Page 39 of Burned

Carys clutched his arm, her fear evident. “What’s wrong, Daddy?”

He shook his head. “Carys…I’m so sorry.”

* * *

“Who was it on the phone a few minutes ago?” Sadie had been in the bathroom when she’d heard the phone ring, but when she came out neither of her sisters mentioned a phone call.

Daisy pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. “It was the father of Satan.”

Sadie frowned. It took a few seconds before she got what her sister was talking about. “Rhys? What did he want?”

Daisy shrugged. “Who knows and who cares. You don’t need the aggravation. The doctors said no stress or you’ll end up in the hospital again. Speaking of stress, I really think you need to take a leave of absence from your job.”

“You really should,” Rose chimed in. “I mean, your blood pressure is higher than it should be and being as that you’re almost through your first trimester without any prenatal care, you should really be taking care of yourself.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. She loved her sisters to death, would do anything for them, but they drove her crazy with their babying her. From the time she was born, they’d played substitute mothers to her and all were extremely overprotective. Where her mother didn’t seem to give a shit about her wellbeing at times, they seemed to overcompensate for it.

Sadie propped her feet on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch. “The doctor didn’t say I needed to be on bed rest just that I need to take care of myself. And without a doctor’s note, there’s no guarantee I’d still have a job if I were to wait until the baby was born and then take another couple months off after the delivery.”

Daisy waved her hand dismissively. “You don’t have to worry about your job. Between me, Rose and Lily, we can take care of your expenses. And if you want to go to school and get your degree, we’ll take care of tuition.”

She rolled her eyes. It was an old argument and one she didn’t intend to back down from. “I don’t need you guys to pay my bills. And I wouldn’t feel comfortable having you guys pay for school. That’s what grants and financial aid are for if I choose to go.”

Rose blinked. “Why not? We make plenty of money. You don’t have to work if you don’t want to.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “Do you guys hear yourselves? Maybe I’m not the head of the HR department at a huge corporation, or a high powered entertainment attorney or a supermodel, but I like my job just fine, and I like paying my own bills and I enjoy my independence. And another thing, I know you guys are just trying to help, but I’ll eventually have to talk to Rhys because of the baby. He has a right to know.”

Daisy patted her on the hand. “Sweetie, we know that, but you’re in a precarious emotional state right now. You don’t need him complicating your life anymore than it already is.” She spoke to Sadie as if she was indulging a child. That drove her absolutely nuts.

When she was at the hospital, the doctors had wanted to keep her a couple extra days to monitor her blood pressure because of the baby. Daisy and Rose had shown up and along with Lily, the three of them had been hovering over her like mother hens. It wasn’t so bad when they were at the hospital because Sadie could feign sleep and they wouldn’t bother her as much.

But here at home, they wouldn’t leave her alone. Because her arm was in a cast and her butt was still sore, they wouldn’t let her lift a finger. They screened her calls. That part she didn’t mind so much since she had managed to avoid her mother, but every little thing she attempted to do was thwarted. Thank God Lily would eventually go home, but Daisy and Rose who had both freed up their calendars to be here, were driving her nuts. Sadie seriously considered running away.

“I’m pregnant, not on my deathbed. You guys are treating me like I’m some invalid and it’s getting tired. If you two haven’t forgotten, I’m a grown woman and it would be nice if I was treated like one. And another thing, I’m going back to work next week. I don’t need the two of you to be my nursemaids. I’m not the first woman to have her heartbroken and I certainly won’t be the last. Furthermore, I will get in contact with Rhys because it’s the right thing to do and not when you two decide my situation isn’t so precarious. Got it?” She’d said it more aggressively than she meant to and instantly regretted her words.

Rose and Daisy looked positively crestfallen.

Unable to bear the disappointment and hurt in their eyes, she swung her feet off the coffee table and stood up and headed to her bedroom. Once inside her sanctuary, she closed the door and lay down. She didn’t mean to hurt their feelings; normally she’d rather lose a limb than to do that. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones that had caused her to lash out. She didn’t know. But it was hard to sort out her feelings when she wasn’t allowed time to herself to think about them.

Maybe it was a good thingbecause, since her sisters’ arrival, she hadn’t had much time to dwell on the horseback riding incident. A shudder moved through her body as she thought of what could have happened. People died from falling off of horses, especially at that pace. That Carys would go to those lengths to get rid of her spoke of something much deeper than Sadie had even imagined. But then again, for a split second, Sadie had read something in the girl’s eyes that she hadn’t suspected. Regret. It didn’t matter though because the adrenaline flow had carried her over to the teenager and caused her to strike.

Sadie had never raised her hand to anyone in her life and it still sickened her that she had. If she thought an apology would have made a difference, she would have given one, but the look in Rhys’s eyes when he saw her in the hospital told her it was over. She cursed herself for being all kinds of fool, for not telling him about Carys. The girl clearly needed help. And as long as she hated Sadie there was no future for her and Rhys. She’d recognized it weeks ago but had been fighting against the inevitable.

Sadie loved Rhys. He’d touched her heart and spirit in ways that Terrell or Jordan never could. Had there been another woman in the picture vying for his love, Sadie would have fought for him tooth and nail. But she couldn’t make him choose between her and his teenage daughter.

It was just as well, as much as it hurt—hurt so much she still couldn’t bring herself to cry, she had her baby to think about. As she’d told her sisters she would get in contact with Rhys about the baby, because like she said, he had a right to know. But from there, she had to decide what she’d do next. There was no way she’d be able to trust Carys around her baby and Rhys definitely wasn’t the kind of man who’d not be in his child’s life. Even though she was still getting used to the idea of her pregnancy, Sadie already loved her child more than life and she’d do absolutely anything in her power to protect him or her from harm. She’d have to ask Daisy what her legal options were before she decided how she wanted to handle it.

Sadie’s arm hurt which meant the painkillers were wearing off, but she didn’t want to take them. She welcomed the pain if for nothing else to distract her from the ache she felt within.

A soft knock on her door broke her out of silent musings. She released a deep sigh and called out, “Come in.”

Daisy and Rose walked in looking contrite. They came inside and sat on the bed next to her, one on each side.

“We’re sorry,” Rose said quietly. “I know we can be pushy, but it’s because we love you and you’re our baby sister and sometimes it’s hard to forget that you’re all grown up and capable of making your own decisions.”

Sadie managed to sit up. “I’m sorry for snapping at you two. I know you mean well and I appreciate you acknowledging that I am an adult. But don’t think I’m not grateful for the support you’ve given me.”

Daisy rubbed Sadie’s back. “I’m sorry too, kiddo. Like Rose said, we sometimes get carried away. I guess we appointed ourselves as your protectors because you’re just too sweet for your own good. You let people take advantage of you and you sacrifice so much. You could have done so much more with your life, been so much more.”

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