Page 115 of The Secrets She Keeps

“I’ll carry her to her room,” Miguel said. Just like that, he lifted Hope into his arms. She never stirred. Two of Hope’s nieces followed him down the hall. Gunnar found his arms full of a babbling Emilia Rose.

“We’ll just leave Heather where she’s at so we can watch her. Besides, she sleeps like a zombie anyway. She’s not going anywhere,” Joy said. Norm helped get Heather’s feet on the couch. Joy covered her twin quickly.

“Please, you are all welcome to stay for dinner,” Bonnie said. “We really do have plenty. To say thank you for, um…volunteering…to clean out our garage.”

Gunnar looked at Powell. Curled up on her side, one hand beneath her face, she was sound asleep on the side couch. Her brother Alex was pulling a knit throw off the back of a nearby chair and covering her with it.

“We can just leave her here if Bonnie and the rest of you beautiful beasts don’t mind?” Alex said. “When she is sleeping, she’s not causing trouble, right? At least, that was the way it was when she was a kid. Mac and Ilivedfor the hours she would nap when she was little.”

“Something like that.” Gunnar just looked at her, feeling like his whole world was right there in front of him. His arms tightened around Emilia when she twisted. She was a wiggly little thing. She babbled at him, something about duckies, he thought. Maybe. How was he to know?

Emilia spoke herownlanguage, after all.

There were ducks in the backyard. There was a duck on her little T-shirt beneath the overalls. She was perfect. Beautiful.

This was the possible daughter of the man responsible for almost taking Powell away from Gunnar forever. And she was so infinitely precious. He wouldn’t ever do anything to endanger the security this baby had with the father who loved and adored her. Gunnar would protect her, no matter what.

But Grundenman and OPJ tied to the Colesons? That was a bit farfetched. He wasn’t stupid. That was far too coincidental for him. Something more was going on.

He just didn’t understand how it all worked together.

But he was going to.

Dr. Timothy Grundenman was on borrowed time.

“Emilia Rose, want to go see the duckies?” Gunnar asked. He just wasn’t ready to put her down yet. He just wasn’t.

He needed to see the good things in life for a moment too.

The darkness was starting to consume them all.

75

They were goingto be looking for him. The police. Timothy wasn’t stupid. Heather had seen him. She would be able to identify him. And his son. They would identify Timothy and then look at Trey.

It was almost over now.

Trey couldn’tfixthis. And Timothy didn’t know how to fix it for his son. He was terrified what would happen now, for his daughters. For Trey.

For himself. Timothy couldn’t go to prison. He just couldn’t. He would never survive there. And his family, hiskids—what would happen to them, to Leena?

He and Trey were both on a path to prison now. The only thing they could truly do was run. Get out of town, out of the country. Before they got caught and losteverything.

Damn that girl. Heather had always been nothing but trouble. Always so superior to everyone else. Acting as if she was something special from the time she was only a child. Heather had been an infant when he had first met her. Just a beautiful baby, she and Joy both. But Heather had grown into an attitudethat had always gotten right beneath Timothy’s skin by the time she was eleven or twelve.

She wasn’tlikeAngela. Angela had been quiet, reserved, but so smart. So natural as a physician, as a wife, as a mother. Giving, loving, kind.

It wasHeatherwho had young children now.

Angela’s nieces.

Two of them. Girls, the internet had said. She was a year older than Angela had been at her death now too. It wasn’t right that Angela was gone, but Heather…

Heather had a future Angela would never have. He wondered about Heather’s daughters. What they looked like. He had heard one was an infant. Another a preschooler. Did either look like Angela?

They were his Angela’s nieces. That gave him pause for a moment. Angela had loved little Cashlyn and sweet Cara so much. As much as she’d loved her own daughters. She’d have loved Heather’s children too.

She would have loved them so much. Adored them as much as she had her sisters. She would have been a part of their lives.

---