Baby Love(29)

"Okay," I answered as Trey pulled into the Emergency Room parking lot at St. Matthews Hospital.

As we entered the lobby to the ER, several police officers immediately approached, and led us to a private waiting room off of the ER which I could only guess was used for privacy when the news was bad. I felt my throat start to close up as Trey pulled me along side of him into the room. One of the officers shut the door and instructed us to take our seats.

"Your mother will be fine," he assured us right off the bat.

I breathed a sigh of relief and felt Trey relax beside me. Our relaxation was to be short-lived.

"Mr. & Mrs. Sinclair, when the paramedics brought your mother in a little while ago, she was unconscious due to a concussion; she started coming around just a few minutes ago and has been disoriented and extremely anxious. She is insisting that whoever bashed her over the head, took your baby daughter. Do you have a baby daughter that would have been in the apartment with your mother when the fire alarm sounded?"

"Fire alarm?" Trey asked.

"It was just a false alarm; don't worry your building is fine. If in fact your daughter is missing, it could have been an attempt to divert attention away from the alleged perpetrator."

I hadn't heard anything after Trey had questioned the police about the fire alarm. Oh my god, she did it! She f*cking did it. I had known that somehow and some way my mother would come back to hurt me. It was what I had feared and dreamt about; it was the reason for the paranoia inside of me that the pills Dr. Addison had prescribed had magically tucked away from my subconscious.

Mom had my baby I was as sure of that as I was of my love for Trey and Preston. The bitch was mine! That was the last conscious promise I made to myself before I was blessed with darkness as my body took over and I careened into oblivion.

I was awakened abruptly by a nurse waving smelling salts underneath my nose. Trey was right there, he had lifted me back onto my chair. The nurse had a gurney there but I refused. I knew that I would be fine. I had to be fine because I was going to find my baby and kill that bitch.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, pushing the nurse's hand away with the disgusting smelling salts.

"Sweetie," Trey pleaded, "I think you are in shock right now as we all are, let them help you, baby."

His eyes were teared up, pleading with me. He was destroyed; I could see that. The problem was that he didn't know what I knew and I knew that my f*cking slut of a mother was behind this and she wouldn't be hurting Preston; I was sure of that. Preston was worth something to her, I just had to figure out what and why.

"Trey," I pleaded, "Let's see how your mom is doing right now. We have to see what she recalls about what happened. I refuse to believe that some random faction took Preston. I know who is behind this."

"You do?" he asked, totally in shock. Who?"

"My mother," I announced very matter-of-factly.

"I know that it was her. We just have to find her."

The look that passed between my husband and the police was unmistakably one of disbelief. Okay - they thought I was nuts, paranoid - had a 'mommy' issue, whatever. I knew the truth.

The detective wanted to question Trey alone - probably to see what he knew about his 'Mommy-In-Law Dearest.' Trey could only fill in him on what he knew for certain: that included Charlie's connection and conspiracy with her; as well as the fact that Trey's P.I. had discovered some time back that my mom had been living with Daniel somewhere in Indiana.

I could count on Trey; he had been with me during a lot of the fallout that could only be attributed to mom and the minions that she directed such as Charlie.

Trey guided me back out to the waiting room, instructing me to sit there until the detective had finished questioning him. He made me promise that I would sit still.

(Whatever... he needed to chill. I had a plan.)

Trey returned to the small room where the detective was most likely questioning him on both of our mental stability and why we might want out baby daughter dead. I had seen enough movies on LMN and TruTV to know how it flowed. I hoped that Trey wouldn't take offense. It was standard procedure to suspect a family member after an "alleged" abduction.

My hopes were dashed when I heard my husband's voice getting louder and louder. He dropped several "F" bombs before he exited the room indicating that any future questioning would be conducted with his own counsel present.

Weird - he would seek other counsel to defend us against what? I knew damn well who the perp was; I was certain I would be able to unravel her whereabouts given the resources I knew that Trey could afford to provide.

Trey held his hand out for me to take it as he pulled me from the chair and we headed out toward the mail lobby. He asked someone at the "help" desk about his mother. We were directed to ER 5, where Susan was currently getting treatment for whatever injuries she had sustained during her "accident."

As we entered ER5 behind the curtain, Susan was laying upon a gurney. She had a bandage over one eye and another around the forehead. Oh God, what had my mother done to her?

Trey immediately was by her side, leaning over, kissing her cheek. Her eyes sprang open and they were full of guilt, pain and fear.

"Oh Trey," she wept, "Tylar, can you ever forgive me?"

She was wailing, tears flowing down her cheeks. She was near hysteria. A young doctor was beside her, giving her an injection of some sort.