Page 117 of The Woman By the Lake

“He’s told me he’s told you about his father.”

I nodded.

“Okay, then we have to get to mashing potatoes to feed our boys.”

Our boys?

She carried on. “But the first thing I’d like to say is, if I’d realized the man John was in time to do something about it, and I had the resources to cut him out of my life, I would have done that without a second thought. I further would have done everything in my power to keep him away from them. I would also have made up some fanciful story so my children would think the second half of the whole that created them was an amazing man they could be proud of.”

Apparently, Harry had told her quite a bit, and I fleetingly wondered how he knew.

I looked away.

“I see your mother did that,” she remarked.

“It was a lie,” I told the counter.

“It was a mother’s love,” she refuted.

A mother’s love.

Tears hit my eyes, a whole load of them, instantly.

The front door opened.

Automatically, I looked that way.

Riggs was in first, he took one look at me and lost his mind.

“What the fuck?” he exploded.

“Doc—” Abigail began.

“Again, what the fuck?” he demanded, though he hadn’t given her the opportunity to answer the first time.

“I’m fine,” I assured.

“You’re fucking crying,” he retorted.

“Are you okay, Nadia?” Ledger asked, staring with worry at me.

I sniffed and got it together. “I am, sweetheart.”

Riggs was now in the kitchen. He hooked me at the waist and dragged me into his side, his eyes on his mother.

“Explain,” he barked.

“Actually, it’d be nice if you and Ledger would go wash your hands so Nadia and I could finish our discussion. I’ll call you when we’re done,” she replied.

Though I admired how ballsy she was, that wasn’t the right thing to say, I could tell right away.

Quickly, I put my hand to Riggs’s throat and his head angled down.

“We were talking about my mom, baby,” I said quietly.

He relaxed.

“And I’m okay. Honestly,” I continued. “But can you take Ledger somewhere and explain it to him?”

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