After the Storm: Midseason Episode 1 (Rising Storm) Read Online Free Page B

head, looking to Lacey as though she had some answer. When Lacey didn’t respond, Ginny turned back to Celeste. “Some other boy? I don’t understand. There was only Jacob and yes, I did sleep with the senator and I’m so sorry I did it. It was a mistake, but it was my mistake and I should have owned it. I should have been up-front.”
    “You weren’t though.” She could see what Ginny was doing. She was attempting damage control. There would be no controlling this damage. “You didn’t own your sin. You simply committed another.”
    “Momma, maybe we should take a step back and look at this from a different perspective.” When had Lacey become the voice of reason?
    Celeste didn’t have the patience for reason this morning. “You didn’t tell anyone about Sebastian. Or did you? Did you go to your sister and she helped you hatch this plan?”
    Ginny’s eyes widened, her jaw firming, and Celeste finally knew where to hit her. “Marisol had nothing to do with it. Nothing. She wasn’t involved in any way. She’s innocent.”
    Yes, family was the way to take down Ginny Moreno, but Celeste still couldn’t do it. “Fine. I’ll believe you on that front, but I know you had to have planned this out. You likely discovered you were pregnant and panicked. You knew there was no way Sebastian would ever take care of you so you went looking for someone else. Someone not as jaded as my brother-in-law. You looked around and found my son. You slept with him to trap him, but what I really want to know is how far you went. Were you still weaving your web around him that day? Is that what caused the accident? Were you trying to make sure he would come home and present you as his girlfriend so when you turned up pregnant a few weeks down the line no one would question it?”
    She’d dreamed about it the night before. In the tiny pockets of time when she’d slipped away from consciousness, she’d dreamed about Jacob on the road in the rain and Ginny trying to wrap her arms around him, trying to drag him deeper. Every female knew instinctively how to trap a male.
    “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I woke up from the accident.” Ginny’s voice was an impassioned whisper. “I found out two things that changed my life in that moment. I found out that my best friend was gone and that I was pregnant. And I prayed so hard that I hadn’t lost all of Jacob forever.”
    Forever. That’s what she was looking at. She was looking at an entire lifetime of being a mother without a son. She loved her daughters dearly, but she would mourn Jacob forever. And this selfish girl was equating her pain as though they were the same. As though one night of spreading her legs gave her the right to mourn him.
    “I think you woke up and realized you had two options. Take care of that baby alone or worm your way into Jacob’s family and his money.”
    “I never cared about the money.”
    Celeste wasn’t going to listen to that tripe. “Of course you did. Not enough to keep your legs closed. You say you loved Jacob but how long did you wait before you hopped into bed with that Murphy boy? Did you even break it off with my brother-in-law? How many men do you need on your string?”
    “I’ve never slept with Logan, but I will admit that I’m in love with him. I love him in a way I never loved Jacob. Jacob was my best friend, but I know now that he wasn’t my soul mate. I pray with everything I am that this is his child, that we receive a miracle because I don’t want him to be lost forever, but I won’t hide what I feel for Logan and I won’t pretend it’s nasty. Not even to placate you, Celeste. I want to make things right between us and that means apologizing to you. Celeste, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I never meant to. I should have been braver. I should have been stronger, but I woke up and the world had crashed around me and I wanted the love you could give me. That all of you could give me. I’m sorry that it brought you so