Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
And then she was running away.
For one moment, Kyr remained frozen, unable to believe how goddamn fast everything had happened.
He closed his eyes and he saw his wife, and the memory wrenched his heart, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
What the fuck had he done?
Terror nearly paralyzed him as the full impact of what had happened hit him and without looking back at Ana, he tore after his wife.
Pollyanna.
He had to get to his wife.
He had to get to her.
He had to make her understand.
Kyr wasted precious time checking the nearest hallways of the resort until one of his guards realized what he was doing and said hesitantly, “I heard Mrs. Gazis telling one of the drivers to take her back to the main house, sir.”
Driving like a madman, he clenched the steering wheel tightly, a short prayer repeating in his mind.
Please let me find her.
When he made it to the house, she wasn’t anywhere in the first floor, and he bounded up the stairs, throwing the door to their bedroom open. But she wasn’t there either. He was about to run back down to check if any of his cars was missing when he heard it.
Voices from the twins’ room—-
And that distinct word.
“Mama.”
Kyr walked towards the room, his heart beating harder and harder against his chest, and fear choking the hell out of him.
He reached the doorway.
Polly.
She had changed into a shirt and jeans, and with her hair hurriedly twisted up in a ponytail, she looked like the eighteen-year-old girl he had first met.
She stood between their children, the twins talking a mile a minute, while a chubby Leo sat on the floor, beaming up at her.
He knew, just by looking at her, what had happened.
She had been planning to leave, but the kids had heard her, and now they had her trapped.
Slowly, Pollyanna turned to face him.
Ah, God.
Her eyes were dead, and so was her voice when she whispered two words in flawless French.
Please go.
He saw the years they were together in his mind.
Years that she had devoted herself selflessly to him, years that had been so damn happy and beautiful because she had been there every day, loving him and loving their children.
And now, when it was too late, he realized how he had lost everything because of one goddamn mistake, of thinking arrogantly that his life would be better if he took Ana back.
Now Kyr knew that all these years, he had wanted Ana back as much as he wanted revenge because he had not been used to failing, and in his entire life, Ana had been his only failure.
One goddamn moment of pride and he had thrown away everything that meant the most to him.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
How the hell had he been so damn blind, not realizing that what he had needed all along was right in front of him?
He looked at his wife.
“Polly. I love you.” He spoke it fiercely.
She didn’t answer, only sinking to her knees and drawing the twins to her, she hugged them, crying silently.
“Mama?” Ella started to cry.
“Mama, don’t cry.” But Dio, too, was crying. “Mama, I’ll protect you. Mama, tell me what’s wrong.”
But their mother only cried harder.
And Kyr knew then it was too late.
He had killed the stars in her eyes.
He had killed her.
Part IV
Prologue
Pollyanna pulled the strings of her gown in place before reaching behind her for the zip. She struggled for fifteen long minutes, unwilling to ask for help. But when she was finally done, she was close to tears and she hated herself more.
Dragging oxygen into her sob-clogged throat, she turned to face the full-length mirror, but she couldn’t see her reflection at all.
Instead, she saw herself tottering on the edge of a cliff at eighteen, torn between the darkest of terrors and the wildest of hopes.
If she took a leap of faith, what would happen?
But then it had eventually felt too much, became impossible to resist. He had been a god in her eyes, a prince and knight all rolled into one, the way he did everything impossible seem so effortlessly easy.
He was more beautiful than any man she had seen in her life, possessing more power and strength than any man should have. His arrogance had turned her on because it had just felt so...right. He knew what he wanted in his life, and he was willing to do whatever it took to have it.
That wasn’t bad, was it?
And he had wanted her.
How could she not fall for him?
So she had taken that leap, falling over the cliff of no return. She hadn’t known what to expect but it was not to have him beside her, falling with her.
And oh, what a rollercoaster journey it had been.
She remembered the last time they had fought, of the resentment she had tried to shamefully get rid of for not being able to go after her dreams. But then she also remembered his face, the time she had delivered the twins. His look had been indescribable, beyond profound, as he lightly ran his fingers on the soft cheeks of Dio and Ella.