And he was good. He’d coaxed tidbits of information from her memory that she hadn’t known she knew.
Like the glint of venom in Bob Thomas’s eye. She’d forgotten how the man had looked at her that day in court, right after he’d been harangued by the judge for not paying child support.
Or the hostility in the young woman’s voice when Sunny had contacted her to tell her that her brother wanted to end a ten-year estrangement between them. The woman had coldly told Sunny that some things could never be forgiven. At the time, Sunny had sympathized with the brother, who’d seemed brokenhearted that his sister didn’t want to see him. But today, Griff’s intense gaze made her wonder if she’d done the right thing.
When Griff asked her if she’d given the man any hint of where his sister was, Sunny’s heart had hammered in trepidation. Had she? What if the brother was violent or abusive? Had she put the woman in danger? The man had sat in Sunny’s office, with her case notes in plain view on her desk.
Griff’s scowl told her what he was too polite to say. He thought she was careless and incompetent. Fluff.
Right now, she agreed with him. She’d had an idealistic notion of helping people by giving them the happy ending they sought. It warmed her heart each time she helped reunite friends, or bring together long-lost family members.
But Griff had forced her to see how naive she’d been. The harsh truth had been reflected in his violet eyes.
Every one of her cases had its dark side, its unanswered questions. Almost any one of them could have spawned a bitter person who resented her intrusion.
At the top of the stairs, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and hugged herself. She felt beaten down. Sick with worry.
For the first time in six months, since Emily had come into her life, the weight of her loneliness enshrouded her. It was amazing how thoroughly one tiny little being had taken over her heart. The gaping hole left when her parents had died had been filled to overflowing by her beautiful little girl.
A small moan escaped her lips as she stopped at the door to Emily’s room. She filled her lungs with the sweet, baby powder smell of her daughter. And felt the emptiness return.
The moonlight turned the bright pink-and-yellow room to a soft, muted beige. The baby bed sat by the window, its little blankets unwrinkled, its baby pillow smooth and undented by Emily’s tiny head.
As tears began to flow down her cheeks, Sunny tiptoed over and picked up the stuffed bear she’d had made especially for her daughter. She sat in the rocking chair, hugging the bear to her chest.
“Oh, Emily,” she choked. Was she ever going to see her sweet baby girl again? The fear that had dogged her all her life, the reason she had formed Loveless, Inc. two years ago, echoed in her ears in Griff’s low deep voice.
There are no happy endings.
She pushed her nose into the bear’s soft fur. “Dear God, please. I will do anything. Just don’t let them hurt her. I promised her I’d take care of her. Help me keep that promise. Please don’t take her away from me.”
Old grief mixed with new, tasting like ashes in her mouth. Without Emily to fill the void in her soul, Sunny missed her mom and dad with a fierceness that surprised her. Her parents had been in their fifties when her mother had found her, a newborn, abandoned in the parking lot of the hospital where she’d worked the evening shift. The Lovelesses had immediately started proceedings to adopt her. As far as Sunny was concerned, they were her family.
Just as she was Emily’s family. Her throat clogged with tears and she rocked back and forth, her chest cramping with a pain too deep for tears.
She finally understood what her mother had always told her. You could not be more special. Not even if I’d carried you inside me.
A harsh jangle startled her. It was her cell phone.
Her heart skipped with hope and fear. In the three days since her baby had been stolen, her cell phone hadn’t rung once.
Only Lillian and a few close friends had the number. She’d given it to Lieutenant Carver so he could reach her no matter where she was.
But the number was engraved on the gold ID bracelet Lil had given Emily just a week before, for her six-month birthday.
She dug the phone