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I didn’t know as I stared into the darkness where they’d disappeared. I’d never felt anything like that before. Not desire. Not love. Not anything I could put my finger on. But there had been a connection there. One that both chilled me to the bone and filled me with hope.
“Come on.”
My arms throbbed from his grip, still the asshole dug them in deeper, shoving me along the path to the sweeping manor that stretched all around us. Immaculate gardens were filled with the sweetest scented flowers I’d ever encountered. Still, they wouldn’t smother the rot of the place. Nothing could do that.
I had a fair idea whose place this was. The house. The government warning signs. The private runway which was designed to get him out of the country at a moment's notice.
There was no way that this wasn’t Hale’s house.
The one he’d hid away in after his ‘death’.
The soldier pushed me toward the front door, then reached around and shoved it open.
“Inside.” He commanded.
Reflex made me lash out, grip the doorframe and hold on. My pulse was booming. One step…one step and it’d be over for good. Some part of me still clung to the hope Riven would come.
I’ll find you.
Those were the last words he’d said to me. Mouthed silently as I was dragged from that room. My breaths sped, panicked.
“Take a step, Daughter.” The soldier leaned down to growl in my ear. “Or I’ll tear your fingernails from this fucking entrance and throw you.”
He would. That I knew.
Still…I couldn’t.
He tore my hold from the doorframe, then shoved me so hard I flew forward. I landed hard on the Italian marble tiles. The brutal thud of the impact tore through my shoulder and into my neck. He was a darkened blur, bearing down on me. All I saw was his hands as he grasped a handful of my hair and dragged me to my feet.
“You will fucking obey me!” He roared in my face.
I bucked, grasping his hand around my hair as my scalp burned. “Stop it…stop it!”
He dragged me, kicking and fighting, along the hallway from the entrance to where a set of dark wooden double doors were closed.
A hard thud and he pushed them open. “Get the fuck inside.” He shoved me.
I stumbled in, catching the glow of soft amber lights that spilled around the room through the sheen of my tears. Movement came from a murky corner. I barely caught it as someone turned and looked at me.
“Helene?” Came the whimper. “Oh, my God! HELENE!”
I stopped, staring, stunned as Vivienne stumbled forward, one hand wrapped around her belly, the other thrown out toward me. For a second, I didn’t understand. I shook my head, my tears drying on my cheeks.
“You’re not real.” The words were hollow as she pulled me hard against her. “You’re not real.”
“I’m r-real.” She cried, clawing me so hard her nails stung.
I wrapped my arms around her, still expecting my touch to meet nothing but air as the cruel fantasy dissipated. But that didn’t happen. Instead, when I touched her, I felt warmth…and the sweet swollen life inside her.
I burst into a wave of fresh tears, holding onto her. “I thought you were gone. I thought you were taken from me. The jet…the jet.”
“It wasn’t me.” She reached up, cradled my face, and stared into my eyes. “Look at me. It wasn’t me.”
Outside the room the front door gave a thud.
Footsteps sounded, headed our way.
“What the fuck do they want with us, then?” I whispered.
