Chapter 244

Chapter 0244 “From your tone of voice, it seems you’ve been around my daughter”

“I can’t say around...we’ve been communicating.” He begins.

He then tells us everything. His plan when he kidnapped Ava and how he went to her afterwards and asked her if he could be in the baby’s life. Ava, bless her kind soul which will one day probably get her in trouble, accepted.

“You do realize that if the police ever find out you were in contact with her, she’ll be in trouble?” Corrine asks.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got to a plan in the works” he gives her a mischievous smile, but doesn’t say anything more.

“Since you were in communication with her, did she ever mention anything to you? Maybe she felt unsafe or threatened?

Anything at all” I plead with him. We needed something to give us a start on where to look.

Reaper tells us about when Ava first got the note and proceeds to tell us about the two more that came after. She got the last note yesterday. The same day she was short.

I get this ugly feeling when I think of her going to Reaper instead of me. Before it can consume it away. Right now that didn’t matter. Not when she was lying in a coma.

ime me, push “I hate that I wasn’t able to protect her. I should have dug deeper, maybe I could have prevented all this‘

I recognize an emotion that I never thought I would see reflected in his eyes. He was struggling with it because he has never had to feel guilty about anything.

No one says anything because we are all struggling with something. We all think we could have prevented this somehow.

I sit down and sigh just as Emma walks into the waiting room.

The moment Reaper sees her, all traces of warmth and guilt disappear. Before any of us can do anything.

he storms over to her, wraps his hand around her neck and shoves her against the wall.

“What the hell are you doing?” Travis shouts at him, but he doesn’t stop.

Emma releases a strangled cry. Fear masking her entire face.

I look to the ceiling and sigh. “Let her go, Reaper”

He doesn’t listen. In fact he squeezes her neck.

Travis tries to get him off his sister, while the rest stand frozen, but he doesn’t budge.

“If I find out that you had anything to do with hurting Ava, I swear I will gut you. I will make the serial killer documentaries you like watch seem like a F***ing fairytale as compared to what I will do to you, am I understood?”

I don’t know how the hell he even knows she likes watching serial killer documentaries. Then again, this is Reaper we’re talking about. Nothing he does or knows surprises me.

She nods with wide eyes and tear stained cheeks.

Reaper gives her one more squeeze before letting go.

“You bastard” Travis snarls and swings at Reaper, but he sidesteps him.

“Try to hit me again and you’ll be buried next to your father within a week” he warns him.

That seems to sober Travis up pretty quickly. He back away from Reaper. He knows that it’s not an empty threat. If reaper says he’ll do it then that’s exactly what he’ll do.

A nurse comes out and cuts the tense atmosphere.

“Hi, I’m Mary the head nurse in NICU...”

Before she can finish, I cut her off.

“Is the baby okay?”

She gives me a small smile. “She’s in an incubator which you already know, but so far she’s doing okay.

We’ll have to keep a special eye on her within the next few days to make sure what happened to her mother didn’t leave any permanent damages, but we’re confident that she’ll survive”

I breathe a sigh of relief and I feel the same from Reaper who’s standing next to me.

“I’m here because we need to name her. Do you know what name her mother chose for her?”

No one speaks. For a while until a small voice behind answers “Iris”

I turn and find Noah. He was with my parents.

He immediately leaves their hand, takes a few strides and takes mine before looking up at the nurse.

“She didn’t know if the baby was going to be boy or girl, but she told me that if it’s a boy, we’ll name him Kaden and if it’s a girl then she’ll be called Iris.”

Mary gives him a small smile. “And what’s her last name?”

Noah answers confidently.

“Howell.” He pauses. “She’s called Iris Renee Howell”