Page 94 of Paternal Instincts
Her face fell. Worry lines indented her forehead. She didn’t speak.
“Aren’t you going to ask what it said?” But of course she wouldn’t. She didn’t have to. She already knew.
“I have a feeling I don’t need to.”
“It was paternity test results. We’ve been led to believe your son’s abductor is Crowley’s father. Rather, his natural father with whom he shares DNA. Do you want to chime in?”
She stared at her swollen belly and shook her head. “Does Nixon know?”
“Yes. Right now, he’s tearing a strip off the doctors because they won’t let him in to see you. They’re afraid he’s too hot and might set you off. I’m not sure I blame him. It’s a hell of a blow to find out after eight years that your child isn’t your flesh and blood.”
A single tear trailed down Imogen’s cheek. She said nothing. As though noticing her dirty fingernails for the first time, she scraped at them for a second before tucking them under the covers.
I was about to ask if Sparrow was Nixon’s child when my phone rang, loud and blaring into the quiet room. My heart jumped into my throat, and my skin came alive with anticipatory goose bumps.
Imogen startled, causing the monitor beside the bed to beep.
I scrambled to retrieve the device from my pocket, ready to sprint away and leave Jordyn with this mess, only to discover Aslan’s name on the screen.
Letting out a heavy breath, my blood pressure slowed, and I connected the call. “You almost gave me a heart attack. Everyone needs to stop calling me unless their name is Bryn. What do you want?”
“Sorry, hot stuff. We have a situation.”
“I don’t need more situations.”
“I know, and it’s not good.”
I threaded my fingers through my untamed hair and spun, giving my back to Imogen as I lowered my voice. “What?”
“Clementine has been brought into the emergency room. She’s been attacked.”
“What?” The door to Imogen’s room opened as I spun back to face the woman on the bed. “What do you mean attacked?”
Imogen stared into my eyes, her face unreadable yet full of sorrow.
“I mean, someone stabbed her and left her for dead. They’re racing her into surgery right now. I’m getting all the information I can.”
“Hey! You can’t be in here,” a voice said from behind me as Aslan’s words rang in my ears, and my gaze landed on Imogen’s hands. The instant she caught me staring, she tucked them beneath the covers again and refused to meet my gaze. I’d seen enough.
An angry doctor snagged my arm and yanked me around to face him as I finally found the words to respond to my husband. “I’m on my way.”
I didn’t wait for the reprimand and shoved around the man in the lab coat as I barreled into the hallway, searching for Costa or Jordyn or someone who could explain what the hell was going on.
Chapter 21
Quaid
In the hallway, I was accosted by Jordyn, who looked ready to tear a strip off me for going against the doctor’s orders and entering Imogen’s room. No one seemed wise to Aslan’s news, so I figured it hadn’t traveled to the labor and delivery floor yet.
Before I could translate the message to my partner or Costa, who was steadily apologizing for blowing my cover, I tugged them aside as I scanned the family, who weren’t getting along any better than before I’d entered the room.
My gaze landed on Benedict and his neatly bandaged hand that seemed to have stopped bleeding. For an instant, I stared at the injury before my gaze shifted to the closed door of Imogen’s room, remembering her dirty fingernails. The way she’d rubbed at them. The moment she’d caught me watching and stuffed both beneath the covers.
Something in the pit of my stomach told me it wasn’t dirt under her nails. It was blood.
A dismissednanny.
A stabbed nanny.
