A Hurt So Sweet Volume Four - Isabella Starling Page 0,55

hired, are close to giving up.

They're gone, vanished without a trace.

And as I stare into my toy's hopeful, brightly shining face, I know it's something I'll have to tell her sooner rather than later. I also know it will break her heart.

But I'll always be there to pick up the pieces.

21

Pandora

6 years later

Eden Falls has changed a lot during the past six years.

The only reason Dex and I stayed in town was because of the search for Lily Anna and Reign.

They told me to give up. Countless people have tried to convince me we'll never find them. But I never listened to them. I cling to the hope that someday, Lily Anna will bring my son back. Often, I imagine what he looks like now. The photo-robot the PI team has put together paints him as a handsome young boy.

If he comes back, he won't even know me or Dexter. But I still cling to the hope that we'll get him back. Some days, the hope is waning. Others, it's stronger than ever. I keep clinging, hanging on to the last few straws of my patience. Hoping, praying my son will come back. And I know one day he will.

I just don't expect that day to happen when it does. When I'm leaving the doctor's office, sitting pale as a sheet in the back of a car a chauffeur is driving. A small smile breaks on my lips when I think of what I just found out. I fight it off my face as the driver pulls up in the long, winding driveaway of Booth Manor.

Six years have brought changes. I've been slaving away on the Manor tirelessly while Dexter worked. It now sparkles and shines like new. It's more beautiful than ever and I'm immensely proud of what I've achieved. That's on the good days, at least. On the bad days, I eat myself up because I lost my child. Because I haven't been able to conceive again. Because it might never happen for Dexter and me.

My hands form fists. If I could just-

We round the corner and I see a police car parked in front of the Manor.

"What's happening, Leroy?" I ask, trying to keep my voice as level as possible as I address our new driver.

"I'll find out for you, Mrs. Booth." Leroy gets out to open my door, but I'm already out of the door, walking briskly to the front of the house where my husband is talking to two uniformed officers.

"What's going on?" I demand, my eyes going to my husband first.

Dexter is somehow getting more handsome by the year. His jaw is covered in dark stubble, but just as chiseled as it was when I first met him. He's got a maturity going for him now though, one that makes him look distinguished, confident and suave. As always, I melt just a little at the sight of him. It's been a long time since I stopped resisting those feelings. It feels so much better to give in than to fight.

"We have eyes on a woman that could be Lily Anna." An officer speaks up from behind me, and I spin around, glaring at him.

"Lily Anna?" I repeat. Her cursed name is never forgotten in this house. Not when she took something so dear and precious away from us. "Where is she?"

"There was a sighting in town," he mutters, nervously glancing between Dexter and his fellow policeman. "We don't know if it was her yet."

"Was she alone?" I bark.

"Y-Yes," the officer stutters.

My shoulders sink. Dex appears behind me, softly placing his palms on my back. He squeezes, hard enough to stop me from panicking and remind me of his solution for everything that ails me. Pain. Sweet pain, darling pain that has become like a lover's embrace through all these years.

"That doesn't mean anything," Dexter mutters in my ear. "He could still be with her. She's probably hiding him."

"Have you heard anything?" I ask, turning my head to the side. "Has she been in touch? You, or Father?"

"No."

I groan in frustration and walk away, leaving the officers standing on the doorframe and Dexter rushing behind me.

"Pandora, don't do this."

"Why? Why not? You know it's not her, just like it wasn't the first seventeen times a sighting happened," I hiss. "This one doesn't even have a kid with her. What makes you think it's really Lily Anna?"

"This." He pulls his cell out of his pocket and shows me a simple text message.

Midnight. The cliffs at Oakes