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The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

Titel: The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Teresa Hill
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and she leaned her head on Sam's shoulder, and he could feel the misery coursing through her.
    For a second, he thought of last night and this morning. Thought of how close they'd been, how hopeful he'd been. It was selfish, he knew, and he didn't wish any more misery on Annie Greene and certainly not upon her children. But he and Rachel had been so close, so close to having everything.
    He pulled her closer, wishing he could stop her from hurting, too. Wishing he could give her strength and somehow make this bearable for her. But he didn't have any words, couldn't think of anything to do except hold her.
    They were still standing there a moment later when the door to Annie Greene's room opened again. Zach and Emma came out in a rush, Zach looking scared, Emma almost as pale as her mother had been the day before. They came to him and Rachel. Sam picked up Zach, and he and Rachel pulled Emma into their embrace, the five of them locked there together in their shared misery.
    "Mommy's really sick," Zach said.
    "I know," Sam told him.
    "Is she gonna get better?"
    "I hope so, Zach."
    Emma's head came up at that. She was studying Sam's face, looking for reassurance, and he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. I hope so was the best he could do with any degree of honesty at all.
    Her lower lip started to tremble, and then her eyes and her mouth took on that pinched look a moment before she bent her head until it rested on Rachel's shoulder, and she started to weep. He would have done anything, he thought, anything at all to spare her this.
    Miriam ended up taking the baby from Rachel and disappeared into Annie Greene's room once again. Sam took Zach down the hall to a vending machine and bought him a drink, because seeing Emma so upset was worrying Zach, too. It also bought Emma some time alone with Rachel. It was a while after that before they got everyone settled down in a small waiting room down the hall. Miriam came back with Grace and asked Emma to take her for a moment while she pulled Sam and Rachel into the hall and told them Annie Greene was asking to see them.
    "I think she just wants to know who has her children for now," Miriam said. "Will you talk to her?"
    Rachel agreed, and then Sam led her down the hallway. He'd hardly let go of her since the phone call, hadn't wanted to. She was obviously upset and shaken, but she hadn't fallen apart, not like she had when Will had been taken away from them, and it hadn't been that long ago. Sam was proud of her. She was obviously intent on trying to make this as easy as possible for the children, no matter what it cost her.
    He stopped her at the door to the room, trying to prepare her. She still gasped at the figure on the bed, who seemed so desperately frail, her face a bruised, swollen mess.
    Sam guided Rachel into the room and down into a chair at Annie Greene's bedside. Annie held out her hand to Rachel, and Rachel took it. Sam stood behind his wife, his hands on her shoulders.
    "I just wanted to see the two of you," she whispered weakly, haltingly. "And to thank you. Emma and Zach said... you've been very kind."
    "You have wonderful children," Rachel said, her voice trembling.
    "I'm afraid I'm going to be here for a while," she said. "Your aunt said you're willing to keep them... for as long as it takes?"
    "As long as it takes," Sam said.
    "Thank you. It... I was so scared when I realized how long I'd been here. I imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to them..."
    Sam stifled the urge to ask why she'd taken such a risk by coming here. Why she'd ever married a man who beat her and stayed with him all those years or how she came to be in a situation where there was no one but two strangers and the child welfare system to take care of her children. He was angry, but he could contain it for now. It wasn't the time to demand explanations of anyone.
    "We'll take good care of them," he vowed.
    "Thank you," she said, and a moment later had drifted off, either asleep or unconscious again, they couldn't tell.
    "Come on." Sam tightened his hands on Rachel's shoulders. "Let's go."
    They were just outside the door, in the hall, when Rachel turned blindly into his arms and started to cry.
    He held her for a long moment, feeling helpless once again and hating it all the more.
    "She looks so bad," Rachel said, her face against his shoulder. "I can't imagine what she's been through, can't imagine a man who's supposed to love me, one who's the father of my children doing

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