“No.”
“Please,” she said, her voice cracking. Please, please, please...
There were only two things her father had asked of her before he died. One, that she take over his role at the town’s fall fundraiser this year, spearheading the silent auction. And two, that she assume custody of her little brothers.
Although neither request was convenient given that she was in the running for a life-changing promotion at work, she’d instantly agreed.
How could she not? After her mother had left when she was seven, her father had been everything to her.
He’d been everything to those two boys, too. Her stepmother hadn’t even bothered to stick around for the entire pregnancy. She’d simply filed the divorce papers, signed away her parental rights and dropped the twins off on Valerie’s father’s doorstep when they were two days old.
Now they were almost three, and for the past two weeks, they’d been Valerie’s responsibility.
God willing, they’d be her responsibility for the next fifteen years.
Please don’t let anything happen to Dylan, Lord. Please, please, please...
She heard one of the neighbors gasp, and she snapped her head up to see Brett clearing shattered glass out of one of the second-story windows.
“Dylan!” she screamed, and a few seconds later, Brett held up her little brother for her to see.
He found him. Thank God.
Her neighbor let go of her elbow, and she fell to her knees in the grass. Before she could even catch her breath, though, she turned to him, her voice shaking as the panic inside her spiraled back up. “We have to go get him. Martin, can you catch him?”
Martin’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly, doubt and hesitation flashing across his face.
Which was precisely when she heard the sirens.
The fire department was coming.
She could only pray they’d reach her brother before the flames.
Copyright © 2024 by Meghann Whistler
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ISBN-13: 9780369753694
Her Alaskan Family
Copyright © 2024 by Heidi Blankenship
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.
Without limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights, any unauthorized use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is expressly prohibited.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
