Page 84 of Thanking Her Brother's Best Friends

Three.

I looked at the Clearblue stick in my fingers.

My heart thumped as the truth stared me back in the face.

Two lines. Two lines, both clear as day.

27

SELENE

Dave was M.I.A.

That gave me more reason to feel panicked and imbalanced.

I stared at the face of the well-dressed detective standing in front of me in the Boston Police Department's District A-1 Station. He was saying words, but all of them spelled trouble.

"Surely, you have an entire force that can locate him?" I sputtered, unable to fathom why so many professionals were having trouble narrowing down on one man with a history of domestic violence, boundary problems, and alcoholism.

"There is a protocol we must follow, Ms. Baker," he deadpanned, revolving his pen in long fingers. I noticed he wore a garnet gemstone on the index finger of his left hand.

"Capricorn?" I asked him.

"Hmm?" He was momentarily caught off guard by my question.

I pointed to the stone on his ring, and he responded with a slight smile. "Indeed. You have a good eye. Ms. Baker, I assure you we are on this case, and we will do our best to apprehend Mr. Baxter as soon as possible."

All I could respond with was a strangled "Thank you," and "Please keep me updated." This wasn't the first time Dave had managed to skirt his way around the cops. From what I remembered, he was pretty good at breaking rules.

But I had a lot more on my plate. The next place I needed to be at was an entirely different setting, but no less nerve-wracking.

Chloe was the only person who accompanied me.

"Selene," she murmured, reaching out to take my hand as the car went barreling toward the clinic. "It's going to be alright. Listen, there's no..." She thought about what she wanted to say for a second. "You're not losing anything here, are you?"

I looked out of the window at the streets flying by. "Depends. How do you qualify losing?"

If it meant the pregnancy, then no—there could be no bad news. If it was a false alarm, I'd learn to make my peace with it and move on with life. And if...

My heart expanded at the mere hope of hearing a new heartbeat. For someone like me—a woman who had been told she could never have a child again—this was incredibly humbling.

"You're worried about telling the boys," Chloe observed placidly, watching the changing expressions on my face. "You don't think they can handle it."

That pretty much summed up hitting the nail on the head.

In particular, I was worried aboutoneof the boys. Aiden, his penchant for his single life, his refusal to believe that anything good could come from commitment, and his general desire to remain suspended in free fall.

How would he handle this news?

"Are you going to do a paternity test?"

I shook my head. "No. I don't think it would matter. As far as we're concerned—we've been in this together, Chlo. It's not like I'm in an individual relationship with one of them. It feels like either all of them should know, or none at all."

Chloe replied with a quiet nod. "Understandable. Okay, we're here."

The interior of Remedy Diagnostics was warm and inviting, not the least bit clinical or medicinal as I'd expected it would be.

"Well," Chloe said, looking at the expansive windows and the lined arrangements of Boston ferns and plants. "This isn't all that bad."

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