CHAPTER EIGHT
After an emotionally tumultuous hour’s drive back to Serenity, Skylar walked into the house. She heard the murmur of her parents’ voices in the kitchen, but she didn’t want to see them. She didn’t want to see anyone, so she went right up to her room without making any detours.
Her emotions were pressing so hard against her chest she felt like it was going to explode and every ugly feeling would spew out over everything. Once in her room, she locked the door, then went into the bathroom and locked that door too. She turned on the exhaust fan to try to block out the world.
Sinking down onto the floor, Skylar stared blankly at the floral shower curtain that her mom had chosen to match the sage green walls.
Surely, this was just a bad dream.
That’s what the thought of Aiden finding out about Shiloh—and Shiloh finding out she was her mother—had always felt like. A nightmare waiting to happen.
But now it was a reality, and all the emotions she’d tried to suppress for the past eight years had burst forth from the deep pit she’d buried them in.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Aiden would be back in her life—and that she’d be the reason he was—or that he’d actually want to get to know his daughter. And yet… here they were.
Being with him, together with the daughter they’d given up, taking pictures together, watching him smile as he interacted with Shiloh had destroyed her.
If only he’d had the same desire to be a part of their child’s life eight years ago.
Her plan going into all of this had been to just tolerate Aiden. To never let him know exactly just how much he’d hurt her. But that had all gone out the window after spending time with him and Shiloh.
Skylar felt like her whole world had been ferociously shaken and then tipped upside down, and she had no idea how to set it right once again.
Shiloh seemed glad to know that she and Aiden were her parents, and she even wanted Skylar to live closer so she could see her more. It seemed her eight-year-old daughter/niece who was battling cancer was more emotionally stable than Skylar was.
Her phone rang, interrupting her spiraling thoughts.
Skylar let out a sigh before she leaned over so she could pull it from her pocket. Her mom’s name was on the screen, but Skylar wasn’t in any shape to talk to anyone right then.
She declined the call, then sent a text to her mom to let her know she’d talk to her later. Hopefully, her mom understood she just needed a little time to herself.
Turning her phone off, Skylar reached up and put it on the counter. She didn’t want to know if anyone else was trying to contact her. She just needed to be alone.
Once she’d been tested, she should have caught the first flight back to Las Vegas and her calm, solitary life there.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be there for Shiloh and her family. It was just so hard to not be there as the mother to the child she’d given birth to. And she didn’t know how to deal with that.
And it had been so hard to look at Shiloh and see only a shadow of her previous vibrant personality and healthy body. Her baby was in the fight for her life, and Skylar didn’t know how to help her.
Out of the blue, tears flooded her eyes, making her equal parts angry and sad. The wall she’d worked hard to put up around the deep emotions she’d felt in the weeks and months after Shiloh’s birth had been shattered.
That was not good. Especially if she was going to have to continue to interact with Aiden and Shiloh.
If Skylar had realized how much revealing Shiloh’s parentage to her would devastate her, she would have fought harder against that happening. But it was too late now.
Anger flooded her then. Anger at Aiden for how he’d treated her. Anger at herself for not being strong enough to keep her baby, the way Charli had kept Layla. Anger at cancer for invading her child’s body. And anger at cancer for having brought Aiden back into her life.
How could she get rid of the anger and regret? The guilt and the hurt?
The words she’d thrown at Aiden came back to her as she sat there, and part of her regretted them. But another part of her felt like he needed to know exactly how much he’d hurt her.
Though he’d seen her hurt when he’d broken up with her, she’d had to tell him about the baby over a text because he refused her calls. He’d needed to know the pain she’d felt at having to give up their child. How shattered she’d been, not just by the breakup but by his words when she’d told him about the pregnancy.
The fact that Shiloh knew who they were now didn’t magically make everything better. In fact, right then, it felt like everything was worse.
Skylar had no idea how long she’d sat there when she became aware that her behind was going numb from the hard floor. Her emotional outburst had drained her energy, and it took a lot of effort to get herself up off the floor.
When she was finally on her feet, Skylar decided that she was just going to go to bed. She didn’t have the emotional capacity to have a conversation with anyone.
Grabbing her phone from the counter, she left the bathroom without removing her makeup or even brushing her teeth. She peeled off her clothes, leaving them strewn across the floor in a manner that was very much unlike her. Then, clad in just her underwear, she climbed under the covers.
Once she was settled, she turned her phone back on and sent a message to her mom that she was going to bed and would talk to her the next day.
Skylar saw there was a missed call from Charli, as well as a text message, but Skylar didn’t read it or call her back. She would deal with everything the next day.
Hopefully, a good night’s sleep would help her shore up her defenses.
After a restless night, Skylar dragged herself out of bed just as the sun was rising. Though she was exhausted on every level, she dressed in her running clothes and shoes. She didn’t fix her messy braid or wipe away her smeared mascara before grabbing her phone and earbuds and leaving her room.
The house was quiet as she headed down the stairs on light feet. She went into the darkened kitchen to get a drink of water, then let herself out of the house.
The early morning hour was cool and quiet, which her mind most definitely still wasn’t. She stretched a little, trying to limber up her legs before setting out.
When she was finally running, she tried to let the music in her ears and the rhythm of her stride soothe her. And for the most part, it worked.
Twenty minutes into her run, she was so in the zone that when a bird flew across the road in front of her, it scared the life out of her. Her instinct was to step away from the bird, and without watching where she was going, her foot landed on the edge of the asphalt.
A tearing pain shot through her ankle as it twisted sideways, and she landed on her hip on the packed dirt mixed with gravel that ran alongside the road. Panting, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky that had lightened to a clear blue while she’d been running.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” She pounded her fists on the ground. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
It felt like the rotten cherry on top of a wretched sundae. Tears filled her eyes, blurring the sky.
“Why, God?” The question was yelled at the sky, and had anyone been in the area, they probably would have thought she was crazy.
It felt like the world was conspiring against her lately. Nothing was going right.
And even though she wasn’t the one in the family with a medical degree, she was fairly certain that her ankle was pretty messed up. If it wasn’t broken, it was likely badly sprained.
Either way, she wasn’t going to be able to escape back to Vegas or go back to work as soon as she’d hoped.
How was this her life?
It felt like everything had fallen apart, starting with her relationship with Emmett. From that moment on, things had just gone downhill.
She stayed on her back, trying not to focus on the unrelenting pain in her ankle. Finally, the tears stopped, and she lifted her hands to brush the moisture away.
Rolling over to her hands and knees, she used her good leg to balance herself as she straightened. Once she was up, she put her foot down and tried to take a step.
Immediately, the pain had her crying out and sinking down onto her butt. She stretched her leg out and glared at it. There was no way she was going to be able to make it home on her own.
She was going to have to call her parents.
When she reached for her phone in the arm strap she usually wore it in, she realized it wasn’t there. She’d been so distracted that she hadn’t realized it had fallen out.
Looking around, she saw it laying on the ground face down. Using her good foot, she scooted over to where it was and picked it up.
She stared down at the shattered screen. “Are you kidding me?”
Her frustration climbed as she tried to figure out what to do. Hoping the phone still had service, even with a smashed screen, she looked at her smart watch.
Relief flooded her when she saw that her watch was still connected. She tapped on the small screen, bringing up her contacts. It was still early, not quite seven, but she hoped that her dad would be up.
“Skylar?” he said when he answered.
Tears sprang to her eyes again, and she had to swallow hard to clear her throat enough for her to talk. “Dad, I need help.”
“What’s wrong, honey?”
His voice sounded distant through the watch. “I was out running, and I twisted my ankle. I can’t walk on it.”
“Okay. I’m on my way,” he said. “Where are you?”
And just like that, her dad was on his way to rescue her. Just like he’d picked her up when she’d tripped and skinned her knee as a child. She’d always known he would be there for her if she needed him in a way no other man had ever been.
With rescue on the way, Skylar kept her injured leg stretched out but drew her other leg up. She wrapped her arms around it and bent to rest her forehead on her knee.
She tried to just blank out her mind, afraid that if she thought too much about everything, she would start to cry again. She didn’t want her dad to arrive and find her sobbing.
It didn’t take long for the rumble of a car engine to sound in the distance. As it neared, she looked up and watched as her dad’s car slowed to a stop not far from her.
He got out and came around the hood to where she sat. Lowering himself to one knee, her dad looked at her.
He gave her a gentle smile. “Let’s get you home, then we’ll check over your ankle. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She appreciated his optimism, but she didn’t share it. Right then, it felt like her life had been torn apart, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to put it back together and move forward.
With careful movements, her dad helped her up and then wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her as she hopped toward his car. She let out a long sigh as she settled back in the front seat.
Though she’d been running for a while before injuring her ankle, it didn’t take long to get back home. Once there, her dad helped her into the house and guided her to the kitchen.
“What happened?” her mom cried when she spotted her. She still wore her pajamas, which consisted of a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and she was standing with the coffee carafe in her hand.
“I twisted my ankle,” Skylar said as she settled into a chair at the table.
Her dad bent down on one knee and carefully worked off her shoe and sock. She hissed out a breath of pain as he gently rotated it. “We’re going to have to get an x-ray of it. I’ll call Gareth to see if he can come in early to check it over, too.”
That was the benefit of having several medical professionals in the family. They always managed to fit her in when she needed their help.
“Here.” Her mom handed over an ice pack from the freezer. “Put this on it to help with the swelling.”
Her dad moved a chair over so she could prop her leg up, then he put the ice pack on it. Unfortunately, it didn’t help with the pain, which was pulsing strongly in her ankle.
“What happened?” her mom asked again as she brought two mugs of coffee to the table, then returned to the carafe for a third.
She settled across the table from Skylar as she recounted what had led to her injury. Skylar took a sip of coffee, feeling her rattled nerves begin to settle now that she was home with her parents.
“How are you feeling?” her mom asked. “Other than your ankle.”
Skylar had kind of hoped that her mom would forget about the fact that she’d shut herself off from everyone the night before. Her mom, however, never forgot things like that when it came to her kids.
Keeping her gaze on her ankle, Skylar said, “I’m okay. It was hard seeing Shiloh looking so sickly. The last time I saw her, she was so full of energy.”
“Yes. That’s really difficult,” her mom agreed. “I know the other kids are struggling with her being in the hospital.”
Skylar again felt bad that Charli and Blake were having to shoulder this burden that should have been hers. Their children were having to take on an emotional burden they might not have had to if their relationship with Shiloh had been that of a cousin.
“But Shiloh is getting the best care,” her dad said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. “And Charli and Blake don’t view what’s happening as a burden they could have avoided had they not adopted Shiloh. That’s not in their thoughts at all.”
It was like her dad could read her mind. “But I feel like I should be the one going through this with Shiloh. That Charli and Blake shouldn’t have to deal with this when they have a large family who needs them.”
“You can still go through this with Shiloh and with Charli and Blake,” her mom said. “If you considered moving closer, you could do that.”
Skylar gave a huff. Her mom just wasn’t going to give up on her efforts to get her to move back to Serenity.
“Not sure what I’m going to do about work,” she said, then gestured to her ankle. “Since this makes it pretty much impossible to do my job.”
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want,” her mom said. “It’s nice to have someone else with us in this big old house.”
Staying with her parents hadn’t been as bad as Skylar had thought it would be. Aside from all the subtle—and not-so-subtle—comments about her moving back to Serenity, her parents had kind of just let her be. Which she greatly appreciated.
Right then, however, she wanted her parents. She needed her parents. And she knew with one hundred percent confidence that they would be there to support her.
“Let me make you some breakfast,” her mom said, getting to her feet. “And then we’ll go to the clinic.”
As her mom went to the fridge, her dad pulled out his phone. “I need to call Gareth.”
Skylar listened as he explained the situation to her oldest brother, while her mom fried up some eggs.
“Okay. We’ll be there at eight-thirty.”
When her dad hung up, Skylar asked, “Am I going to be able to take a shower before we go? I’m sweaty and dirty.”
“As long as you can balance on one leg,” he said.
“I think I can do that. I really don’t want to be out in public like this,” she said, gesturing to herself.
“You’ve got a few scrapes, too,” he told her, pointing to her leg.
Skylar bent over to look and frowned. “I guess I didn’t even feel those since my ankle hurts so bad.”
“A shower would help clean them up,” her mom said.
Once she’d finished her breakfast, her dad helped her up the stairs to her room. It took some effort, but she made it into the shower. The scrapes and bruises were more evident without her clothes on, revealing that she’d landed hard on her thigh and hip on the same side as her hurting ankle.
Though she would have liked to linger under the warm water, she didn’t take too long in the shower. Since Gareth was making the effort to get to the clinic early, she didn’t want to make him wait.
Still, everything seemed to take forever. It was a pain to move around, but finally, she was all cleaned up and in clothes more appropriate for going to the clinic.
She maneuvered down the stairs on her bum, then stood at the bottom of them, waiting for her parents.
“Ready to go?” her dad asked as he came out of the kitchen, her mom trailing him.
“Are you coming too, Mom?”
“Of course!”
Skylar laughed, in spite of her frustration and pain. “Anything medical, huh, Mom?”
“You know it,” she said. “And lucky you, getting three doctors’ opinions for the price of free.”
Skylar knew that sometimes having three doctors available for opinions wasn’t all that great. There had been heated discussions among her parents and brother sometimes. Not usually of a patient of theirs or a family member, but rather some medical case that one of them had read about and had passed on to the other two.
As they drove to the clinic, her mom talked about the people she was messaging with news of Skylar’s mishap. Thankfully, it was just family members.
Her accident and the meltdown that followed had served to shock her out of the emotional tailspin she’d been in since the previous night. Not that she thought those emotions were gone. But at least, for the moment, she had something else to focus on.