Live to Tell (Live to Tell #1)(105)

Sadie dives into the brush and lies flat on her stomach, as still as she can be.

After a long time, she hears movement in the brush. If it’s animals, there are a lot of them. And a dog is barking, and then she hears a shout.

“Sadie!”

Someone knows her name!

“Sadie Walsh! Where are you?”

That isn’t Mommy’s voice, but it isn’t the crazy lady’s, either.

“I’m here!” she cries out, and the next thing she knows, there are policemen.

And, at last, her mother comes running toward her, arms outstretched.

“Sadie,” Mommy sobs, “Sadie, are you okay?”

“Not really. I got a splinter, and my legs are bleeding, and I have to pee really bad.”

Mommy laughs for some reason, laughs and cries and hugs her close, and Sadie knows everything is going to be okay.



Two days later, Lauren tentatively walks down the hospital corridor toward Sam Henning’s room, a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She had thought of cutting some from her yard, but that didn’t seem like a great idea, under the circumstances. So she’d stopped off at the florist in the strip mall on the way over. Naturally, she ran into countless people she knows, and they all stared.

The news coverage has been nonstop for forty-eight hours now, given Congressman Garvey Quinn’s involvement. As his career crashes and burns around him, bits and pieces of a shocking truth—a mistress, an illegitimate son, a blackmail plot—have emerged. The puzzle is far from complete, but it has, predictably, consumed the scandal-loving New York press.

Alyssa came this morning and picked up Lucy, Ryan, and Sadie and drove them upstate to their grandparents’ house to keep them away from the media firestorm. Lauren, who is also headed up there later, can’t bear for them to see their father’s picture plastered all over the media. Right now, Nick and Beth are missing persons connected with the case.

Dogs picked up their scent at Greymeadow, and the police are searching the vast property for their bodies.

Lauren doesn’t know how, or when, she’s going to tell her children that their father is gone. Without evidence, it seems pointless—though she knows in her heart that Beverly spoke the truth about the double murder.

She’s going to have to find Nick’s mother, too. Wherever she is, she deserves to know she’s lost a child.

As for Lucy, Ryan, and Sadie…they’re going to have a rough road ahead. But they’re strong—so much stronger than Lauren ever imagined. Her babies…

Every time Lauren thinks about what they’ve been through…

But it could have been so much worse.

A nurse steps out of Sam’s room, sees Lauren, and raises her eyebrows. “You’re the woman from TV. The brave mom with the three kids who were kidnapped.”

“That’s me.” Lauren offers a tight smile.

“And you’re here to see Sam, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’re only supposed to allow family, but I know he’ll be glad to see you.” The nurse offers a conspiratorial wink. “Go on in.”

“Thank you.”

Lauren walks into the room. Sam is lying in bed, heavily bandaged and hooked up to an IV. He turns his head, sees her.

“Oh man, do you ever owe me one.” His voice is weak, but there’s a gleam in his eye.

Lauren crosses to the bed. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“Yeah, you’re not the only one,” he says ruefully. “There I was, trying to impress you and rescue your kids, and…guess I pretty much suck as a superhero, huh?”

Lauren can’t help but smile. “Practice makes perfect.”

“Perfect is overrated,” he returns. Then he asks, “How about you? Are you okay?”

“Not really,” she tells him. “But I will be.”

She honestly believes that.

Sam must, too, because the smile is back in his eyes. “In that case, how about dinner some night, when we’re both okay?”

Lauren hesitates. She wants to say yes, but who in their right mind starts dating someone under circumstances like this? Talk about being jinxed from the start…

“I took a bullet for you,” Sam points out. “The least you can do is go out with me.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Lauren stays at his bedside until the nurse pokes her head in again, with a gentle reminder that the patient needs his rest.

“Come back and see me again, Lauren, will you?”

“Sure. Bye, Sam.”

She takes the elevator back downstairs. Waiting in line to buy a token for the parking booth, she glances over at the gift shop across the lobby—and can’t believe her eyes.

There, in the window, is a pink plush rabbit.

Of course. A visitor brought the original stuffed toy, festooned with a Mylar “It’s a Girl” balloon, to Lauren’s bedside when Sadie was born here four years ago. Whoever it was must have picked it up in the gift shop, which obviously doesn’t change inventory very often.

Forgetting the parking token, Lauren hurries over to the shop.

The woman behind the counter looks up. “Yes? Can I help you?”