Chapter 119

“Emma, you listen to me now…This is not on! You get your ass up, and you wake up, you hear me.”

Leila… sweet, feisty Leila, how much I love you.

The soft crying dampens her haughty tone and fiery rasp through her voice as her gentle tiny fingers cup mine, and I can smell her sweet perfume. The aroma sliding up my nostrils, trying to awaken all my senses.

“Move over, Leila, let me in… Emma, it’s Sarah, honey. Listen to me. They said if we talk to you that you know… Maybe you’ll hear us. We love you. We are all right here with you.” There’s sniffling, and the shifting of bodies as the skin on my arm tingles with goosebumps at her tender stroke. “Don’t let that bastard win, baby girl. Don’t let him take you from Jake… from us.”

I try so hard just to do something, say something or respond somehow, but I can’t.

“Can I just be alone with her?” His broken voice comes through to me, and I try again so hard to reach for him, to will my voice to work. He needs to