Return of the Reborn Princess novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: What Amos Saw

Amos looked at the bracelet in Poppy's hand for a long time.

He put the cup of ice chips down on the tray.

"Where did you get that?" he said.

"Adele Drummond gave it to me this afternoon. In her house. Where she locked me in."

"Shut the door, Eden."

I shut it.

Conroy had stayed in the hall with his chair turned to the wall, so that nobody would find him listening.

Amos held out his hand, and Poppy put the band in it.

His fingers were shaking too much to read it, so he just held it.

"Your mother wanted to tell you both," he said. "Before she died. I told her not yet."

"Dad."

"I'm going to tell it plain. Sit down, both of you. The surgery's in the morning, and I don't want to go under with this still in me."

Poppy took the chair by the bed.

I sat on the edge of the window sill, because my legs had stopped being reliable.

"I worked nights on the maternity floor for six years," he said. "That night I was pushing the linen cart down the east corridor at about four in the morning."

He stopped and rubbed his thumb on the plastic.

"Your mother had delivered you at two. You were in the nursery, down the hall, with a card on your bassinet that said Lacey."

"Me," Poppy said.

"Her," Amos said, and looked at me. "The pink one. Loud. She came out screaming and didn't stop for an hour."

I held on to the window frame.

"Next to her was the Drummond baby, born at midnight. A little thing. Blue around the mouth. Her heart wasn't right, and they were waiting on the ambulance to take her across town to the children's hospital."

"Me," Poppy said again, very low.

"You."

He swallowed.

"The night nurse had gone to take a call. The nursery was empty, and the light was low. And Mrs. Drummond was in there in a hospital robe with her hair down."

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