shoving Aubrey aside wi

ubr

room chair. A sharp, searing pain shot through her lower back, a

r. He was already on the floor

. She said I was a whore, that the baby wasn' t yours. Then she hit me!" She clutched her

rned to stone as he looked at Aubrey. He gently laid Kassie bac

and, without a word, sl

she was back in the orphanage yard, watching a young Connor, his fists bruised and bloody, after he' d fought off olde

d to register that the person who had just struck her was tha

n the sting on her cheek. She slowly li

doubt, of pain. His hand, raised for a second blow, froze in mid-air as h

pained moan from the floor

n. All traces of softness va

he snarled. "If anything happens t

rey on the floor. As he passed, Kassie, nestled in his arms, tu

pushed herself up with her arms, only to collapse back onto the cold

ay were starting to

hat Connor

on the floor? Sh

A crazy stalker trying to break up

t of their judgment was suffocating. Aubrey covered her ears, but

ed walls she had built around her heart crumbled, and she bro

r arms, their grips rough and impersonal, and dragge

freezer at one of the Harris-owned restaurants. The door

o cool off," one of the g

heart was far worse. She thought of Connor, the boy who had once quit his part-time job and worked two more just s

e source of al

r were too much. Her body finally gave u

ital bed. It was becoming a

extreme cold has accelerated the process. On top of that, your back is severely injured." He looked

in the world wanted her to survive. Not Conno

al for a week. Connor ne

fa, looking at his phone. He glanced up as she entered, his eyes scanning her gaunt f

looked

he said, his voice casual, as if he were disc

ind struggling to comprehen

is tone leaving no room for argument, "and y