He couldn’t grieve with her.
He’d had to keep functioning.
You didn’t even comfort her.
He couldn’t. He couldn’t listen to her cry and not…feel.And the threat ofthat.He could not risk it. Feelings fixed nothing.
He’d hired nurses while she was pregnant on bedrest so she could stay at home and not remain in the private hospital on the mainland. He’d avoided her, because he was afraid those feelings of hers—the worry—the nesting—the feelings she so obviously felt for the child in her womb would somehow make their way inside him.Infect him.Make him react. Make him…feel.
He couldn’t allowthat.
He’d needed to keep his head the way he hadn’t been able to do with his mother. His feelings had made him panic. He’d let his mother down because he’d let feelings seep in. Take over when he should have remained in control.
He’d vowed he would stay in control thereafter. He’d sworn to protect Poppy and their son. But she’d lost—
His breath caught. She hadn’t lost Isaak. He had died. And a part of her… Something had died in her too. He’d hired doctors, mental-health professionals to bring back the Poppy she had been.
You turned your back on her.
His chest heaved.
He’d felt as helpless in the face of her grief and depression as he had with her mother’s.He’d known.But he’d done everything he could. Given her everything she’d needed. Professional help. His mother hadn’t had it. Had never been offered it. She had died.
He’d kept Poppy alive.
And her distrust…
It was betrayal, and it cut him bone-deep.
‘You abandoned our marriage because of a photograph? You condemned me without a hearing.’
‘Photos don’t lie.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘That’syou,’ she said. ‘That’syourmouth on hers.’ She jabbed her finger at the screen, bringing the image back to its full, sharpest, brightest intensity. ‘She was my replacement in every way, wasn’t she? Your PA when I became your wife…’ She swallowed, as if the words crawling up her throat physically harmed her. ‘She’d taken over my job. She was there every day in your office, tempting you with everything I was withholding.’ Betrayal laced every word. ‘Sex.’
‘We had sex,’ he reminded her.
‘Once,’ she countered thickly. ‘In months.’
He gritted his teeth. Neither of them had wanted a conventional marriage, because of their pasts. They had both wanted one person they could rely on who knew the rules. No emotional complications, but security, loyalty. And they’d both known what would hold their marriage together.Sex.And it had been so.
Until the accident.
The birth control had failed.He’dfailed. But their baby had been made. And so it was done. Her pregnancy at high risk of placental abruption. Sex was off the table, but he’dneverstrayed.
He’d watched her body grow.
He’d got his head around the fact he was going to be a father. He would have an heir. The Ariti line would continue without the influence of his father’s cruelty or his mother’s illness.Hewas going to do it differently. And then…
His heart squeezed.
Isaak was no more.
He hadn’t needed sex with another woman. He had needed his wife. He’d needed normality. Life to continue as it had been before, but Poppy had just…stopped. Stopped living.
‘You wanted proof.’ She shook the phone, raised it a little higher. ‘And here it is. You lie to everyone,’ she accused. ‘You pretend to be honest—honourable.And it’s all a pretence.A lie.’
