Stella had hidden that speed from her at first, but once Allie knew about her, she hadn’t bothered to hide it anymore and she was always stunned at the speed she could manage. Sighing, Allie continued. “I thought, or at least hoped, that she’d rushed out the back door to escape it. But the door hadn’t quite closed, and swung back open after the explosion. Stella stumbled to the entrance in flames, the doll still clutched to her chest. She stood there for maybe two or three seconds and then turned and just collapsed into the flames.”

“The rogues blew up her house?” Sam gasped with horror. “But I thought the sire wanted the baby if it was a boy? Why would he kill both of them that way?”

“Liam was not killed,” Tricia reminded her. “The baby Stella carried was a doll.”

“But they couldn’t know Stella would leave Liam with Allie,” Tybo pointed out. “They could have killed both of them with that explosion.”

“Which is why I don’t think the vampires caused the explosion,” Allie said now.

Everyone at the table turned to her and everyone but Magnus’s expression became concentrated on her forehead. She wasn’t surprised when Tricia exclaimed, “You think Stella set up the house to explode when she walked in. You think she sacrificed herself in the hopes of saving Liam.”

Seven

Allie read the disbelief on the faces of the people around the table and pointed out, “She had a doll to substitute for Liam, gave me her child, and reminded me of my promise to take care of him if anything happened to her. She then gave me the necklace she never took off, to give to him when he was older. She knew she was going to die,” Allie said with certainty, and then told them what she’d decided after years of pondering it. “Stella must have set up something long ago to make the house blow up. Maybe even when she first moved in. She probably planned to be going out the back door with her baby as the house blew up, and maybe even hoped to catch some of the vampires in the explosion.”

“You think her friendship with you changed her plans,” Tricia murmured, her gaze concentrated on her forehead. “That she decided Liam would have a better chance at a halfway normal life if the vampires actually saw her and what they would have thought was him die.”

“Yes,” Allie sighed. “But . . . I think she was suffering a bad case of postpartum depression too. I mean, before Liam was born, Stella used to struggle with the things she’d done when she was first turned. But after he was born . . .” Allie shook her head. “Stella loved him so much. She called him her little angel, but she started saying things like he’d probably be better off without having a monster like her for a mother.”