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“We have taken additional precautions since the slip she gave us last week, sir. There is no way she has left the building without us being aware.”
Sandor nodded and turned, going back to Ellie’s door and pounding on it until he heard a voice from the other side.
“For goodness’ sake, Sandor, one of my neighbors is going to protest the disturbance.” Her words were muffled by the door, but the scolding tone was clear. “Go away.”
He stared straight at the peephole, hoping she was looking through it. “No.”
“I’m not letting you in!”
“Your father is in trouble, Ellie.”
“Yes, he is.” She sounded both angry and hurt.
Sandor grimaced, hating having to impart this news. She had been through enough today, but there was no help for it. “He is in the hospital as we speak.”
Silence reigned on the other side of the door. Then his cell phone rang.
It was her. He flipped it open. “I am sorry,pethi mou .”
“What do you mean he’s in the hospital?”
“Hawk informed me that he was discovered collapsed on the floor of his office over two hours ago. He was rushed to a private hospital.”
The phone went dead. Then the boltssnicked signaling she was unlocking the door and then it opened. She stood with her hand on the knob, her eyes a chilly blue, the green almost completely absent. They were also red and puffy. “This had better not be a trick.”
“I would not make something like this up.”
“So you say.”
Sandor did not take umbrage. He was well aware he could not afford to in their current circumstance. He was firmly in the wrong and they both knew it. What he did not know was how to undo the damage of their earlier conversation. He thought she could forgive him for believing her unfaithful; the evidence had been overwhelming. But he did not think she would forgive the business agreement he had with her father where she played a key role.
Sandor sighed. “As I said, George was discovered collapsed on his office floor this afternoon. His staff has been trying to reach you, but you are not answering your phone.”
“I don’t want to talk to him or you.”
So, she had ignored caller identification that had indicated him, his company or her father’s company. “I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” Her chin trembled. “You don’t love me. You can’t understand at all.”
CHAPTER NINE
HE DID NOT KNOWwhat to say to that. “I will take you to the hospital.”
She shook her head, but he could see that her slim body trembled. “I can drive myself.”
“You should not drive in your current state.”
“What state is that, Sandor?” Anger leaked into her gaze. “Bleeding inside after finding out how thoroughly you and my father deceived me?”
“I knew nothing of your sister’s existence.”
“But you knew about the business merger. You knew that you saw me as nothing more than a contract guarantee. You were set to use me until you got what you considered evidence that proved me unworthy of being your pawn.”
“That is not the way it was.” But he’d known she would see it that way. Women and men did not think the same. He and Ellie seemed even further apart in the way they processed certain information than most. “I did not plan to use you. I wanted to share my life with you.”
She shook her head. Denying his words? Denying herself? He did not know.
She swallowed convulsively, clenching her jaw to stop her chin trembling. Yet he sensed the stoicism was only a step away from emotional breakdown. Something in the fragile way she held herself.
“I’m not going to discuss this right now.” She sounded firm enough, but then she just seemed to crumble. “Is he really in the hospital?”
He pulled her into his arms rather than let her drop to the floor. “Yes,pethi mou . I called to check his condition on the way over here. He is stabilized, but they do not know yet what caused it.”
He was grateful, but surprised when she did not pull away.
“Iknow,” she mumbled against his shirtfront and then her lithe body shook with a sob. “It’s my fault.”
“No. That is not true.”
“I told him about her. About my sister. Without any warning. Then I accused him of giving up on her and me. Then I left. I wouldn’t listen to anything he said.”
If he had realized the woman in the photos was not Ellie, he would have been with her when she confronted her dad. He could have made it better for both the woman he wanted to marry and her father. But he’d been deceived by his own eyes and now they would all pay the price.
