Page 50 of A Mommy for His Daughter

“Of…of course. This way,” Jocelyn said just as nervously as she led them into the house.

“You okay?” Derek asked.

“Leave it,” Evelyn muttered under her breath as she took off her boots and followed Jocelyn upstairs.

Derek stood there, still confused. It was apparent that Jocelyn and Evelyn knew each other, but the tension simmering under the surface was thick.

What was going on? What had happened?

* * *

Evelyn felt as if she was going to throw up. It had never occurred to her that she would run into Jocelyn again. She’d always been afraid of running into her. She’d ruined Jocelyn’s life too.

It figured that just when Evelyn had found some sort of small happiness in Derek, karma had to remind her of what she’d done all those years ago.

Her father had wanted to marry Jocelyn. Jocelyn had wanted to replace her mother. And when she was a kid she’d hated Jocelyn. Now she had a hard time looking at her. Evelyn was ashamed of her past behavior.

“My daughter is in here,” Jocelyn said quietly.

Evelyn barely acknowledged Jocelyn—because she couldn’t look at her. She was having a hard time keeping her composure and she needed to have control. There was a young girl suffering and she needed help. She couldn’t let her guilt overpower her and stop her from doing her job.

That was why she was here in Wolf’s Harbor.

Evelyn walked into the room and saw a young girl of about nineteen on the bed, sweating. Her skin was gray and she knew just from the glassy expression in the young woman’s eyes that she was bleeding and a lot of blood had been lost.

“Martha, I’m Dr. Saunders. I’ve come to help you.”

Martha nodded, but clearly couldn’t speak.

Evelyn pulled off her jacket and sanitized her hands. “Do you know how far along your daughter is, Mrs. Washington?”

“Sixteen weeks,” Jocelyn answered, sitting next to her daughter.

“She’s nineteen?” Evelyn asked.

“Yes,” Jocelyn responded.

Well, it didn’t take Jocelyn long to move on from my father.

She pushed that bitter thought away. At least Jocelyn had got some happiness. She deserved it.

“I’m going to examine you—okay, Martha? I’ll take care of everything and then I’m going to have Dr. Taylor set up an IV for fluid and pain relief, okay?”

Martha nodded and closed her eyes.

Evelyn ignored the fact that Jocelyn was in the room. There was no time to think about that. She had to help this poor girl.

She had a job to do.

* * *

Evelyn came down the stairs, carrying her equipment. She was exhausted, but she’d managed to stop the bleeding. Now she just wanted to put some distance between her and Jocelyn.

There was so much she wanted to say to Jocelyn but couldn’t. She was terrified. Terrified of having her apology rejected. She couldn’t deal with that today.

Derek was waiting for her.

“Well?” he asked.

“Bleeding has slowed down and she’s hooked up to some packed cells, but I need to get her into the clinic and do an ultrasound.”

“Why?”

“I think she was pregnant with twins and she only lost one, because the Doppler picked up a heartbeat. I couldn’t do anything else because I didn’t want to jeopardize the baby, but she definitely miscarried just one. Her father has a boat and they’re going to get her down to the docks. We should get back to the clinic now and prepare for her arrival.”

Derek nodded. “We can do that.”

“Good.” Evelyn slipped on her coat and then picked up a couple of boxes.

“Whoa, what’s your rush?” Derek asked as he grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. “Aren’t you going to say goodbye to Mrs. Washington?”

“I already have.”

“You’re so in a rush. Why?”

“I told you—we have to get the clinic ready.” She walked out of the door.

Derek caught up to her as she made her way down the path toward the docks. “What’re you running from?”

“I’m not running from anything.”

Liar.

“Oh, come on, Evelyn, you were positively rude to Jocelyn Washington and you’ve never, not once, been rude to anyone in town.”

Evelyn glared at him. “Derek, if the other twin is currently alive I have to prepare everything back at the clinic to make sure it stays that way. Martha was absolutely devastated that she lost one. I promised her and her mother I would do everything in my power to save the other twin. I’m not running from anything. Honestly? I’m still a bit tired from our trip to Juneau.”

“Fine,” Derek said, but she could tell from his tone that he wasn’t fine.

---