Welcome to Mills & Boon. Jennifer Rae

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Three cups of coffee later, Thea arrived in a flurry of activity, sweeping through the hospital as if she were back in her power suit and high heels instead of the floaty sundress she was actually wearing. Zeke followed in her wake, grim-faced and suitcase in hand.

      Their father was sleeping again, so Thea quizzed his doctors more thoroughly than Isabella or Helena had managed. Helena waited outside while Zeke spoke with his mother and Thea asked more questions.

      Then they stepped out of the room again and Helena felt the weight on her shoulders start to lift.

      ‘You’re here.’ Helena stared at her sister across the hospital corridor. ‘You came.’ And then she burst into tears.

      * * *

      ‘Okay, so I was gone less than a week,’ Thea said, putting her arm around Helena’s shoulders. Helena resisted the urge to snuggle up to her like a toddler, but only just. ‘Explain to me exactly how everything went up in smoke in my absence?’

      ‘Firstly, it is not my fault that Dad had a heart attack,’ Helena said. ‘Or that Isabella appears to have left Ezekiel and moved into Dad’s house.’

      Thea blinked. ‘Okay, well, that’s a start. What is your fault, then?’

      This was the big one. Helena almost wished she didn’t have to tell her. Thea looked so relaxed, so happy—and at least five years younger. It was amazing what love could do, Helena thought, as Zeke brought over more coffee and a couple of plates of sandwiches. The hospital dining area was nicer than Helena had imagined it would be, even in a private hospital. Too nice, in fact, for the scene she was pretty sure it was about to witness.

      She took a breath.

      ‘I married Flynn.’

      ‘You what?’ Zeke swore as he spilt boiling coffee over his hand. ‘Give a guy some warning for that kind of news, will you?’

      ‘Sorry.’ Helena flashed him a quick smile then turned her attention back to Thea.

      Her sister’s eyes were wide and disbelieving. ‘Why? Did Dad make you? Or Isabella?’

      ‘It was my idea,’ Helena told her. ‘All mine. After you left, when I thought about actually having to go down there and tell everyone the wedding was off, this seemed like a better option.’ It sounded stupid out loud, Helena thought.

      ‘A...better option? After you spent weeks—months!—telling me to get out, that I couldn’t marry someone I didn’t love.’ Thea sounded outraged at the very idea.

      ‘I know. I know. But it was different for me.’

      ‘Different—how?’ Zeke asked, frowning. But Thea’s eyes had gone wide and sad, and she touched her fingertips to her lips as she said, ‘Oh, Helena. You loved him.’

      Helena shook her head. ‘Not at the start. It wasn’t that simple. I mean, maybe I never got over that crush I had when I was fourteen, not totally, but I wasn’t planning on basing a marriage on that. I thought, since there was no contract, we could just get a quiet little divorce once the scandal died down. I knew he wanted kids and I...can’t think about that. So I knew it couldn’t work out. But then...he convinced me it could be more. That we could have a future together, have everything he was supposed to have with you.’

      ‘Want me to kill him?’ Zeke asked Thea conversationally. ‘I gave that man everything he wanted—the company, mostly, admittedly—and he took Helena too. I can kill him.’

      ‘I’d...rather you didn’t,’ Helena said. ‘Even after everything.’

      ‘Tell me about “everything”,’ Thea instructed. ‘And, Zeke, stop interrupting.’

      ‘I don’t even know how to describe it. I can’t say what changed. We talked a lot. I learned a lot—about him, about how he grew up. He bought me a ring.’ Her gaze jumped down to her left hand, where only the too tight wedding band remained. ‘I fell in love.’

      ‘So what went wrong?’ Thea asked. ‘Because, given that this all happened over the course of the last week and you’ve been crying pretty much constantly since I arrived, I’m figuring it has to be big. Tell me, so I can fix it.’

      Helena gave her a watery smile. ‘You can’t fix this one, Thea.’

      ‘Watch me try.’

      ‘I couldn’t sign the post-nuptial agreement Henry brought over. It had a line in it...I had to swear that I had no children.’

      ‘Oh.’ Thea’s eyes closed as she listened.

      ‘So I had to tell him about...’ Helena swallowed. ‘I told him I was sixteen, I had a baby and I gave her away.’

      ‘What did he say?’ Zeke asked, his voice tense.

      ‘He called me a monster.’ Helena shrugged. She figured that covered the basics.

      ‘Okay, now I really am going to kill him.’ Zeke was on his feet before Thea grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

      ‘Did you explain? What happened to you?’ Thea’s gaze focused so tightly on Helena’s face that she squirmed under the attention.

      ‘I didn’t get into details, no.’ Helena sighed. ‘I don’t think it would make any difference, anyway.’

      ‘If he knew you were raped?’ Zeke shook his head. ‘You’re wrong. My brother might be an idiot but...it makes a difference.’

      ‘Does it really?’ Helena wasn’t sure if she was asking them or herself. ‘I put myself in that position. I went there, I got drunk and they told me I said yes. And I know, in my head, that they were wrong—that they abused me and they committed a crime. I know that, I do. But...’

      ‘But?’ Thea pressed when Helena stopped.

      ‘But I was the one who couldn’t love that child, no matter how she came into the world. And that’s what I know he’ll never forgive me for.’

      The tears came again then. Thea wrapped her arms around her, and Helena clung to her big sister like a lifeline.

      Thea couldn’t fix this one, she knew. But maybe having her there would be enough to help her through it.

      ‘You need to tell him, sweetheart,’ Thea murmured against her hair. ‘He deserves to know everything.’

      ‘I know,’ Helena whispered back. Because not telling Flynn everything had got her into this mess. And maybe it wouldn’t make a difference—maybe she didn’t even want it to. But if she ever wanted to move past this, she had to get it all out.

      And then leave it behind.

      ‘I’ll go with you,’ Zeke said. ‘We can pick up the rest of your stuff while we’re there.’

      Helena nodded, grateful to have someone else making the decisions for a while.

      ‘You can do this.’ Thea tucked a finger under Helena’s chin, making her look up into her eyes. СКАЧАТЬ