A shadow in my periphery gains my attention, and I flail out, screaming into his mouth, trying to get help, but it’s no use. I’m not strong enough.
The force of his attack is shocking, and I struggle as best I can, crying out when he shoves me to the ground and falls down on me. When he reaches for my zipper it’s a red alarm, and I intensify my fight, managing to lift my knee and jab it up and into his balls.
I’m free and waste no time running like hell, leaving him panting and crumpled on the concrete as I race all the way home, not stopping till I get inside and slam and lock the door.
I need to see Luc and feel his arms around me, to feel that safety and comfort that only he can give. Instead I find an empty room and my tearful mother sitting at the kitchen table, her expression pitying as she tells me that he packed up and left with not a word or a goodbye.
Sometime after that, after endless phone calls and messages, I accept that he’s never coming back, that he’s left me. Forever. And I crawl out of my deep pit of despair, feeling harder, colder than the naïve girl I’d been.
Two weeks later, after a lot of awkward passes in the hall, Chris finally approaches me and apologizes for his behavior, and it’s then that I learn that the shadow I’d seen while being mauled, the shadow I’d reached toward while crying out for help, was Luc.
Chris had done what he’d done to split us up, and it had worked. Luc believes I was two-timing him and he’d left, heartbroken, thinking me something I’m not.
Seven years of hatred and regret later and I’d been swept off my feet by a man who probably hates me. Who’d taken over my life and bound me so tightly I can’t breathe without him.
And now he’s turned around and given me a taste of my own medicine. Or what he believes is a well-deserved revenge.
My fault, since I’d never explained what he’d seen in that alley beside the school; pride cometh before the fall and all that.
I’d broken his heart, and now he’s breaking mine.
Only this time there’s nothing I can do. I can’t run and try to make a life for myself, because I can never justify separating my kids from their father, and—
My breath leaves me, and I stand slowly, taking a deep breath and drying my tears with new resolve.
Lucian ran seven years ago, willing to believe the worst of me, abandoning me when I needed him most. I won’t do that. No, I’ll stand firm and get the answers before making my decision, because I’m stronger than I was before.
It’s ironic, but he’s given me all this strength to face the same situation he hadn’t been strong enough to face.
Now I just have to wait and see if my love is worth fighting for, or if the deal of a lifetime is nothing more than Ash on the wind.
Chapter Thirty Nine
Luc
The last week and a half have been hellish. Not only did I have to go to Germany to fix a cock up made by one of my top execs—ex-execs now—but I’d been trying to keep my grasping ex-wife away from my family.
The woman is a greedy, lazy alcoholic, who sees nothing wrong with hitting me up for money despite the massive divorce settlement I’d provided.
I could have sent her packing and told her to stay the hell away from me and try getting a job, but the bitch had threatened to go to Ashley and make waves, something I won’t abide.
My love is still fragile and in mommy mode right now, and I will do anything to keep her sheltered from the vipers in my life. So I’d seen that bitch and figured out that my dear mother is behind this shakedown.
Seems she’s unable to live without the large stipend my father had always provided and now needs money.
I’d told them both to go fuck themselves and threatened them with legal action if they so much as breathe near what’s mine. Now I’m home and bloody ready to lose myself inside my love, the only place I’ve ever found a moment’s peace.
The house is dark when I get in, the only sound that of a thin wail. Grinning, I drop my luggage and bound up the stairs, stifling a laugh when I get to the nursery and see my little Jewel wide awake and ready to unleash hell on her poor mum.
“Shh, love, let Mummy sleep. Daddy’s here,” I croon, holding her close to my chest and breathing deeply of her baby fresh scent.
And then I get a hit of something decidedly un-fresh, and panic.
Ash thinks I’m not willing to change princess because I’m squeamish about seeing her girly parts, something I’ve fostered to keep her laughing and off my back. The truth is the little gem is toxic in the nappy area, and whereas I can change Lucky and Cam without batting an eyelash, I just know I’ll never see my princess the same if I have to see what’s come out of her.