Page 6 of Unbound

“Love you. Call me later.” And then I rested my cheek on my hand and dry heaved again.

He was still standing there.

“Go, honey. It’s okay.”

He didn’t want to leave me like this. He probably didn’t want to leave me at all. He was still very protective. But he was trying.

I had company lined up for while he’d be away. Tonight, I was having my foster sisters over. Tomorrow night, I was staying over with the girls a few doors down at Lisa’s and Tessa’s. He’d either be back the day after that or Sarah would come stay over until he got home. He didn’t want me alone all night. Beyond the company I’d had planned, he also had people patrolling the property.

“I’ll get Sarah here now.”

“It’s okay, Tommy.”

“Sarah, can you come over? She’s puking a lot and I don’t wanna leave her alone.” He’d ignored me and called her anyway.

“Go catch your … (gag) …flight,” I insisted, but he gave me a look.

When the puking stopped, I’d managed to go pee and brush my teeth. As I was coming out, he met me at the door and lifted me up again and got me back to bed where he held me and stroked my back and my hair. He left only after Sarah arrived and that meant he’d missed his flight, but he waved it off as no big deal, saying there was another one shortly.

She made me some warm citrusy drink with ginger in it, forced me to take a few sips, and was gonna hang out downstairs until I felt better.

“Want me to make up some meals for your freezer, Chiquita?”

“No, please. I can’t stand the thought of the smell of food cooking.”

There was also the fact that my freezer was full already, having no less than six lasagnas and an assortment of other meals that she’d sent over. It was her mission in life to keep everyone in the family away from sugar but with freezers filled with food.

I was still early in my pregnancy, but I guess my comment the other day about feeling great, other than sore boobs and feeling sleepy, had been a jinx against myself. I’d been fine until yesterday.

Yesterday I threw up for two hours off and on. And he knew it. I’d been reading to him from my favorite pregnancy website and told him all about the morning sickness cures and how I’d stocked up on crackers and that was how he knew to bring me some. Today was feeling even worse than yesterday.

Tommy would be gone to Vegas for a few days and then we were talking about going to Costa Rica to spend a few days, pack up the rest of our things, and close up the house there.

We’d planned to do it right after Dare’s wedding, but Tommy had some work stuff come up, so it’d been put off. Tommy decided to buy it for us to keep as a vacation house.

I’d asked about whether or not that was a good idea or a waste of money and maybe we should at least rent it out while we weren’t using it and he’d laughed at me and told me money was not a worry and no way would he want anyone else staying in our house, sleeping in our bed.

Money had always but always been a worry to me, and I wasn’t accustomed to it being available in abundance. I doubted I’d ever take it for granted.

I’ve been looking forward to having a sleepover with Beth, Mia, and Ruby. They didn’t know that I was pregnant; I was going to tell them that night. I’d had all these plans for awesome snacks and girlie/baby movies (Look Who’s Talking, BabyGeniuses, Knocked Up, etc.) and I hoped I felt well enough to get out of this bed. Morning sickness sucked.

The first weeks of married life weren’t exactly bliss. Being married to Dare was bliss, waking up in his arms, how he made love to me and was so caring and nurturing… definitely amazing.

But, my thoughts were all over the place where my sister was concerned. The day after our wedding, my first official day as Mrs. Dario Ferrano, wasn’t easy. My new husband told me, in our honeymoon suite, that my little sister Holly was missing.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the news that my sister was gone. Had I broken for nothing if it never even saved her? No, not nothing. If I hadn’t broken, I wouldn’t have lived to become Dare’s.

Dare said, at first, that they had a lead on where she might be. But then he started backtracking with me and said he wasn’t 100% sure if Kruna had let Holly go and she’d run away or if they’d kept her or sold her. He tried to talk calmly, asking me tonotjump to conclusions. He was still working on figuring out what happened.

I tried not to tell myself that his backpedaling was that he was sparing my feelings until we knew for sure, but then I decided that he knew best. I was trusting him to handle things.I had no choice; I didn’t have the strength to process this in the natural way.

He promised to find out what happened to her. When he said he thought his private eye might know where she was, he asked me if I wanted to be kept abreast of things as discoveries were made.

“Would it be terrible if I just left that up to you?” I had asked him.

He looked thoughtful for a minute. When he kept watching me, mulling it over, so I explained.

“All this time I wanted to believe that what I’d done, going along with them and not fighting, was keeping her safe. Now to find out that she’s missing? That she’s been missing all this time? I don’t know if I can process that. If I try…”

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