Page 122 of My Vows Are Sealed

“It’s not your fault, Ethan,” I murmured. “It’shisfault.”

“Well, I’m going to do what I can to make sure he goes away for as long as possible. I’m going to tell the police what he did to me. I don’t know if it’s too late for them to charge him for hurting me, but maybe at least it’ll help if they know you’re not the only one,” he sniffed.

“You’d do that?” I whispered, barely audible.

“I can’t do anything to change what I did to you all those years ago, but Icanhelp you now,” he said, wiping a few tears from his cheeks. “That’s why I insisted on coming here with Alex. I’m so fucking sorry, Darla. I was a coward. I could have stopped this from happening by just opening my damn mouth.”

“You can’t blame yourself, Ethan,” I insisted. “My dad made his own choices.”

“Hi. Darla?” I heard a female voice ask.

I turned to look at the door, and I saw a middle-aged woman in scrubs rolling some kind of machine into the room.

“Yeah?” I sniffled.

“I’m Sally from radiology,” she told me. “I’m here to do an ultrasound?”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Someone was here to check on my baby.

Thank you, Jesus, I prayed.Please let her be okay. Please.

“Yes, please,” I begged. “I need to know if my baby’s okay.”

Alex and Ethan both looked at me with identical wide-eyed, open-mouthed expressions.

“Ba-baby?” Alex stammered.

“Brendan didn’t tell you?”

“No. No, he didn’t. He didn’t say a damn thing,” he chuckled. “He’s getting hell for that when he gets here.”

“We just found out yesterday,” I sighed. “Maybe he didn’t have time.”

Sally looked at the guys apologetically. “I’m sorry, fellas, but can I get you to step out of the room while I do the exam?”

“You going to be okay, Darla?” Alex asked.

I nodded. “Um, do you have any way to get in touch with Marie?”

The person I really wanted if Brendan couldn’t be here was my mom, but I wasn’t about to have her come within ten miles of this hospital while my dad was still somewhere in the building. So Marie would have to suffice for now.

“I’ve got Peter’s number saved in my cell phone. Do you want him to come too, or just Marie?”

“I don’t mind if he comes, but the one I really want is Marie,” I sniffled.

He smiled. “I’ll call him. We’ll be right outside if you need us, okay?”

“Thank you,” I murmured.

“Don’t mention it,” he chuckled.

The guys left the room, and I turned to Sally, who had been patiently waiting.

“Sorry about that,” I mumbled.

“It’s okay. I heard you’ve had a rough day,” she said, cracking a little bit of a smile.

I couldn’t help it. I snorted. “Rough day” was the understatement of the century.

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