Three Wishes(49)

He was no longer staring at her coolly, leaning back in his chair arrogantly. His face had paled, he’d leaned forward and he was staring at her anything but coolly. And the power of his intensity rocked the room.

Lily immediately looked away.

Alistair continued. “Ms. Jacobs informs me that the minute she heard the news, she tried frantically to get in touch with Mr. McAllister but no one was answering at his office. She left an urgent message with Mr. McAllister’s sister, a Ms. Danielle Roberts, to have Mr. McAllister’s mother return her call. However, Mrs. Laura Roberts did not return Ms. Jacobs’s call before Lily was forced to leave to catch her plane. Ms. Jacobs wrote and left a note but was assured by Mr. McAllister’s brother, a Mr. Jeffrey Roberts who had stopped by for a visit, that he would get the news to Mr. McAllister.”

“There was no note.” This was Victor, Lily knew, and she watched as Alistair turned his head to her in question at his stated fact.

Lily nodded once.

“There was a note,” Alistair affirmed stoutly.

“There was no goddamned note,” Victor snapped and Lily looked at him.

He, too, was white as a sheet and he didn’t look furious anymore. He looked upset and confused and in so being trying to bluster out of it.

Victor carried on. “And anyway, when she got back, she could have come to the house. We haven’t moved, we live in the same damn –”

“I’m glad you brought that up, Mr. Roberts, for Lily did go to your home. She realised, while home in Indiana dealing with the business of her parents’ tragic death, that she was pregnant. From Indiana she called Mr. McAllister at his home and at his office on several occasions. His home phone was disconnected. The messages left at his office were not returned. When Ms. Jacobs came back to England to return to Mr. McAllister, she was informed he no longer lived at the flat in which she resided with him. She went immediately to your house and was told by your daughter that Mr. McAllister was dead.”

Lily’s eyes flicked to Nate to see his response to this news. He was definitely way beyond cool, composed and arrogant. Cool, composed and arrogant were all a fleeting memory.

“This is ridiculous. She could have come back. She could have talked to someone else. Why on earth would Danielle Roberts tell –” Nate’s attorney burst out.

“Why indeed?” Alistair broke in. “Nevertheless, it’s a moot point because Lily couldn’t come back. The pregnancy was complicated. Ms. Jacobs had difficulties and nearly lost the baby twice. She was not allowed to travel and forced to stay in bed for the last three months of her pregnancy.”

“After that –” the solicitor interrupted.

“After that, Lily was recuperating and then dealing with significant financial hardships. The birth was described to me by Lily and also by her obstetrician, who I spoke to myself yesterday. The doctor, in his own words, remembers what he describes as that ‘hideous day’ like it was yesterday. The labour, intense and excruciating, lasted for days. In the end, in extreme distress at the length of the labour, the baby nearly died. Lily did die. She was flatline for two minutes and thirty-eight –”

Alistair didn’t get the opportunity to finish his grand statement because Nate surged out of his chair so fast, it flew on its wheels and shot across the room, slamming into the wall.

“Mr. McAllister…” Alistair said warningly but Nate was coming swiftly around the table, coming at her.

At this sight, Lily, too, jumped out of her chair in a panic, her numbness not that complete, and backed away in self-defence as Nate came at her, came at her with purposeful, long strides. She backed up jerkily, one hand behind her, one hand in front, retreating until she hit the wall. Before she knew what he was about, his hard chest came up against her hand, pushing it back and his body pressed against hers.

Terrified and confused at this sudden change, she looked to the right and to the left, anywhere for escape, anywhere but at Nate.

And to her shock, his hands caught her face, resting one on either side, gently trying to force her to look into his impossibly dark eyes.

“I didn’t know,” he whispered and the absolute ache dripping from his first words said to her since she found out he was alive cut through her thin shield of numbness like a razor.

She attempted to pull her face free but his hands tightened.

“Lily, I didn’t know,” he repeated, and she caught his eyes and they were glittering dark with something that she couldn’t read, something hideously painful and she had to get away from it. Was desperate to get away from it. She needed to flee.

She tried to look over his shoulder but he was too tall, too close. Things were happening in the room, there was urgent talk, maybe even a tussle. But all she could see was Nate.

“Look at me,” he demanded.

She frantically shook her head against his hands.

“Lily, look at me.”

At his soft, gentle words, she couldn’t stop herself, she looked at him. She looked into his impossibly handsome face.

And then, for the first time since she knew he was alive, she spoke to him. She said the words she’d been saying in her head for days.

“You told me you’d never let me go,” she whispered but it was an accusation.

His eyes closed and the pain in them swept over his entire face and settled there like it would never, ever leave.