Alanna twisted her hands together. “I just need to …” Blinking back tears, she tried to get out what she wanted to say and couldn’t.

Matthew swore under his breath, moving his hand to his pocket. Taking out his pocketknife, he opened the blade and slide it into the metal lock, then shimmied the knife until the lock clicked open.

Quietly opening the door, she went inside to see Greer sitting in the darkened bedroom, staring out the window. The bright sun from the window allowed her to see where to walk to him sitting in a wheelchair.

“Go aw-away,” he said in a thickened voice, turning from the window to stare up at her.

Greer’s ravaged face had her going to her knees. Unable to hold back the tears any longer, she burst into sobs.

Laying her head on his lap, she cried so hard that she couldn’t stop pouring out the anguish she felt at what had happened to Greer. The cocky man who had driven her nuts in jail and who had almost destroyed her wedding dinner by getting into an argument with the caterer, and pretty much anytime she and Matthew grilled out, was the former shell of the man he had been when she had seen him last; which was when he gave them a police escort to the hospital when she went into labor.

A heavy hand landed on her head. “Qu … it. I can’t te … ll which one of u … s is wett … ing my paj … amas.”

“You’re paying the price of me having a baby … I wasn’t meant to …” she hiccupped.

When they had come out of the doctor’s office with her pregnancy confirmed, she still hadn’t believed it possible. Matthew had sat in the car and explained about Greer’s healing power, which was a secret their family kept hidden. They had come to the conclusion that Greer must have healed her when he held her bandaged hand, inevitably healing her womb.

“You may have just been trying to heal my hand … but you gave me so much more, Greer.” She lifted her eyes to his. “You gave me a miracle.” Turning her upper body, she held out her arms to Matthew, who had come in behind her and gently gave her their child.

Holding her son, she turned back to Greer to place him on Greer’s lap, so the baby was lying longways, letting Greer get a good look at what he had made possible.