Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
But her son would never have been born.
Liam would never have met Avery and never have changed.
Brody rolled over and Steph froze. He seemed to sigh in his sleep and she knew the time had come. No more waiting. Besides, she’d put this plan into motion an hour ago when she’d been kind enough to deliver coffee to the bodyguards on duty. She doubted Brody would forgive her for that. Hell, Liam wouldn’t forgive her for that. He would be angry that she’d put his employees in that position.
Maybe they hadn’t drank the coffee that she’d laced with the strong sedative Fedor had slipped into her purse along with instructions on how and when he would pick her up.
What the hell was she doing?
She loved Brody. It was right there in her heart, but she couldn’t trust it. Her world simply didn’t work in a way that ended with her happy.
A vision of his big, warm body gone cold in a coffin assaulted her. Would she bury him beside their son? Was this the universe’s way to find balance for what she’d caused before? This time she would be the one to lose her husband and child. She only thought she’d felt the worse pain imaginable, but it was still out there, lurking and waiting. Biding its time until the moment was perfect to strike.
It was here now. The time to pay for all her sins, and her whole body ached with what would happen next.
She forced herself to walk into the living room, trying to keep her step as light as possible. The lamp in the living room was on, illuminating her way. There was Shane. It looked like he’d tried to call someone. His phone was on the floor in front of him, but he hadn’t made it out of the comfy chair he’d been sitting in. The coffee was next to him, half empty, and his chest was moving up and down in the easy motion of sleep.
She’d made sure of the dose. Luckily she’d known the pharmaceutical well. She’d taken it herself before she’d gotten pregnant. Dreamless sleep was what it offered.
Declan was on the sofa across from him. Thank god. She’d been worried he would have time to start his rounds. Declan walked the grounds at least once an hour, and she’d been afraid she would find him passed out on the grass. She couldn’t leave him out in the elements, and that would have slowed her down.
Tucker had likely taken his back to his bedroom. He would wake up in the morning with no bad effects. He would wonder what had happened and why she’d done what she’d done.
Everything had worked perfectly. All signs pointed to this plan coming to fruition. The plan where she sacrificed herself for her son and Brody.
She picked up her purse and took the cell phone that de Vries had sent to her. Shane and Declan had been tasked with keeping it close and monitoring it, but she couldn’t leave it behind. She was the one who had to answer that phone when it rang, even if she had zero control over what happened in the next few hours of her life. Perhaps the last few hours.
It didn’t matter. She shoved the cell phone into the purse and wished she had time to leave a note. She wished she could say all the things she wanted to say, that she was sorry she hadn’t been better, sorry she had to make this choice. But when she thought about it, it had been made long ago.
There was no time. If she didn’t show up, Fedor would put his plan in motion.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wishing she could hold them both one last time.
Steph strode out the door, resolute. This was for the best.
Brody would wake up in the morning and he would take care of their son. Eventually he would take Nate back to London where he would be raised in a normal way. He would go to school and have friends. He wouldn’t spend all his time in a clinic. He wouldn’t have to worry about the next medical crisis or whether or not the ground beneath him would shift and he would end up in the middle of a civil war.
He would have a happy life.
Tears blurred her eyes as she rushed to the gate that led to the sidewalk. She tried to push through the gate but it held.
She pushed again. It didn’t move. Where was the latch? There had to be a way to open it. Of course they would lock it from the outside, but she hadn’t thought about it not opening from the inside.
“It’s locked.”
She nearly screamed when she watched Tucker peel away from the shadows. He’d gotten dressed again. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, his shoes off. He was ready to be outside, his sneakers and jeans back on.