Page 10 of Don't Forget Me
The creases around her mouth deepened as she frowned. “In seven months, I’m going to have a baby, and the world will think it’s the child of Nick Jacobs.”
He’d underestimated what she’d do to stop this divorce. “Whose is it? Franklin’s?” The name came out slurred.
“No, dear, it’s yours.” She reached up to pat his cheek. “You wouldn’t want to divorce the mother of your child, would you?”
Nick stumbled back as the world went hazy, his vision blurring and another wave of dizziness washing over him. “Sherrie?” The word stuttered out of him. “W-whas h-hap—”
“Nick, are you okay?” She slid his arm over his shoulders to keep him upright. “Nick? How much did you drink?”
“I don’t feel so well.” He loosened his tied and ripped it off over his head, letting it fall to the ground.
“I’m going to go get help.” She rushed away, and Nick didn’t remember what happened next or how he ended up in the driver’s seat of a car, trying to get back to the hotel, back to his bed.
He didn’t remember anything except the crunch of metal on metal and the impact reverberating through him before the entire world went black.
3
ELIZABETH
“Mom!” Evelyn launched herself onto the bed, her knees landing on Elizabeth’s stomach.
Elizabeth groaned, keeping her eyes squeezed shut.
Evelyn rocked forward on her knees, digging them in further. “Mom, wake up.”
“Mom isn’t home today.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“And what is Saturday?”
Owen’s calmer voice came from somewhere else in the room. “The end of the week.” He didn’t have the energy of his sister or the propensity to hurt their mother, but she knew he wore a smug smile.
It seemed like only yesterday he’d have said things like that seriously, not understanding the joke he himself spoke.
A smile curved Elizabeth’s lips as she positioned her hands for the move Evelyn had to have known was coming. In a single moment, she wedged her hands under her daughter’s legs, flipping her onto her back as she rose up to hover over her.
Evelyn let out a high-pitched cackle and pushed at her mom’s chest. “Don’t slobber on me.”
It was their routine. The twins pretended not to like kisses from their mother, but they laughed as she peppered their faces.
Snaking a hand out, she wrapped her arm around Owen’s waist and pulled him onto the bed. His smile was more indulgent than anything. He loved the women in his life, but he liked to claim he wasn’t wild like them.
He forgot his mom remembered naked babies dancing in the living room. Somehow, his sister leeched the wild out of him and into herself.
Moments like this reminded Elizabeth why she’d fought so hard.
They were the reason she got up in the morning. “I love you two.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Duh, Mom.”
Evelyn nodded. “We know.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” She flattened herself on them, holding just enough of her weight back.
“She’s going to smother us,” Evelyn yelled. “Papa!”
A throat cleared from the doorway. “Lizzy, are you trying to kill my grandbabies?”
