Before she drifted away, she murmured sleepily, “If you’ve caught something, you’re quarantined to these rooms. I don’t want the children getting it.”
And there it was, yet again.
Elle taking care of somebody.
Since these somebodies were his children, Prentice smiled into her hair.
She fell asleep.
He listened to her breathing.
Against his will, the words she wrote in her journals slid into his mind.
His body pressed into hers.
Twenty years ago, Prentice walked out of a room.
A simple enough thing to do.
But in doing so, he’d left the woman he loved in hell.
He didn’t know it then.
But he knew it now, from what he’d learned through her and through Mikey.
He just didn’t understand it.
Until he read her journals.
Now he understood it.
And it killed him.
Chapter Sixteen
The Day Elle Austin Awoke
Fiona
The next day, Elle Austin awoke.
Fiona watched it.
And, when it happened, Fiona smiled.
* * * * *
Elle
Elle woke to the bed bouncing.
She had no time to think of the night before.
She had no time to think of one word of the life changing conversation she’d shared with Prentice.
She had no time to think even of the strange sense of disquiet she felt when Prentice led her from the balcony into his room, tenderly disrobed her, tugged one of his t-shirts over her head and put her to bed. It was a disquiet she couldn’t put her finger on but it felt like someone she cared about was in pain.
She had no time to think of any of this because Sally, who was on her knees at the foot of the bed, shouted, “Good morning!”