He could not believe it. She was rejecting him. Running out on him.
The need to strike out at her, to hurt her as he was hurting, was intense.
"I'll be selling that bloody shop," he growled. "I should never have bought it in the first place. Which I did, you know. There never was any other buyer. It was me all along."
She stared at him, and for the first time Richard had no doubt about what he was seeing in her eyes. Total shock. And then, the most dreadful dismay.
"Oh, Richard," she said brokenly. "How could you? I always thought you were a man of honour."
"Nice men finish last, sweetheart," he threw at her, talking tough, but inside he was disintegrating.
A sob broke from her throat. "Oh, God. I have to get out of here."
She jumped up, her chair falling back. She almost tripped over the bags at her feet as she fled. Richard hesitated only a moment before he was up and after her, leaving everything behind. The ring. The clothes. None of them mattered. All that mattered was Holly. He had to get her and tell her how sorry he was. He would try to explain and beg her to forgive him.
"Holly!" he called after her as he pushed through the coffee-shop door in her wake.
She halted at the kerb just long enough to send a distressed glance over her shoulder at him. Then she dashed out into the road.
The loud screech of brakes assaulted Richard's ears as he saw a white van hurtling down the hill towards her.
They said your life flashed before you the moment before you died. The truth flashed before Richard's eyes the moment before he thought Holly would die.
He loved her. Loved her as he'd never loved Joanna.
The thought of burying Holly gave him a strength and a speed that was inhuman. Some guardian angel must have lifted him and propelled him across that road, because before he knew it he was diving into mid-air, taking her with him out of harm's way.
She screamed as they crashed into the gutter on the other side, Richard's body buffering hers against the fall. Richard didn't scream. He was thanking God for his mercy.
People quickly milled around them, helping them to their feet, asking if they were all right. The driver from the white van, which had stopped. People from the coffee shop. Passers-by.
"I … I think so," Holly said shakily. "Richard? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he insisted, even as his leg throbbed with pain under his trousers. Thank God the weather had turned cool that day and he'd been wearing a leather jacket, or all his arms would have been grazed.
"Your face is bleeding," Holly said, reaching up to touch his cheek.
Someone produced some tissues, which he dabbed against his cut cheekbone.
"Come back into the coffee shop," the lady proprietor insisted. "You've had a bad shock. A sit down and a hot sweet drink is called for."
Holly knew the woman was right. She also knew Richard had just saved her life. But to go back and sit down with him. To have to talk to him.
"Please, Holly," he said, perhaps guessing that she still wanted to flee.
She closed her eyes rather than look at him. He took her arm and led her back across the road to the coffee shop. She finally opened her eyes after she'd been settled back in the chair she'd occupied earlier. The sight of her engagement ring still in the middle of the table brought back the reasons for her fleeing in the first place.
Richard's admission to buying the shop behind her back.
Why? The reason was obvious. He'd wanted her to be evicted. Wanted her to have nowhere else to go, but him.
Two new cups of milk coffee arrived, into which the waitress heaped some sugar.
"Drink up, dears," she advised before leaving them to it.
Holly just sat there, saying nothing.
"You shouldn't have run like that, Holly," Richard said quietly at last. "You could have been killed."
"Better dead than wed to a man like you."
"Don't say that," he choked out, his face ashen. "I love you, Holly. I know you won't believe me, but it's true."
"How dare you?" she snapped under her breath. "It's despicable to lie about something like that! But then you are despicable."
"I couldn't agree with you more. What I did was despicable. But I do love you."
"You simply can't accept defeat, can you? You don't love me," she said bitterly. "Everyone knows you're still in love with Joanna. Your mother. Your friends. I'm just a means to an end."
"That's not true."
"Don't you dare try to tell me what's true and what isn't. I know the truth."
"No, you don't," he bit out. "And neither does anyone else. You think I'm still in love with Joanna? Well, you're wrong. I hate her. No, that's wrong. I don't even hate her any more. She's not worthy of being hated. Because that would mean she was worthy of being loved."
Holly gaped at him.
"Yes, well you might be surprised. But I couldn't let anyone know I was married to an unfaithful bitch, could I? Not me. Mr Successful. Impossible to tell anyone that she'd been expecting a child when she was killed, especially when that child definitely wasn't mine. Ever since she died I thought she'd been having an affair and that she'd been going to pass the child off as mine. But Kim finally filled in the gaps for me when I rang her the other day and demanded to know the truth. Joanna was going to have an abortion on the day she was killed. She didn't even know who the father of her child was. It could have been any of half a dozen men she let screw her at a party she threw when I was away. Isn't that a lovely thought? My wife, a slut!"
Holly could not think of a thing to say as shock warred with sympathy for Richard. How dreadful to discover that the person you loved was so … sick. She'd been shattered when Dave had dumped her for Katie. What if she'd been married to Dave and discovered he'd been sleeping around like a tom-cat and had made some other girl pregnant?
"Oh, Richard," she said at last, feeling truly sorry for him.
Holly was appalled when tears glistened in his eyes.
"Don't cry, Richard," she pleaded. "Please don't cry."
"I'm not crying for her, Holly. Let the devil take her. I'm sure he has. But I feel like crying over losing you," he choked out. "You have no idea how much I love you."
"Do you, Richard? Do you, really?"
"More than words can say. You brought me back from the edge of darkness. You gave me hope for a future. You showed me that love doesn't have to be selfish."
"Then why did you buy the shop?"
He shook his head. "It was a mistake. I'd just found out from Kim how truly wicked Joanna was and I was afraid for my sanity. I needed you, Holly. Needed your warmth and your kindness. And, yes, the comfort of your body. I was too blind with bitterness to see that my feelings for you had already deepened to love. It wasn't till I saw that car coming towards you a little while ago that the truth hit me. I do realise that you will still find it hard to forgive me. But give me another chance, Holly. You must feel something for me. Maybe, one day, you might learn to love me."
"I don't think so, Richard," she said quietly. When she picked up the ring and slipped it back onto her finger, his head snapped back with shock.
Her smile was soft and loving. "You see, I've been in love with you for quite a while, my darling," she said, reaching over to take one of his hands in hers.
His eyes filled with tears again, and this time she wasn't appalled. There was something about a man who could cry over her that was very lovable indeed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"THANK you so much for giving me away, Melvin," Holly said sincerely.
"My pleasure, sweetie," Melvin replied.
Holly thought he was the sweetie. He was such a nice man. So kind and considerate. Melvin and Mrs Crawford had surprised everyone by tying the knot whilst they were overseas. But they'd been home for a few weeks now and Holly had never known a happier couple.
Not counting herself and Richard, of course, she amended with a sigh. They were so happy together, even more so since she'd found out last month that she was expecting a baby. Already, Richard had given Reece the job of finding them the right family home. No way, he said, was he going to raise a child of his in a penthouse.
"Not nervous, are you?" Melvin whispered as he took her arm.
"Just a little," Holly returned. The day so far had been somewhat nerve-racking, trying to get everything right, making sure she looked as good as she could possibly look.
"No reason to be," he said, and patted her arm. "You look divine. And you're marrying a fine man."