“Emily,” I murmured weakly, trying to reassure her, “what are you talking about?”

She shook her head hard. “There’s no time. Please, Mom. They’re coming.”

“They?” I echoed.

Her eyes flicked toward the door. She squeezed my hand, her fingers icy.
“I heard Grandma on the phone. She said everything would be ‘handled’ today. She said you wouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

My heart slammed violently in my chest.

Mark’s mother, Linda Reynolds, had never hidden her dislike for me. She blamed me for Mark leaving his lucrative corporate job to start a small business. She resented that I already had a child from a previous marriage. And she had made her feelings about this baby painfully clear—she didn’t want another grandchild tying Mark to me permanently.