Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)(100)

“Tonya,” I chastised, “come stay with me for a month or two. We can figure out someplace safe—”

“I can’t,” she said, harsher than I think she wanted to. Then she cleared her throat. “I can’t do it, Everly. I love you, but I can’t see you and that look you always get in your eyes. None of this was your fault, and I’m just … I destroyed you, and I can’t take that back no matter how much I want to. Just be careful.” She hung up without another word.

So, I did the only thing I could do. I sent a text.

Me: You have something to say, come say it. You know where I work. You’ve obviously seen the magazines. Stop bothering my friends. If you want to bother someone, come bother me.





I deleted the thread afterward.





38




EVERLY





EVERY MORNING FOR A WEEK, he left coffee on my doorstep. He never texted, but there was always a driver outside too. My heart bleeding out happened in snapshots.

A snapshot of him driving her to work.

A snapshot of him leaving work to walk to dinner with her at the hotel.

Snapshot after snapshot.

He didn’t try to talk to me anymore though, and I didn’t try to talk with him. But neither of us brought signed divorce papers to the other’s doorstep. We couldn’t pull the trigger.

My mind was tangled up in other things, especially the moment I got the phone call from an unknown known number as I got home from work.

“Everly, so glad I caught you. I don’t know how this slipped through the cracks, but I’m checking your medical charts, and I know you said you were on birth control at your first visit, but when we did that bloodwork, everything looked great except that, well, you don’t have to try for a baby. You’re already pregnant.”

“I’m sorry?” I gripped my counter. “What?”

“I know. I was surprised as well. Rings are quite effective as birth control, but there’s still about nine in a hundred women who get pregnant. Have you gotten your period?”

“No.” I knew it’d been probably three months without it. I just hadn’t worried. “But the doctor said I would be irregular once coming off birth control and—”

“Well, that about confirms it.” The woman sounded excited even as I felt like I was about to faint, about to have my life completely changed. “We’ll have you come in for a test to see how far along you are. We’re so sorry we missed that with all the genetic testing we were doing, our new staff must have overlooked putting that in your MyChart. What day works best for you and Mr. Hardy?”

“What day works best?” I repeated, in total shock. No day worked best. We weren’t having a child. We couldn’t be. We’d been protected at that time. There was no way I was having a baby.

Except I was. And Declan had told me he didn’t loved me. We had divorce papers in our possession. He was driving Anastasia around. For all I knew, he could be sleeping with her by now.

“Would Friday at 3 p.m. work?”

“I can come Friday,” I said in a monotone as my heart galloped away, trying its best to catch up and pump blood through my veins like it felt me slipping. My vision blurred, and I sat down. “I’ll be there Friday,” I repeated again and hung up.

I sat there for hours. I didn’t reach for the phone. Didn’t reach for the TV remote. I simply sat with tears streaming down my face as I considered how I could make this work on my own. I vowed never to tell him. I vowed to raise my child in love, and I knew forcing Declan to stay in this marriage wasn’t what either of us wanted.

Plus, Andy was coming. I knew he would.

And when your past catches up to you, you don’t run. You fight it off and make sure the blowback doesn’t injure the ones you love around you. I needed to handle this on my own so my baby and I could have a clean start.

Declan had been right to leave me behind. He’d been born in love, wrapped in it, secured by it. His family was the epitome of love.

I was born into a home where my mother worked diligently to provide for me and teach me that I could only rely on myself in the world. I longed for love and went looking for it, not knowing I was looking in all the wrong places.

I wouldn’t do that to my child. So I signed the divorce papers and went to sleep clutching them as I sobbed.



THE NEXT MORNING, I folded them up, slid my ring off, and opened the front door to go drop off the envelope. Instead, I found coffee on my doorstep, steaming hot like he’d just left it. My phone beeped.

Declan: Coffee’s there for you. Driver should be there soon too. Have a wonderful day at work. Won’t be there today.



Perfect, I thought, but then immediately my mind wondered where he would be even as I went to stash the envelop in his mailbox.

Maybe he wouldn’t see for days. Maybe I could plan where I would move to and pack up before we had to talk. Maybe he didn’t care to talk at all. Anastasia potentially could have smoothed all the waters.

His driver took me to work where I did yoga with the kids and then followed up with one-on-ones. I meandered over to Clara’s bakery after work and to let her know what I could. “I’m leaving in a little less than a month but I’d like us to keep in touch.”