Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
“The more I think about it, why would Mary, Scott, and Matt be so interested in your marrying her? I can see her parents, sure, but why them? What did they get out of it?” She’s always been smart, and it was only a matter of time before she came to that conclusion, but I couldn’t let her continue down that road of thought.
She kept going, though, and there was no safe way to stop her without giving anything away. There’s a safe bet that she wouldn’t come even remotely close to the truth of their involvement, though, and I hope it stays that way. If she knew what those monsters were really up to, it would break her heart. Now it’s my job to see that never happens. From now on, I’ll do everything I can to mend the tear that they and I had put there.
***
After dinner, we were both approached by Lyon and his men. She was once again introduced to everyone since they were going to be around for a while, and I think that’s when she first realized I had no intention of letting her go back to her house for longer than it would take her to pack her stuff.
“There’s been a development; we need to move fast,” Tyler spoke after the introductions were made.
“What kind of development.”
“Well, it’s a good thing, I guess, so no need to panic. You have to evacuate your old house. In about an hour, men in hazmat suits are going to show up there, and so are the paparazzi; you’ll have to go back there for a while to make it appear as if you were there all along.”
“What’s going on?”
“It’s about to become public that your wife is in the hospital, and things are going to go from there. Nothing for you to worry about.” The way he looked at me, I knew he was talking about the things I didn’t want Elena involved in, so I just nodded my head and went along. They’d been with me long enough that I knew I could trust him and Zak and, by extension, Lyon, Mancini, and the others.
“She’s in the hospital? What happened to her?” Elena looked at me with a worried expression. It will never cease to amaze me, that heart of hers. That she could feel for Janie after everything that she’d done is something I doubt I could ever achieve, even with all my spiritual guidance. Spiritual guidance, my ass, they’d turned me into a mockery. How low do you have to be to do that to someone who came to you in all sincerity? Especially with me being so young at the time.
It’s going to take a while for my mind not to go off on these little tangents every once in a while, sometime before I figure out who I am and who I want to be when this is all said and done. I can’t go back to being the same guy I was when we first met, and I for sure don’t want to remain the same as I had been the last five years, but just who the hell am I really?
I don’t have the answers, but I do know who I want to be, though. I want to be the man Elena would be proud to have by her side. I want to be everything she ever dreamed of and more not only to make up for what I’d done but because it’s what she deserves and more. “There was a situation; I’ll tell you all about it when I come back, don’t worry. Let me go take care of this for now, okay.”
She nodded her head, but I could see that she was still worried. I excused us away from the others and walked her back to our suite of rooms upstairs. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. She just had an allergic reaction to something and was taken to the hospital. I’m gonna go take care of this and come back to you as soon as possible.”
“Is this really happening? But Ryder, if our fans realize that we’re together while she’s in the hospital, won’t that make us look bad?”
“That’s why we’re here; no one knows about this place or that we own it. You’ll be going back to New York soon. By then, this will have blown over.” Or take a different turn, but I didn’t mention that out loud. I got the feeling that the nieces were behind this new move, and since the men had no more idea of what they were up to than I, there was no way of telling what was coming next.
I cupped her face between my hands and looked at her in the moonlight, still finding it hard to believe that this was all real. “I love you so much, don’t ever forget that again.” I pulled her in close and kissed her forehead before kissing my way down her closed eyelids onto her cheek before I made my way to the corner of her lips.