Page 5 of Her Sweet Surrender
No. Your job is to take care of Kylie now.
He paused for a moment before typing.
How are you handling this whole Lilly situation?
Brie didn’t want to admit she’d had a dream about the woman, so she texted the words she’d been repeating to herself ever since she woke up from the nightmare.
I’m OK.
You know none of us will let her touch you.
I know.
Try to get some rest, blossom. You have a new baby on the way.
Brie smiled and glanced down at her stomach before texting.You should get some sleep too.
Will do.
Brie set the phone on the coffee table and lay down on the couch, placing Hope between her and the back of the sofa. She stared at her little girl, wondering what it was going to be like adding another child to their family.
“Are you going to have a little sister or brother?” Brie asked her, smiling as she tickled Hope’s toes. The giggles that filled the room lightened Brie’s troubled heart.
She suddenly got the chills, sensing a presence behind her.
Brie cried out in terror when she felt someone’s hand on her, just before her mind registered the electricity of Sir’s touch. Unfortunately, her scream startled Hope, causing her to cry.
“What’s wrong, Brie?” Sir asked in concern as he picked Hope up to soothe her.
“I…” She swallowed hard as she sat up, embarrassed by her overreaction. “I had a bad dream. I’m fine, Sir.”
“Was it a dream about Lilly?” he asked knowingly.
Brie nodded.
Sir sat down beside her, lightly bouncing Hope on his lap to keep the baby entertained. Still, his voice was somber when he asked, “Would you prefer it if I joined Durov on this trip?”
“No!” Brie wrapped her arms around him. “You are the only reason I can stay behind.”
“What is it, then?”
She let go of him and sat back, shrugging as she tried to ignore her growing feeling of uneasiness. “Talking about Lilly brings up so many unpleasant memories.” She sighed, smiling sadly. “It’s kind of messing with my head.”
Sir nodded thoughtfully. “I understand.”
Brie gazed up into his eyes and noticed the pain he was trying to hide from her. She suddenly realized she wasn’t the only one suffering.
Sir had never opened up about what happened to him in China. His journal was the only insight she had of that time he’d spent alone with Lilly. She’d memorized the entry Sir had written after reading it repeatedly while he was in the hospital fighting for his life:
Babygirl,
My head still isn’t right. I can’t think, I can’t eat, and my body won’t stop shaking. I feel as if I’ve been poisoned. But, if so, it would be a poisoning of my own doing. It was meant to be a simple night of celebration at Lilly’s insistence. Even I got caught up in her enthusiasm, partially hoping for her sake that she was right about Mother’s recovery so I wouldn’t have to see the devastation in her eyes when the scan came back proving the woman was brain dead.
You know I don’t overindulge, but we did drink several concoctions at a local bar. How much and what they were, I can’t say. The night quickly became a blur. I felt like a frat boy when I woke up in my hotel room the next day, unaware of how I had gotten there. More disturbing was the fact that my clothes were dirty and torn. Again…I have no recollection why.
Seeing my sorry condition, I stumbled to Lilly’s room to check on her. She was slow to answer and in the same disheveled state. When I asked her about it, she only shook her head. It seemed her memory was as compromised as mine.
I wasn’t able to go to the hospital that day as I felt too sick to leave my bed. Lilly told me she’d felt well enough by the afternoon to visit Mother and saw her eyelids flutter. Her false hope struck me the wrong way.
