Page 49 of The Guest Cottage

“Yes, and then things got really bad.”

All of that wasn’t bad enough? “How so?”

“Like . . . I was passing out, I guess? Everything seemed to happen at once. I ended up in the hospital, and my doctor delivered Andy five weeks early with a C-section.” Despite all she’d been through, a small smile touched her mouth. “It was my birthday, and he was the best present ever.”

Marlow took the words like a blow. This petite girl had been seriously ill, alone in the world, and then responsible for a newborn?On her birthday?

“Thank God he was healthy.” Pixie sighed. “I ended up with a hysterectomy, too.” She again glanced at Cort, and practically whispered, “Because of some bleeding and stuff. In a way, it was a good thing because they kept Andy and me in the hospital a while longer.”

Alone, Marlow kept thinking, brokenhearted for her. That word hammered on her brain over and over again. Alone, completely alone.

How wretched must she have felt?

“Dylan had already passed away?”

Pixie’s entire face tightened, tears imminent again. “Yes, but I’d ended things before Andy was born.”

“Wait, what?Youended things?”

“I didn’t know he was married! I swear to God I didn’t. I’m a nobody, and when he started paying attention to me, I was too flattered to ask questions. It wasn’t until I got pregnant that he told me.”

“That he was married?”

Shamed, she bit her lips, but then bravely met Marlow’s gaze. “I thought, because I was having his baby, he’d want to get married. He’d . . . told me he cared, and he was so nice, I believed him. But when I told him I was having a baby, he didn’t have much choice except to admit that he was already married.”

What. A. Swine. “You broke things off with him then?”

She nodded. “He said it’d be okay, that he’d take care of us anyway.” Gasping, she said, “I mean . . . I know I shouldn’t say this to you . . .”

“It’s okay.” It wasn’t, not by a long shot. All of Marlow’s initial rage and hurt had seeped back in, and that hollow feeling invaded her chest once more, but she refused to show her distress. Pixie had been through enough. Adding to her pain now would accomplish nothing. That left Marlow with the only option of ignoring her own feelings. “He got you an apartment and a car. I know because I received the bills after he passed.”

Pixie literally groaned as if in pain. She crossed her arms over her stomach and rocked a little as she spoke. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

“You don’t need to keep apologizing,” Marlow nearly snapped. Seeing Pixie so cowed only infuriated her more—at Dylan. Moderating her tone, she stated, “It’s in the past.” Only it hadn’t stayed there. Nope, the past had come knocking, and now Pixie was sitting at her table. Sick, afraid, in serious need of help, and hoping Marlow had a solution.

Life could be so absurd, sometimes.

Cort’s hand settled over Marlow’s wrist, his thumb brushing against her skin. When she glanced at him, he looked proud. Ofher?

Okay, that helped. It meant he agreed that she was doing the right thing. He didn’t see her as a stooge or a sucker for a sorry tale.

Pixie’s talewassorry. Incredibly so. And Marlow wasn’t immune to it. For now, that was all the incentive she needed to keep her going.

She was strong, but Pixie looked vulnerable.

She had endless options, while it appeared Pixie had none.

She was thirty-five, and Pixie was practically a teenager.

Seeing all that made Marlow despise Dylan so much. This was beyond the hurt he’d doled out to her. It was outright abuse. He’d used this young woman, started an affair with her when she’d been only nineteen. And when she’d needed him the most, the selfish bastard had the temerity to die.

Probably hadn’t been his intent, but still . . .

“I assume without Dylan to keep up the payments on the apartment and car, you fell behind?”

“I barely scraped by when I worked at the warehouse. Dylan convinced me to quit, saying I didn’t make that much anyway. And with his position in the company, it would be frowned on if we dated.” Pixie scowled. “I should have known something was up then, but I still never suspected he was married. If I’d kept that job, a coworker might have told me.”

“I take it things happened quickly?”

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