Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
But he couldn't. Not yet. Not until he sorted through the chaos in his own mind.
An ominous foreboding had taken possession of Ronan's soul since the night he had taken Acacia to the fundraiser at Konstantin's hospital. He had bumped into his former professor, and the older man had casually asked him how long he had been dating Lena again.
"I'm not," Ronan had replied, confusion furrowing his brow.
"Then I must be seeing double."
He had followed Professor Jin's gaze across the crowded ballroom, and that was when the truth he had fought so hard not to see could no longer be denied. Acacia, in her midnight blue gown, laughing at something a young doctor's son had said, her hand resting protectively over her swollen belly. And beside her—not physically, but in the professor's memory—the ghost of another woman, with the same delicate features, the same red-gold hair.
Ronan remembered making his excuses afterward, remembered feeling like he was about to fucking puke because he finally realized that this was what he had been terrified of all along.
Don't wait until it's too late, and you've already lost everything.
The first time he saw her photo in the Initiative's file, he had wanted her...because she had reminded him of Lena, the girl he had fallen in love with as a boy, only for her to toss him aside for some college jock who would later knock her up and cause her to quit high school without graduating.
History repeating itself in the cruelest way.
That initial attraction, that immediate spark of recognition—those had been based in a past he couldn't escape.
But what had grown between him and Acacia since?
What they had was real.
And precious.
So damn precious that it had him wanting and fearing to say the truth at the same time.
Don't wait until it's too late, and you've already lost everything.
Since then, Ronan kept telling himself all he needed was time.
Just enough time to make her love him so much she wouldn't be capable of leaving him.
Just enough time to find the right words.
Time.
He had thought he wouldn't run out of it.
But he was wrong.
Ronan was at a meeting with the other members of the Hartland Initiative when he was informed that Terry was waiting to speak to him. Since his secretary knew better than to interrupt him on days like this, he knew right away something had happened—
"What's wrong?" he demanded, striding out of the conference room where Oliver and the others continued their discussion of the upcoming wedding's security protocols.
Terry was pacing outside, her face creased with worry. Before becoming his secretary, she had worked at his family home as his nanny. Many an eyebrow was raised when Ronan had hired her as his secretary, but then, as now, what other people thought mattered little to him.
"She's here, Ronan." Terry's voice was strained.
She?
Ronan stiffened. "What happened to Aca—-"
"No," Terry cut him off. "I'm talking about that girl!"
Only one woman came to mind, the only one whose name Terry was unable to say because she was still struggling with unforgiveness.
Lena.
He left Terry to make his excuses to the other men. He drove as fast as he could, taking corners too sharply, narrowly avoiding an elderly pedestrian who gave him a one-fingered salute as he sped past. But he was still too late. When he arrived at the clinic, Lena was inside his office... while Acacia was being wheeled out on a hospital bed, unconscious.
"No. God. No."
The words tore from him as he rushed to her side, taking in her pale face, the slight swell of her belly beneath the thin hospital blanket.
"Dr. Slater," one of the nurses acknowledged him with a nod. "We're taking her to room three. Her vitals are stable, but she fainted. Blood pressure's a bit low."
"What happened?" he demanded, his fingers automatically finding Acacia's wrist, measuring her pulse for himself.
"Still to be determined. When we got to your office, she was already unconscious. The other woman called for help."
The other woman.
Lena.
He would deal with her later.
But right now and forever more—-
Acacia.
Whether she would choose to believe him or not—-
She was what mattered.
Always.
ACACIA'S DOCTOR CAME out to meet with him, and what she told him, a part of Ronan had already expected.
Vitals normal. Baby's heartbeat is strong. So it's nothing serious...for now. But you need to help her avoid anything emotionally stressful.
Since Acacia was still not asleep, he used the time to come face to face with Lena and get rid of her, once and for all.
She got to her feet upon seeing him, and he got to the point as soon as she did.
"I'm about to marry someone else, and I don't want you near us. In any way."
"So I was right," she sneered. "I had a feeling she was more than a patient to you."
"You probably don't know this, but you've been keeping my legal team busy for so many years now. We've been keeping track of all the enemies you've made. They all had dirt on you, but not the money to sue you. Do you think I can help them?"