style="font-size:15px;"> “If you’re telling the truth,” Bo explained, “you wouldn’t be here. A mother wouldn’t put her baby in that kind of danger.”
“A mother without a choice would have,” she countered. “I don’t have a choice.”
“I beg to differ. You can turn and walk out that door right now.” Of course, he wouldn’t let her do that. If she was going anywhere, it was to police headquarters for a long hard interrogation.
“I’ve been living in fear for a long time.” Her voice was strained and low now. “I worried that right after the hostage situation, the hospital would do DNA tests on all the babies. I thought my secret would be discovered then.”
“How do you know the hospital didn’t do tests?” Bo snarled.
“If they had, then you’d know that the little girl in the picture is mine.”
She had him there. But some of the babies had been tested, those in the newborn unit that had been evacuated because the gunmen had set a fire near it before they escaped. And the other group that had been tested was those newborns that had been physically separated from their mothers at any time during the standoff.
That hadn’t been the case with Nadine.
Bo and the other officers had found her and the babies in the nurses’ lounge. Alone. It was obvious Nadine had given birth, and it was equally obvious that she was holding her babies in her arms.
Mattie glanced in the direction of the nursery when one of the babies fussed, but the noise soon stopped.
“Nadine didn’t say anything when you got to her?” Mattie asked.
“Not much.”
“But she said something,” she pressed.
Oh, yes. Nadine had said something. Something that Bo had replayed in his head a million times. Words that he would never forget.
We have to protect her.
Not them.
Her.
The comment had puzzled Bo, but he’d dismissed it as the ramblings of a traumatized, dying woman. Nadine had meant to say them. The twins. Just as she’d meant to tell Bo that she loved him. But there hadn’t been time, and Nadine hadn’t had the energy to speak anything else.
“What did she say?” Mattie whispered. She was begging. And there were tears in her eyes, though she quickly blinked them back.
Bo didn’t like those tears. They seemed genuine. The real McCoy. Still, he wasn’t ready to cut her any slack. Not with what was at stake.
“I’ll tell you what Nadine said,” he countered, “when you tell me why you’re really here.”
Mattie was apparently still contemplating that when he saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. Rosalie stepped from the nursery. And she wasn’t alone. She was carrying Jacob, and Holly was peeking around Rosalie’s skirt.
“Is that van gone?” Rosalie asked.
Bo nodded and went toward her. He didn’t want Mattie seeing Holly. But it was too late. She obviously saw the child, because Mattie went in that direction, as well.
He blocked her from moving any closer.
“What’s wrong?” Rosalie demanded.
Bo locked eyes with Mattie, but he addressed his comment to the nanny. “Just wait in the nursery.”
“You keep dodging the question, Bo,” Rosalie answered. “And I think it’s time you told me what’s going on. I have ears, you know. I can hear what this woman is saying. Well, most of it, anyway.”
Bo had no idea what to say to that, and it turned out that an immediate response wasn’t required. That’s because Holly squealed “Da Da” and toddled toward him. She had just taken her first steps two days before, so when she wobbled, she fell to the floor and crawled toward Bo.
Jacob followed her lead, babbled “Da Da” as well and wiggled and squirmed so that Rosalie let him down. Jacob had been walking for nearly a month now but still had some trouble mastering the carpet in his bare feet.
Holly made it to Bo first. Her loose brown curls danced around her beaming face, and despite everything else going on, Bo’s bad mood melted away. He scooped up his daughter in his arms and got rewarded with a sloppy kiss on his cheek. A moment later, Jacob reached him, as well, and both of Bo’s arms were suddenly filled with the children he loved more than life itself.
He looked at Mattie. This time, she wasn’t successful in blinking back those tears. She reached out, her fingers going straight toward Holly’s curls, but it was Rosalie who snagged her wrist.
“You said some powerful things,” Rosalie acknowledged. “What I want to know is why you’re saying them.”
Mattie kept her attention nailed to Holly. “Because it’s the truth.”
Rosalie met Bo’s gaze, and he didn’t see the immediate dismissal that he hoped would be there. He kissed the babies again and passed them back to the nanny. “I need to clear this up with Ms. Collier.”
Rosalie looked ready to argue, but thankfully she didn’t. She pulled both kids into her arms and headed back down the hall.
“I was going to name her Isabella,” Mattie said before he could speak. Her voice cracked. “But Holly suits her. It’s a good fit.”
He didn’t want to hear any of this.
“This ends now,” Bo quickly told Mattie. “I’ve already wasted enough time. If you were really Holly’s mom, you wouldn’t have come here.”
“I told you I didn’t have a choice. I’ve been keeping tabs on my uncle and his cronies, and I have reason to believe that Kendall or someone else has made the connection between your wife and me.”
There it was. The feeling of being punched in the gut. “And how would he have done that?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe that hospital video. Maybe by talking to eyewitnesses who were able to give him a description of me.” She paused. “As I told you, someone has been researching all the babies born around the time my child was due. It’s possible Kendall knows that you have my child. And if he knows that, then it won’t be long before he comes after her. Because he’ll probably try to use Holly to get to me.”
Every muscle in his body tensed. Bo couldn’t bear the thought of anyone being a threat to his child.
“I still don’t believe you,” he said, enunciating each word so that she wouldn’t misunderstand.
“Just think this through,” she countered. “Nadine and you must have known she wasn’t carrying twins.”
“We didn’t. There were no ultrasounds. Nadine had read a lot of articles about ultrasounds, and she was worried they might not be a hundred percent safe. Something to do with the way the high-frequency waves could
