Page 112 of The Ice Sisters

But he couldn’t totally give up his work.

He needed to check in on Ellie. No one had told him anything about her. Or Huller.

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT

Ellie barely tolerated the medical exam, antsy to be released.

The doctor ordered her to take it easy and suggested keeping her for observation, but she declined. Sure, she had bruised ribs, was sore as hell and her head throbbed, but nothing was broken and she didn’t require hospitalization.

Cord pushed her in a wheelchair to Derrick’s room. He lay on his back, feet elevated, his scowl indicating he didn’t like his doctor’s report.

Cord stood by the door as she wheeled herself over to Derrick.

“You look like hell,” she said, remembering the way she’d last seen him, face down in the dirt.

Fearing he was dead.

“You don’t look like partying either,” he said with a tenderness in his voice that twisted her insides. “What did the doc say?”

She touched her bruised face. “It’ll heal,” she said. “I may not makeVanity Fair’s cover though.”

A dark chuckle rumbled from him. “I won’t be running a marathon this year either.”

Ellie smiled although the movement made her numb cheek feel tight. At least they both still had their sense of humor, even if it was a little awkward between them.

“What about you?” she asked.

“Compound fracture of the T-9, should heal on its own, but it’ll take time.” He sighed. “You got Huller?”

“Yeah. Cord and the sheriff found us at Huller’s uncle’s old chicken farm. Bryce arrested him.”

“Why did he do it?” Derrick asked.

“Barbara explained in the ambulance on the way here. His father married Barbara’s mother but they were killed in a car accident shortly afterward. Nathan was only four and went to live with an uncle who abused him. Barbara was fifteen and placed in a group home. Apparently, Nathan’s birth mother had abandoned him when he was two, then he lost his new family so he felt abandoned again.”

She paused and swallowed hard. “He was traumatized and thought that one day Barbara would come looking for him.”

“But she didn’t,” Derrick said matter-of-factly.

Ellie shook her head. “She believed he was in a happy home. She was a kid herself when it happened and traumatized from the accident. But she also felt abandoned and later wanted a family so when she lost her own child and realized she couldn’t carry another baby, she donated her embryos to the other women.”

“Then she had a big family,” Derrick said.

Ellie nodded. “Just like she dreamed about. Until Huller decided to destroy it.”

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE

COAL MOUNTAIN CEMETERY

One Week Later

Family meant everything. Ellie had overheard Barbara, Loretta and Ros talking and supporting each other and saw it in their eyes. Everything they’d done had been to have a family and to protect it. Even though their secrets had led to them losing Claire and the twins.

She stood on the periphery of the memorial service. Such a sad loss to bury a mother and her two little girls who had barely started their lives. They never should have died.

More tragic was the reason, that they’d suffered from a man’s revenge.

Families came to you in different ways. Some naturally. Others through friendships who weren’t blood kin, but ones you loved for who they were.

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