I need to do something at least.

“Molly?” Lily mutters groggily, and I remember it’s around one in the morning.

“Dove’s sick. I don’t know

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