Page 101 of Illicit Temptation

Alarm bells go off in my head. Cormac said she looked good. Da brings us to a room in the back of the house, asection I don’t remember well. Darragh hovers behind us. I’msoglad he’s here. Da opens the door, and it looks like a hospital room with a gurney bed, medical machines, and tubes everywhere. UnderMaimeó’skelly-green quilted blanket, my mother lies there looking like a damn skeleton.

I grab Darragh’s arm in shock, his skin cold to me. I want Trace. Where is he? God, I’ve grown so dependent on him.

Two nurses step aside when my father hisses at them.

“What the hell? Where’s her chart?” Darragh grabs a binder and starts flipping pages. “Where’s a list of her meds? What were her last vitals?”

While he’s looking over everything, I step toward my mother.

“She’s on a ventilator?” I ask my father.

“She needs to breathe.”

“I know.” I clutch my chest. “But I can’t talk with her. I came all this way to—”

“Should she have struggled to breathe waiting for you to clear your schedule?” He shows me the same bitterness he spews at my brothers for the first time.

“You mean clearing up time from our lives.” Lachlan strides into the room, not one bit of his anger simmered down. “The lives you made us live. The kingdom you left us to run.”

“Hello, Lachlan,” Da says with indifference.

There’s more to my father than my eyes ever saw. Each of my brothers has an issue with him for various reasons.

Darragh stands over Ma, his fingers pressed to her wrist. He immediately gets on the phone with someone in his practice and starts checking Ma’s meds, talking a language of complicated medical terms I don’t understand.

Looking down at Ma, worry steals all the color fromLachlan’s face as well.

“Did you speak to Katya again?” I ask him to make sure she’s settled.

He whispers, “She’s in a lot of pain.”

“Any bleeding?”

“No.”

I exhale. “She’ll be fine. I promise. It’s a baby. Women have them every day.”

Except me. Especially if I let the doctor take my uterus.

“Not one of my kids,” Lachlan says, running a hand along Ma’s thin arm bruised from all the tubes. “Not another one of us, born of evil.”

“Lach...” Stroking my mother’s hand, I lean my head on his massive bicep. “Stop. All of you are wonderful husbands and fathers. You will be, too.”

“You think?”

I smile. “I know it.”

With nothing to do, I leave my ma to my brother’s care. Da sits on a chair, watching Darragh. Something raw in his stare.

I make my way to the kitchen, my memory guiding me. I see Trace and almost weep with appreciation. He’s my rock right now. The only thing I know in my life that is real. Dressed in a suit, he stands near the stove steeping a cup of tea.

“I’ll make a cup, too. Tea sounds lovely.” I reach for a mug to give my hands something to hold and stop myself from reaching for him.

“This is for you, princess.” He offers me the red ceramic mug.

“Thank you.” I check the bag and see it’s a calming blend. “Careful, someone might think you still have a crush on me.”

He scoffs. “You’re my wife. I have more than a crush on you.”

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