Chapter 108

Chapter 108

I sat beside Claire, my hand on the little heart who stole my heart with one grey eyed glance.

“She’ll be fine. She’s a fighter,” Serena gave me a hopeful nod and wiped Claire’s brow with a towel.

“What happened?” I voiced the question that had been eating at me since I first saw her sick frame.

Serena sighed and sat up fully to look at me. “A fall,”

“Pardon?” I was horrified. Just look at her, she’s tiny, how could she have fallen and just where did she fall from?

“Yeah,” Serena chuckled humorlessly “My reaction exactly. She was four, a few days before her fifth birthday. She said to me— Momma can I play in the garden with Papa. I said yes,”

A small gasp left me. Since she was four. That was two years ago.

“They played on the trees and he left. Dave left my little girl up there alone. She fell and has been sick ever since,”

Horror and blind anger rushed through me.

“Oh I know,” Serena read my face and shook her head. “I wanted to crush him with my bare hands. I was so blo