The CEO Takes a Wife(34)

Now there truly was no hope left.





Nine




“W e should get another opinion,” Alex said once he’d recovered his breath. It was almost impossible to grasp what the specialist was saying. Hell, he didn’t want to grasp it.

From where he stood at the end of the bed, the doctor looked down at them with sympathetic eyes. “Mr. Valente, I understand, but it won’t make any difference to the outcome. Our tests were very thorough.” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

But Alex wasn’t convinced. He glanced at Olivia. “We should try elsewhere. We could—”

“No, Alex,” she said firmly. “Enough is enough.”

Up until this moment “no” just hadn’t been in his mindset. Now, dear God, he just couldn’t believe he was being told there was no other answer.

Then he looked at this beautiful woman who was sitting up in the hospital bed, dressed in a white hospital gown, and who had just been through a medical procedure, and her head was held high with courage and determination to get on with her life. He swallowed hard. If she could take the news and put it behind her then how fair was it for him to keep pushing her over this?

“You’re right,” he said, and lifted her hand held tight in his own to kiss her knuckles, letting her see the admiration in his eyes.

She held his gaze for a few seconds and soft pink colored her cheeks before she looked up at the specialist. “Thank you for all your help, doctor.”

The doctor nodded. “I wish it could have been better news, Mrs. Valente.”

“I know.”

Alex stood up and shook the doctor’s hand, then the other man left them alone.

Silence.

He looked at Olivia. “Are you okay?”

It took a moment, but a small, reassuring smile appeared. “Yes, Alex. I’m fine.”

He wasn’t. He still felt gutted. And how she managed to smile through all this was a—

He saw her bury her face in her hands and her shoulders began to shake. “Olivia?”

She gave a small sob.

He sat on the edge of the bed and gently pulled her up against his chest, his heart cramping with pain when he saw the hot tears slipping down her cheeks. “Oh, sweetheart, let it out,” he muttered. “Let it all out.”

That only made it worse. He held her like that for long moments while she cried.

Eventually she pulled back, sniffing and trying to unscrunch a tissue she’d been holding in her hand. “I’m sorry.”

He let his hands slide to her shoulders, needing to keep on holding her. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have put you through that.”

She dabbed her eyes with the tissue. “It’s better that I know for sure.”

He swore. “Better for whom? You…or me?” His chest ached with an inner pain. “I was wrong in asking that of you, sweetheart.”

She shuddered. “Alex, don’t punish yourself. I did this for both of us.”

A feeling in his heart began to morph into something he’d never felt before. It terrified him, so he quickly pushed it aside, not wanting to know. “Thank you,” he said in a hoarse whisper.#p#分页标题#e#

She drew a shaky breath. “I think I’ll go to sleep now. It’s getting late. Do you mind?”

He cleared his throat. “Not at all.”

The specialist had said he would keep her in the hospital overnight and Alex was more than glad of that now. She needed to rest.

And he suddenly needed to be alone.

“Get them to call me if you want anything and I’ll come straight over.”

She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. “Thanks.”

He hopped off the edge of the bed and helped her to make herself comfortable, then he kissed her and left the room, the door shushing closed behind her.

It wasn’t until he walked into his hotel room that he dropped down onto the sofa, his legs no longer able to hold him up. He’d gotten this far but now the reality of it was sinking in.

Olivia would never have a baby.

His baby.

Dammit, he’d realized he wanted that more than anything in the world. And it wasn’t just because his father wanted him to have a child.

Then something lodged in his throat and he realized he was wrong about this. Totally wrong. The only thing he wanted more than anything in the world was Olivia herself.

He loved her.

A sense of joy swept over him that went clear through to his soul. He had a heartbeat to savor it, contemplate it. Half a second later, pain slammed into him with the force of a wrecking ball.

He couldn’t tell her, especially not right now. She had enough to cope with without him putting unnecessary pressure on her. And telling a woman he loved her and wanted her to stay married to him forever was definitely immense pressure. He couldn’t do that to her right now.