Page 61 of Seeking Happily Ever After

Phone.

She needed her phone.

With laser focus, she left the porch and the railing that was supporting her, and lurched toward her car and the salvation of her phone. Her feet wouldn’t work properly. She tripped over a root, or herself—she couldn’t be sure—and she hit the ground on her hands and knees.

The pain ripped through her side and clouded her vision in white.

No.

She couldn’t pass out. She needed to stay—

A baby’s cry shattered the silence of the forest.

A baby?

Charlotte couldn’t wrap her head around it.Why would there be a baby crying in the forest?She was hallucinating. The stress of losing Amelia and the pain…she was dying. It wasn’t real.

Another cry.

Amelia.

That was real. That was Amelia’s cry.

She may not have given birth to the child but she loved her in a way that couldn’t be properly put into words, and she’d know that cry anywhere. Even when she was barely conscious.

Still in the dirt on her hands and knees, Char turned in the direction of the cry and forced herself to her feet. It didn’t make any sense that Amelia would be crying in the forest at Lynx Creek, but it didn’t have to make sense.

She needed to get to her.

That was the only thing that made sense.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like hours as Charlotte stumbled and fell and made her way through the darkness toward the cries. She tripped and fell, her knees landing hard on the wooden step of the main lodge. The cries were closer now.

“Amelia. I’m coming.” Her voice was barely a whisper. She was so weak. Even the pain in her side had subsided. She couldn’t feel anything as she crawled into the lodge.

It wasn’t until she saw Jessica, passed out next to Amelia—sitting up on a blanket next to her mother, tears running down her face—did Charlotte know for sure that she wasn’t hallucinating. With all the energy she had left, Char moved to the baby and gathered her up in her blanket and held her close to her chest.

“Shh,” she whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Unable to feel her legs, Char couldn’t stand. It wouldn’t be safe if she fell holding the baby. So instead, she dragged herself somehow with the baby in one arm, to the far side of the cabin, where she would be out of sight if Jessica woke up or if Billy came to.

She leaned back against the wall and propped herself in such a way that she wouldn’t drop Amelia. “Shh,” she murmured. “It’s going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay. I’ve got you now.”

In her arms, Amelia’s sobbing subsided, and she wrapped her chubby fist around Charlotte’s finger. It was the last thing Char remembered before losing consciousness.

ChapterSeventeen

Nick had taken a guess,and he’d been right. Charlotte’s car was parked outside the cabin she’d last been working on. The one where they…no. He wouldn’t let himself go there. He had to focus. He was out of the vehicle and running to the door when Stephanie appeared from inside the cabin and stopped him.

“She’s not in there.”

“What?” He glanced around. “When did you…where is…is Amelia in…”

“No. Amelia’s not—”

“And Char?”

Stephanie shook her head. “I don’t know,” Stephanie said. “We just got here, but—”

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