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)
"Ronan, don't be like this. We were in love once—-"
Her sudden switch to being pitiful disgusted him. How could he have been in love with her? She had always been like this, he realized that now. Terry had seen it from the start, but he hadn't. And because he had been so damn blind, it had led him to wanting Acacia for all the wrong reasons when he first met her.
"It's over, Lena," he said curtly. "Get out of here. Forget I ever existed. This is the only warning I'll give you. Cross me at your risk."
He turned away, but this proved to be a mistake, with Lena suddenly rushing forward to hug him from behind.
Fuck.
His teeth clenched as he forcibly extricated himself from her hold. "Enough—-"
"I don't have anyone else," she cries out.
"Then it's time for you to work like the rest of us."
"Just...just give me a loan one last time. Please."
"No."
He stepped back.
She slapped him...and then stared at Ronan in shock as if she couldn't believe what he had just done. "R-Ronan—-"
That was it for him.
A single nod was all it took, and Lena started screaming as soon as she saw the building security head toward her.
"Ronan—-"
The pair of security carried her bodily out of the premises, and Ronan turned away. This part of his life was over. Because this time, he finally saw Lena for the girl she had always been.
Acacia was still unconscious when he visited her. He took her hand in his, and he swallowed hard as he found himself praying for the first time.
Please. God. Please.
Ronan studied her face, searching for traces of Lena in her features.
All those similarities used to be so damn easy to spot.
But now, all he could see were the things that made them polar opposites.
Like the hardened expression on Lena's face...and the softened look on Acacia's.
Don't wait until it's too late, and you've already lost everything.
Konstantin's warning echoed in Ronan's mind like a death knell as he paced the sterile hospital corridor. He paused at the window of Acacia's room, watching her chest rise and fall in sleep, tubes and wires connecting her to machines that beeped a steady rhythm. His hands clenched into fists at his sides, the urge to go to her, to touch her, to explain everything nearly overwhelming him.
But he couldn't. Not yet. Not until he sorted through the chaos in his own mind.
When he was finally permitted to enter her room, he took her hand in his, and he swallowed hard as he found himself praying for the first time.
Please. God. Please.
Time slipped by, but he remained by her side until her eyes finally fluttered open.
For a moment, confusion clouded her eyes, then recognition dawned, and she started to smile at him—a smile that faded as memory returned, and pain gripped his chest because it was like the fucking sun dying on him.
"I need you to tell me the truth." Her voice was hardly more than a whisper, but the tremor in it cut him to the quick.
"Acacia—"
The machines monitoring her vitals registered a spike in her heart rate.
"Swear it, please."
"I swear."
She swallowed hard, her eyes never leaving his face. "Did you want me the first time because I look like your ex?"
The question hung between them, sharp as a scalpel. He could lie to her. Tell her no, absolve himself of the sin of his initial deception. Anything to keep her from leaving him. But because he loved her too much, even if it meant losing her by speaking the truth—-
"I'm sorry," Ronan said rawly. He meant to tell her that it was only his subconscious that had recognized the resemblance between her and Lena. And that the more time he had spent with her, such similarities had mattered less and less. He had meant to assure her that she was still the only woman who ever mattered.
But as soon as he heard her cry out, and the machine monitoring her vitals started beeping more rapidly, Ronan realized that it was too late, and that Acacia had completely misunderstood everything.
"Every time we were together," she choked out. "You...y-you were t-thinking of her, w-weren't you?"
Ronan's face went ashen. "No. Acacia, no—"
"You used me," she choked out, her hands moving protectively over her belly. "You made love to me while seeing someone else."
"That's not true." Ronan reached for her, his expression desperate. "Please, let me explain. It wasn't like that—"
"You already admitted it!" The words tore from her throat. "You wanted me because I look like her. What else is there to explain?"
Ronan could see the horror and disgust in her eyes, could see exactly what she was thinking, and self-loathing crashed over him in waves. He had done this to her. His cowardice, his inability to face his own past, had led them here.
"Listen to me," he said urgently, gripping her hand tightly. "What happened on that bus—what's been happening between us—it's never been about her. Yes, your resemblance to Lena may have triggered something initially, but I didn't even realize it then. I swear to you, every moment since has been about you. Only you."