Free Stone Cold by Stassi Evers Page A

to ask him. His emotions were running out of control – one minute he was angry, the next sad, then disappointed and so on.
    His son had been a mischievo us teen over the past few years. He’d committed some minor pranks like egging cars and soaping windows, but he never believed Conall had it in him to steal or worse.
    The blinds were raised so that Darin could see the main lobby of the police station. There was quite a bit of commotion going on he thought for such a late hour. He marveled at how most people like him go about their business day after day without so much as a thought of what goes on in the criminal world. He’d had that luxury until a few short hours ago.
    One couple in particular caught Darin’s eye. They were probably in their mid twenties and their newborn was sleeping so peacefully in his mother’s arms. The mother was called up to the main desk to speak with a police officer and she gently handed the baby to his father. The father kissed the baby on his forehead and began rocking him back and forth to the music that was playing in the background. This image stirred memories for Darin of the day Conall was born.
    He wasn’t due for another two weeks. Evelyn woke up one morning and decided not to go to work that day because she wasn’t feeling well. Her back was hurting and she could barely stand without feeling short of breath.
    Every detail had been planned out well ahead of time. When Evelyn went into labor, her mother was to take care of two year old Eden for a few days. That would give Evelyn and Darin some breathing room to bring the baby home and get things situated before adding Eden back into the mix.
    The baby had other ideas.
    Darin had been apprehensive about going to work that day when he saw the level of discomfort Evelyn was in, but she insisted he go. She said she was fine and would call him if anything changed. He made her promise to call her mother right away and have her come get Eden so that she didn’t have to take care of her in her state. He had a feeling she was going to go into labor soon and didn’t want to take any chances of waiting too long to get to the hospital.
    Evelyn called her mother as promised but she wasn’t answering her phone. She left a message for her to come to get Eden as soon as possible.
    After waiting for two hours for her mother to show up, and having called her several times, Evelyn called Darin. By this time she was having a great deal of back pain so he decided to come home and take her to the hospital. They were both very concerned that her mother hadn’t called or shown up so they left a note and once they got to the hospital he would call other hospitals to see if they had anyone there who fit her description.
    Darin had little time to waste. Evelyn was clearly in labor and the contractions were no more than five minutes apart. He had no choice than to bring Eden with them to the hospital. If there was no one there to watch her he would have to make another choice to either let her stay and watch her mother give birth or miss the birth himself to stay with Eden. Either way, the baby was coming.
    The hospital staff was waiting for them to arrive at the emergency entrance. Evelyn was in severe pain and Darin silently wondered how this would affect Eden in years to come.
    “ Will she ever want to have her own child after seeing the pain her mother is in? Will she hate her sibling for hurting her mother by being born? Will she hate him for bringing her to witness such a traumatic event?”
    “Daddy, what’s wrong with mommy? Why is she screaming and crying?” Eden asked as she tugged on Darin’s shirt sleeve.
    “Mommy’s okay. She’s having a baby and it’s going to be your brother or sister. ”
    He could barely stand to see her big brown eyes brimming with tears.
    It was amazing how fast they prepped Evelyn. There were at least five people in the room at any given time. Finally a nurse came in and asked if she could take Eden to a play