Page 4 of Stone

I closed my eyes, trying to tamp down the tidal wave of fury crashing into me.

“It’s okay,” Elise said softly. “I made my choice thirty years ago, a choice I had to live with.”

“No, you didn’t,” I argued. “No woman should have to live with that treatment.”

She studied me with eyes bloodshot from exhaustion. “He held all the cards, Johnny. Once I committed, I had no way out, so I made the best of it by watching and learning. Somebody had to look out for the people he was hurting. I couldn’t save them all, but I could gather enough evidence to eventually put him and his sick friends down. Plus, he had something of mine, something precious. I couldn’t leave until I found her.”

My jaw clenched, and I stared at her coldly. “Her? Do you mean your daughter?”

Elise’s eyes rounded with shock, and all color drained from her face. “W—What?” A hand went to her throat, and she released a tiny sob. “How—How do you know?”

The sterile scent of the room, mingled with warm air, wrapped around me as I sat by Elise’s bedside. Her chest rose and fell in uneven breaths, a testament to the emotions coursing through her.

“We didn’t realize at first,” I stated huskily. “It was only when Sophie started treating you that she noticed the similarities between you both.”

Elise’s gaze hit mine, a frown knitting her brow as if trying to work out an impossible puzzle. “Similarities?”

I jerked one nod. “It all seemed trivial at first, but then the pieces began to align. You have the same blood group, which ispretty damned rare. You’ve got identical moles and birthmarks in the same place. If I remember correctly, your mom had them, and Sophie’s daughter does, too. She began to put two and two together, her adoption and the fact her birth mother was from Hambleton, and she approached me. I told her to run a blood test, more to rule it out than anythin’—”

The moment it hit home, her breath hitched, a quiet gasp filling the room with tension. “She’s here?” Elise struggled to sit up, her movements hindered by injury and exhaustion. “My Constance is here? She’s called Sophie?” Her eyes widened and filled with tears. “Do you mean Doctor Sophie?”

A familiar tightness constricted my chest, and the name ‘Constance’ made my gut sink. It was my mom’s name. She called her baby girl after my mom.

I reached out to stop her from hurting herself. “Settle down.”

“Settle down?” she shrieked in a voice raw with a lifetime of pain. Her jade green eyes grew wide, brimming with emotion. “I’ve looked for her for more than thirty years, and you’re telling me to settle down? Are you crazy? Where is she, John? I need to see her.” She pushed the comforter back and slowly began to shuffle.

“Get the fuck back in that bed!” I ordered, gently pushing her down.

“Don’t you dare boss me around, John Stone,” she retorted, trying to shove me away. “Help me out of this bed. I need to see her. I need to talk to my daughter.” The trembling fingers of one hand clutched the comforter, now a crumpled mess. Her head jerked, and she began to shake all over, probably from shock at the overload of information hitting her from all angles.

A heavy weight settled in my gut at her reaction.

I’d gone too far. Elise just woke up from being beaten by her husband. I should’ve held back until she’d recovered. “Calmdown, Duchess,” I pleaded, rubbing her shoulders. “The last thing you need is to fuck up your recovery.”

“Screw my recovery, John. I’ve stayed with that monster all these years, trying to find her. Now you’re telling me she’s been here all along?” Her fingers dug into my arm, and she wailed, “I need to see her. Now!”

“She hasn’t been here all along,” I said, trying to reassure her. “Just a couple of years.”

Elise let out an agonized cry.

I reached out to comfort her, but my hand stopped halfway when I saw how much her entire body shook. My heart almost stopped at her emotional state.

Leesy’s skin had lost all color and felt clammy. She shook like a leaf in a hurricane, the movements so jerky that if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought she’d been electrocuted. But what really worried me was her breathing. She gasped for air so desperately I thought she was about to suffocate.

I held her by her arms. “Elise. Calm the fuck down. We’ll get it sorted.”

A hand flew to her chest, and a lone tear streaked down her face, her breathing becoming even choppier.

“It’ll be okay, sweetheart,” I said reassuringly, but doubt gnawed at me. I knew I had to stay calm if I had any chance of getting the answers I needed. Still, seeing her so damned broken made all the old feelings of protectiveness rear up. I couldn’t help myself; my arms slid around her, and I pulled her into my chest. “It’s okay, Duchess. I’ve got you.”

For a second, I could pretend we’d gone back thirty years just because of the way she felt in my arms. This was us, the way we always were. Back then, I couldn’t keep my hands off her. I always had the urge to touch her in some way, even if it was just my fingers trailing down her back or a gentle brush of our hands.

Every time we connected physically, something about Elise grounded me. She was the moon, and I was the earth, and we were pulled together by a force of gravity that had sparked to life the very first time we locked eyes.

I rubbed my hand down her back, trying to calm her trembling, but it didn’t work. My throat constricted because it was so easy to fall back into the habit of worrying about her. Elise was strong as a woman could be, but she still emitted an air of vulnerability, and it sucked me in, even though I should’ve been immune to it.

“Hey, lay down,” I whispered, easing her onto the mattress. “You need to try and relax.”

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