48. Mallory
Chapter 48
Mallory
Dr. Connolly was waiting behind the front desk when we walked in. The police called ahead and told her what happened at Summerhill.
"Baby girl looks great," she says, running the wand over my belly. The sound of Peanut's fluttering heartbeat fills the room. "Healthy. Heartbeat is perfect." She takes the wand away, and the sound in the room ceases. I wish I could listen to it all the time, a background to my day. Like white noise. I wipe the gel from my skin with the paper towels she has given me.
"No kicking," I choke out, sounding like I've sat beside a campfire while chain smoking.
"She'll start up again soon," Dr. Connolly assures me. "What I'd like to know is how you're doing?"
"I'm ok." The tears falling down my face say otherwise.
She frowns. "How could you possibly be ok after what you went through today?" Gently she prods my throat, my vocal cords. I wince.
"Rest and hydration," she says, "but I'm not a general practitioner, so please, if you're feeling anything you're concerned about, don't hesitate to call Dr. Murray. He makes house calls."
I nod, while Hugo thanks her.
The office staff stares at us when we leave. So do the people in the waiting room. Could news have made it out and around Olive Township that quickly?
Hugo makes a stop at Sweet Nothings for a chamomile tea with honey.
Sonya calls and says the police are having a special team come out to clean up the kitchen. "You can stay here tonight," she offers.
Hugo agrees, and reminds his mom he has to take me to the police station.
"You ready?" he asks, a hand on my thigh.
Blowing across the top of the tea, I whisper, "I'll do my best."
My hand hurts from writing. It's hard to speak more than a few words at a time, almost impossible, so they brought me a pencil and paper.
I've done my best, writing out everything I can remember. There are some holes in my memory, small pieces of what happened I can't recall in sequential order. Some things I know aren't verbatim.
I try to tell them this, and they assure me it'll come back over time. "Your brain is still protecting itself," Detective Towles says.
I also write down everything that happened at the Olive Inn, and send the photos of me sleeping to Detective Towles. I have no idea if it's connected to Liane, but they should know about it.
"Why didn't you tell me about this when it happened?" he asks, clearly unhappy. Hugo explains my reasoning, and the detective makes it clear he's not in agreement. "I'll look into it," he says gruffly.
I point at the detective, then at Hugo, raising both hands as if to ask How?
"I'll tell you everything," Hugo promises me. "For now, I'd love to take you home."
Sonya has homemade chicken noodle soup simmering on the stove when we walk in. Hugo tells her he's going to his house to pick up some of our things. Sonya takes over, caring for me in a way only a mother can. She sets me up on the couch in the living room, turns on her favorite cooking show. She brings me ice water, heats another cup of tea, and asks me what else I need.
"I'm fine," I whisper.
Sonya sinks to the couch beside me. Her eyes fill with tears. "You sweet girl. You almost died figuring out who killed the people we love. I'm grateful, please believe me, but a part of me is frustrated with your curious nature."
If it didn't feel like needles in my throat, I'd laugh .
Sonya brushes hair back from my face. "My son loves you fiercely. Please be careful with yourself."
She's looking at me with such tenderness, how could I do anything but nod my agreement?
Hugo walks in holding two bags. He carries them upstairs, returning immediately. We eat dinner together, me and Hugo, Sonya and Carmen.
Hugo explains to all of us how it came to be that he was coming home today when he said he'd be late with a meeting. "After I talked to Jimmy Esteban, I had a weird feeling. Nothing was sitting right. So I decided to call Towles, ask him why he'd redacted that name before he gave Mallory the file. It was obvious neither one of us trusted the other, and it made for a conversation that wasn't going anywhere. Then this odd feeling came over me, and I decided to trust him. I told him everything Mallory and I had learned, and he told me Mallory had piqued his curiosity in a case he'd resigned himself to never solving. He'd redacted that name because he knew there was something off about it, and he'd wanted to protect the man's information so he could do his job properly and follow a hunch."
Hugo looks at me with a stare I can't decipher. "I don't know if I'll ever understand it, but something told me to go home. I got up from my office chair and ran to my car. Thank God I did."
The most unusual sensation trickles over me. A feeling of safety. Like someone whispered I've got you .
"How did you know to come to my house?" Hugo asks his mom. "How did Penn get there? "
"Carmen and I were standing in Merry Little Market when Penn walked in to buy the vanilla olive oil for Daisy. We were talking when we saw you driving fast up to your house. We knew something was wrong."
"It's good you were there," Hugo admits, glancing at me. "I don't think I would've left her alive."
"I guess we'll never know," Sonya says.
She and Carmen hover after we eat, watchful of everything I do. Hugo must take notice, because he says he'd like to watch the sunset just the two of us.
Sonya and Carmen share a look before retreating.
We go outside, and Hugo helps me onto the porch bed. He arranges pillows, and has me lie back. He settles in beside me, his hand rubbing over my stomach.
"Have you felt Peanut yet?"
I shake my head. No . If I hadn't been to the doctor, if I hadn't heard Peanut's heartbeat for myself, I'd be going out of my mind with worry.
Hugo works his way down to my midsection. He lifts my top, and the warm air drifts over my skin.
"Hey, Peanut," he says, voice low. Deep. His fingers caress the hardness of my belly.
"Pretty scary what happened to your mom today, huh? I don't blame you for going into hiding." Hugo's eyes find mine. He looks so good with his lips beside my skin. So perfect. So right.
"If you wouldn't mind giving us a little push of your heel? Maybe a knee, or an elbow. Just a little something to let us know you're hanging in there." Hugo's fingers flex, and he palms my belly, letting it roll over the expanse.
A press from the inside. A dragging feeling. Hugo and I gasp at the same time.
"Look at you go," Hugo says, wonder clear in his tone. He sends a message through my belly with a push of his hand. Peanut pushes back.
I make a noise, marveling at this wonderful thing happening in front of me. Hugo looks up, eyes wide, astonished.
"It's like she's communicating."
I swallow, and it hurts. "She is."
He presses a long kiss to my stomach. Reverent. "Mallory, I want her. And I want you. Forever. Will you be my forever girls?"
Peanut kicks. Hard.
Hugo laughs.
"She said yes," I croak.
Hugo crawls up my body. He kisses the space below my ear once, twice, three times. "I love you. I love you, I love you. I could say it a million times. Let me be your husband. Let me be the man who shows you how incredible you are."
"Can't...do better...than that."
Hugo chuckles against my skin. "You were designed for me, Mallory. I can feel it."
"Yes," I murmur.
Hugo takes me to bed in his old room. He explains it's more of a guest room now, that he's taken most of his childhood memorabilia with him to his house.
We climb under the covers, and I whisper something I've been thinking about since everything happened this morning. I've been drinking nothing but tea all evening, and it's helped soothe my vocal cords.
"Sounds crazy, but watching you with that sword today..." I bite my lip, reluctant to say what I've been thinking.
Hugo catches on, smiling provocatively. "Did you like what you saw, Mallory?"
"Not in the moment, but later when I thought about it...yeah."
His hand finds my breast in the dark. His thumb flicks over my nipple, making me arch into him. "Do you have a sword kink?"
"Perhaps. Choking is definitely not on my sex menu, ever."
Hugo groans. "Too soon."
The only communicating we do after that is with our bodies.