Page 21 of Stolen Love

“If anyone can… it’s Marty.” She probably already has enough to get a criminal investigation under way. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had all the evidence we need by now. And that’s what worries me.

“Then where is she?” Ivy asks.

I shake my head. “Laying low is my guess.”

“You don’t think anything has happened to her, do you?” Ivy plays with the smattering of hair on my chest.

“We need to stay positive.” I steal her fingers and kiss the tips. Tomorrow we’ll make a plan and put it into action. We can’t wait around to see what Nicole’s next move will be. Or if Marty will turn up. “She’s smart and good at evading trouble. We will find her.”

I just hope she’ll be in one piece when we do.

“Okay.” She starts to settle, and for a while there’s nothing but the sound of our breathing before she speaks again. “There’s something else… I need to tell you. The timing is terrible.”

My heart skips a beat. “What is it?”

It takes her a long moment to answer. So long I think she might have actually fallen asleep. Then she blurts, “I might be pregnant.”

Chapter Nine

Ivy

Narnia is different since the last time I was here. The cream carpet has been ripped out and replaced with a beautiful sapphire blue shag that my toes sink into with every step. It’s so soft underfoot, it’s like walking on clouds.

The white walls are now a muted gray-blue where they peek out between rows of costumes. The wall behind Adira’s special edition footwear is clad in an almost golden colored wood panelling that matches the new console in the middle of the room. Thick white drapes hide the only window and serve as a backdrop to the costume try on area.

It’s beautiful. My fingers trace a line on the silky smooth surface of the console as I walk around it. A huge gold bowl sits in the middle. It’s filled with candy wrapped in blue and gold cellophane.

My mouth waters. I’m so hungry. I press a hand to my growling belly as I stare at the spot where Rogue found me.

My memories overlap and the bloodstain starts to appear on the new carpet. It grows more and more discolored as I stare at it.

“Ivy?” Adira’s voice pulls my attention back to the present. Rather, to a different point in the past. “It’s such a shame about your dad’s accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident.” I turn to face my best friend.

“What?” he asks at the same time my phone starts to ring.

I glance down at the device in my hand. My heart stops. The name on the screen… I can barely voice it. “Daddy?”

He can’t be calling me, because I saw him in his casket. I was there when they lowered him into the ground. I was there. This isn’t possible.

“Go on. Answer it,” Adira says. “You’re running out of time.”

I swipe my finger across the screen to pick up the call. The name has changed. My chest lightens. “I must be seeing things. It’s Rogue.”

“Lover boy is obsessed with you.” Adira sashays across the room and starts searching through the costumes. “What am I going to wear to the funeral?”

“The funeral?” I hold my phone to my ear. Rogue is apologizing. Telling me he loves me. Telling me he’s on his way. Telling me to hold on. “I don’t understand.”

“Fight for me, baby.”He grows more panicked by the second.“I need you to be strong for me, baby. I need you to hold on.”

My stomach flutters. I’ve been so queasy lately, but this is different. It’s a sick, twisting kind of feeling that sets me on edge.

Adira picks out a somber suit in black velvet. He holds it to his chest and twirls. “What do you think?”

“I…” I gasp and fall back, clutching my empty hand to my chest as Alec walks toward me in Adira’s place.

He holds the velvet suit up in front of him, a vindictive smirk on his lips. He throws out his other hand and indicates the stain seeping up through the pristine carpet. It’s blood red in a sea of blue. “Your funeral, of course, you silly bitch.”

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