Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,48

blinked, suddenly realizing that Henry was sitting next to her. She wiped her eyes and looked between Toni and Henry. “Is Henry, like, your boyfriend or something?”

“Yeah. Henry’s my… uh—”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Henry said. “Do you need anything? Do you want some water or Kleenex or anything?”

“Wow.” Beth looked at Toni. “Way to go, Auntie Toni.”

“Why don’t we focus on finding Grandma right now, okay?”

“Okay.”

She rose with Toni as they walked back toward the fray of relatives, wading into the cacophony of people asking questions, speculating about what had happened, and fighting back tears.

Nico and Marissa might have split up, but she was still Beth and Ethan’s mom. She was still family. And as Toni noticed the crowd of men gathering around Marissa’s father, Toni’s uncle, her father, her brother, and Nico’s extended family, she realized that whoever had assaulted Marissa misunderstood their family on a very fundamental level.

Marissa might be annoying as shit, but she was still one of theirs.

“Toni!”

She turned toward her mother’s voice. “Mom.” She grabbed her mother in a swift embrace. “This is so awful.”

“Can you believe this? What kind of world are we living in now? What is wrong with our town? First someone murdered and now someone breaks into Marissa’s house and beats her? I just don’t understand any of this.”

“Did someone break in? Have the police said—”

“I mean, someone must have broken in, don’t you think? They must have been going after a woman on her own. That’s the only thing that makes sense. They must have thought she had some jewelry or something like that.” Her mother pressed her hands to Toni’s cheeks. “See why I worry about you living out there all on your own? If someone broke in—”

“Mom, can we not? This isn’t about me. We need to think about the kids, okay?” She lowered her voice. “Did you know that Marissa and Whit Fairfield—”

“I don’t know anything about any of that, so don’t start. You know I don’t listen to gossip, Toni Luciana. Saint James said the tongue is a fire and a world of evil, so I do not listen to gossip about my children.” She must have spotted Henry over her shoulder. “Who is that?”

“That’s Henry. You know, Nico’s winemaker.”

“And why is he with you in the middle of the night?”

“Can we talk about this later please?”

Rose Lanza Dusi narrowed her eyes. “I need to find Julia. The doctors are only talking to Nico, which is just ridiculous. Their daughter is in intensive care, and they haven’t even seen her yet. They’re talking about surgery, but they won’t say on what.”

“Okay, let’s go find Nico.” She ushered her mother toward the nurses’ station where she could already see her cousin Leah fielding questions. Leah was a pediatric nurse, but someone would have called her as soon as anyone in the family landed in the hospital.

Hours passed as they waited to find out what was happening with Marissa and the surgery that was supposed to happen. The last Toni had heard, there was swelling on her brain from the attack, and that was what the doctors were most worried about.

She was resting against Henry’s arm, dozing as the hospital noise buzzed around her. Henry was out cold, his long legs stretching halfway across the waiting area. She saw Drew Bisset from the corner of her eye, talking with her cousin Max near the double glass doors of the emergency department.

She lifted her head and raised a hand, only realizing after she’d done so that she might be in very serious trouble.

Shit.

Oh Toni, you’ve stepped in it this time.

Of all the times for her to remember that she, Katherine, and Megan were probably the last people to see Marissa before she was attacked, this was a bad one.

“Hey.” Drew sat across from her and kept his voice low. “This is pretty bad, huh? I talked to the guys who got the call and it was ugly. I hope she pulls through.”

“Who called the police?”

“One of her neighbors. It was late, and the older lady downstairs heard arguing. Then a big thud and slamming doors. It was enough for her to call, and it’s a good thing she did. The ambulance said she was touch and go with the head wound.”

Toni took a deep breath, glanced at Henry, and decided to rip the bandage off. “Okay, so there’s something I should probably tell you.”

Drew sat back and narrowed his eyes. “Nothing that comes after a statement like that is ever