AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why would he go after Sunny?” Malik asked.
Sophie took a deep breath. This was it. Everything she’d hidden for six years was about to come out. Could she do this? What if it hurt Malik?
Jonathon’s disfigured body flashed through her mind.
Malik’s gaze steadied and strengthened her. She prayed she was doing the right thing and that he wouldn’t get hurt. Waiting for some kind of confirmation, she felt a moment of peace. Sharing with these two trustworthy men might be the only course to stop the Rindlesbachers and keep Sunny and Malik safe.
“Sunny is William Rindlesbacher’s granddaughter.”
Sophie closed her eyes tight so she wouldn’t see Malik’s reaction. She’d had six years to deal with all this pain, and it was being thrust on him in a single moment.
Quick intakes of breath from both men, and then movement, and then a warm, spicy scent touched her senses.
Sophie opened her eyes.
Malik stood in front of her, his brow furrowed and blue eyes intense. He searched her gaze and said quietly, as if controlling his volume to keep himself in control, “Sophie, I thought Jonathon was Sunny’s father.”
She shook her head. “Everyone assumed that but I only agreed to marry Jonathon because he was a dear friend and promised to be there for me.”
Malik blinked, obviously trying to wrap his mind around what she was telling him. “Are you saying Treven Rindlesbacher is the man you chose over me?”
“No!” she protested much too loudly, her entire body recoiling at the thought. “I would never in a million years choose Treven Rindlesbacher over you.” She wouldn’t choose any man over him, but that wasn’t the issue of the moment.
She couldn’t handle his intense stare, so she glanced at Chad. His brow was also furrowed, and his green eyes were as intense as Malik’s. She knew he was interested in her, but she appreciated him giving her and Malik this moment to sort this out. Should she have told Malik alone? It was too late for that now.
“Soph.” Malik’s voice and his hand gently wrapping around hers drew her attention. “Are you saying Treven …” He swallowed. “Forced himself on you?”
Sophie’s heart broke in two. This was as hard as she’d always imagined it would be. Malik had been able to come to terms with her turning to the soft-spoken, kind Jonathon, but Treven hurting her … Malik’s gaze was tortured as if all the pain she’d gone through and had learned how to deal with over six years was hitting him like the Eurostar train slamming into him at three-hundred kilometers per hour.
Ah, Malik. It was little wonder she’d always loved him. He felt so deeply; he felt so deeply for her.
“Yes,” she admitted softly. The thing she’d never admitted to anyone but her pastor, who was sworn to an oath of silence.
What if Treven fulfilled his horrific threats to this perfect man? He’d killed Jonathon to warn her. The torture he’d promised for Malik was above and beyond even what his lackeys had done to Jonathon.
“Ah, Soph …” A groan of pain ripped from Malik’s throat. “Ah, no …”
He gathered her close. Despite his strength, he held her tenderly, as if she was a priceless relic. Tears pricked at her eyelids and slid down her cheeks in hot trails of love for him and agony for what he was experiencing right now. She understood because she’d experienced it all. He was hurting because she’d hurt.
“Sophie, I am so sorry. So terribly sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” She looked up at him. How could he be so tough yet so tender? “None of that nightmare, or this one, is your fault. Yet you …” Her voice broke. “You have no reason to be sorry, Malik.”
“I didn’t know. Had no idea. How could I have been so thick? Of course you would never willingly … But I was so hurt and jealous of some unnamed man that I couldn’t see straight. Then you got engaged to Jonathon, so of course I assumed … Then he was murdered, and I prayed you’d turn to me, but you never did.” He shook his head, his jaw tight. “If only I could’ve seen this clearly six years ago.”
“Malik.” She cupped his strong jaw and stared into his blue eyes, so full of pain as he understood now that she’d never cheated on him. Did he know how much she still loved him? Now wasn’t the time to tell him.
Though she couldn’t yank her gaze from Malik, she was keenly aware of Chad watching them and processing the emotions surging between them. Was he realizing why she couldn’t agree to more than a casual date? Her heart was still Malik’s.
“None of this is your fault,” she told Malik. All the blame lay at Treven’s feet.
“But if only I had known. I would have …”
“What would you have done?” She forced herself to pull away from his embrace, though it was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. She wanted to hold him and kiss him, push away every ugly memory of Treven in Malik’s perfect arms. But this moment was about getting these awful secrets out and protecting her daughter.
Sinking into an overstuffed chair behind her, she pulled her knees into her chest, tucked her ruined dress around her legs, and wrapped her arms around them.
Malik stared down at her, his gaze still full of regret and anguish. A broody hero.
