Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 30269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“One husband coming right up.” I’m already moving toward the hall. The instant I poke my head out, Landon stops mid-pace and whips toward me.
“How is she?”
“She’s asking for you. It’s time.”
Hugo takes that as his cue. “I’ll, uh…go find some coffee.” His voice is tight. Without another word, he pushes off the wall and heads down the corridor, stride quickening until he’s nearly running.
Landon doesn’t seem to notice as he brushes past me into the room. The moment he reaches Elise, her expression crumbles.
“I’m so sorry!” she cries. “I love you. Can you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive, sweetheart.” He takes her hand and brings it to his lips. “Not a single thing.”
I move to the other side of the bed as the midwife positions herself at the foot.
“Okay, Elise. On the next one, I want you to push.”
Elise screams, the animalistic sound ripping from deep inside her. Her knuckles turn bone-white around Landon’s hand as her body arches, tendons straining in her neck.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.” Landon’s voice stays steady. “One more. For me, baby.”
On the next contraction, she bears down with determination.
“Good,” the midwife says. “There we go. You’re doing great, honey.”
Push after push, Elise gives everything she has. Sweat beads on her forehead. Her voice grows hoarse, her grip on Landon’s hand unrelenting. I wipe her brow with a cool cloth, murmuring encouragement between contractions.
“You’re almost there.” Excitement colors the midwife’s tone. “The head is crowning.”
Elise lets out another guttural scream, and the moment that first cry splits the air, it arrows straight to my heart.
She collapses back into the pillows, gasping, crying, and laughing all at once.
“You did it,” Landon whispers, tears tracking down his cheeks.
The midwife works with practiced hands while the nurse checks the baby. Minutes later, the swaddled bundle is placed on Elise’s chest, and his furious cries soften into indignant hiccups against her skin.
She looks up at Landon, eyes wide and swimming with tears. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
“Don’t apologize.” He brushes his lips across her forehead before pressing a kiss to the baby’s wrinkled brow. “He’s perfect. He’s ours.”
My heart’s so full I can hardly breathe.
Landon glances at me, fatherly pride turning his smile radiant. “Want to hold him?”
“I’d love to.”
Elise passes me the baby, wrapped tight in a striped hospital blanket. He has her nose and chin, and Landon will teach him what it means to be kind, because this little boy is theirs.
Never Jerome’s.
“He’s an angel,” I whisper.
Warmth blossoms in my chest as I cradle him, his soft weight settling into the crook of my arm. The scent of baby powder fills my senses, and a vision sparks to life.
A baby of my own with Sebastian’s ocean eyes gazing up at me.
I stroke the newborn’s tiny cheek. Beneath the wonder, a sudden realization makes my pulse flutter.
I could be pregnant right now.
And that thought takes me to Lilith, who is carrying Sebastian’s child. I recall the day I found her sobbing outside his door, terrified of being a mother without him. She’s still mourning him, not realizing her grief is unnecessary.
And I can’t tell her the truth.
It isn’t fair to her.
The baby shifts in my arms, fist curling, and I picture the little girl who will arrive in a couple of months. Will she have Lilith’s dark hair and Sebastian’s stubborn jaw? Will her father make it home in time?
He has to.
Lilith is due in the thick of it, right around the time of the auction.
Sebastian can’t miss the birth of his daughter.
I tuck away that familiar envious ache, though it’s nowhere near as strong as it used to be.
Grief has a way of changing perspectives, especially when the universe grants an impossible miracle.
When the time comes, Sebastian and I will be there for Lilith.
I pass the baby back to Elise, tucking the blanket around his tiny body. She looks utterly spent, but pure contentment glows in her eyes.
“You’re leaving?” she murmurs, voice raspy from screaming.
“Yeah, you need your rest.” I smooth a hand over the blanket. “You did good, Elise.”
Landon walks me out into the empty hallway. Hugo never did return with that coffee.
“Listen,” Landon says, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I have some news about Jerome.” Scanning the corridor, he lowers his voice. “We got him.”
I blink, and a wave of shock rushes over me, followed by a reluctant surge of relief. “So Oliver came through.”
“He did. Authorities arrested the bastard last night for tax fraud.” He shuffles his feet. “I haven’t told Elise yet. She’s had enough to deal with in the last twenty-four hours, but I thought you should know.”
“I’m glad she’s finally getting some justice.”
Even if the world will never know what Jerome did to her, or that he’s the biological father of her child, at least it’s something.
“What you did for her, with Oliver,” he says. “I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”