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door of the private hospital room.
thermos so tightly her knuckles were white. Sh
the privacy screen, she sa
s large hands, the ones that usually pushed her aw
Cecil said. Her voice was soft, t
a's ears. The sound drowned out t
mb. The thermos sli
afening crash. Hot soup splashed violently across t
look in his eyes vanished the second he saw Alondr
s hand and strode
n her upper arm. His grip was brutal. He yanked her
away. Her back h
rd warned. His voice was a low,
he had swallowed glass. "What about our marriage,
sted his expensive silk tie. "She saved my life fiv
few feet away. Gerard snatched a manila folder
exively
," Gerar
d black letters on the top p
d. The air in her
d, please..." she whispered, her voice breaking into a pathetic sob. She couldn't do it. She couldn't just throw away the only life she knew. When he shoved a cheap plastic pen into her trembling hand, her fingers went limp. Th
soaking through her thin trench coat. The
Porsche parked on Fifth Avenue
tears. She jammed the key into the
er stinging eyes. She forced herself to sit up straight, gripping the steering wheel tightly to regain control of her racing mind. Her vision cleared just as the traffic light up ahead turned r
She pumped the pedal fran
rain. The Porsche spun out of control,
truck was barreling
afening. Metal cr
p, agonizing crack echoed in her chest as he
rough the shattered driver's side window,
olled down. Gerar
His expression was completely blank. He didn't
button. The tinted w
y, its taillights disa
hotter than the pain in her crushed bones. Then
ion of falling j
for air. Her
r pupils through the gap in
aved as she dragged oxygen into her lungs. Her ha
ly. The massive, minimalist
e Arnold penthouse. The apartment
hands. There was no b
is was the exact day, two years ago, right after she had foolishly called Cecil to beg her to leave Gera
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