Read Online And Then Came You by Maureen Child - Free Book Online Page A

you tomorrow,” he said tightly, then left, without another look at her.
    Shaking.
    She was shaking so hard her eyeballs were bouncing in her head.
    “Sam?” Jo stepped out onto the porch behind her. “Did I hear that right? The weasel-dog’s engaged?”
    Sam laughed shortly. “Yep.”
    “This just keeps getting weirder.”
    “There’s more.”
    “What’s left?” Jo demanded.
    Sighing, Sam realized that it wasn’t over yet. Now she had to tell her family what had happened.
    “What’s wrong?”
    She glanced at Jo, opened her mouth, then slammed it shut again. For this part of their conversation, she’d rather be inside where Mr. Bozeman couldn’t “accidentally” overhear them while he was trimming his roses. She turned and went back into the house, with Jo as close as her shadow.
    “Okay, you’re starting to worry me now.” Jo grabbed her sister’s arm, pulled her into the room, and then pushed her down onto the sofa. “When a Marconi can’t talk, she’s either dead or—hell, I don’t know anything else that could shut up a Marconi.”
    Sam dropped onto the cushion like a stone, bounced, then settled. Her hands in her lap, she inhaled deeply and blew it all out again, ruffling the dark red bangs that hung in her eyes. “Shock will do it.”
    “She speaks. A good sign. So tell me.” Jo looked around the familiar, yet empty room. Sunlight slanted through windows, illuminating an inch worth of duston the coffee table. Nope. No one else was here to help. She was on her own and Sam wasn’t making this easy. Maybe she should go run after Mr. GQ and beat some answers out of him. Mike was better at the tough stuff, though, and she wished her youngest sister were around. “Dammit, Sam, don’t make me beg. What is it?”
    “I saw her.”
    “Her?” At least she was talking. That was good. She wasn’t making sense, but speech was a step in the right direction. Jo dropped to one knee in front of her sister and looked her dead in the eye. “Her who?”
    Sam looked up at her. “My daughter.”
    “Oh, my God.”
    All the air in the room disappeared. It was the only explanation for the sudden blast of light-headedness that had Jo swaying and then toppling over to land on her butt. The landing jarred her teeth and she shook her head as if that would somehow clear things up. It didn’t. “Where?”
    “With him. With Jeff.”
    “
He’s
got her?” She shot a look at the wide-open front door. “I should have chased his ass down.”
    “He’s always had her. He’s raised her.”
    “But how?” This didn’t make any sense. That baby had been given up for adoption. Turned over to a private attorney and— “How did he—”
    “His mother.”
    “What?” She shook her head. “ ‘Bitch’ doesn’t seem like a big enough word.”
    “It’ll do.” Sam’s gaze sharpened, then focused on Jo’s. “All I know is Emma—that’s her name, Emma—looksjust like us. Same eyes, same mouth. Oh God, Jo. She’s mine and she didn’t even
know
me.”
    Jo watched as Sam’s anger faded into misery, swamping her with feelings she’d kept carefully blocked for years. All of them had suffered with her. Wondered with her. And couldn’t come close to actually
knowing
the pain that Sam had lived with.
    “Oh man. I don’t even know what to say.” Jo went up on her knees again and pulled Sam close. Wrapping her arms around her, she held her while Sam sobbed, her body shuddering with the force of a grief she’d never really recovered from.
    It wasn’t something anyone in the family talked about. But losing that baby had cost all of them. And none of them had ever forgotten the little girl who should have been a part of their lives. She was there, always. A shadow in the house. A ghost at the table. A phantom on Christmas mornings. She was birthday candles that had never been lit and fairy tales that had never been read.
    All of the Marconis felt that absence keenly. Naturally, Sam most of all. Though she