Redeemed By His Stolen Bride (Rival Spanish Brothers 2)

A doctor standing by the bed, saying, ‘I’m so sorry, Señora Torres, but tests have confirmed that your fallopian tubes are beyond saving. The endometriosis has caused too much damage...surgical removal of the fallopian tubes...you’ll still have your uterus and ovaries...’

She was infertile. At the age of twenty-four.

Unbeknownst to her, because her symptoms hadn’t been severe, the endometriosis had been quietly and devastatingly wreaking havoc on her insides, cruelly targeting her fallopian tubes, rendering them useless. Beyond saving.

She knew she was still in shock. It hadn’t sunk in fully. Nor had the ramifications. She hadn’t been able to deal with seeing her parents, though she knew they were worried. Too afraid of what she’d see on their faces. Their terror that this might change everything.

Leonora pushed herself up from the bed and walked over to the private bathroom, locking herself inside. Physically, the doctor had said she should be fully recovered within a couple of weeks. Emotionally, however...

She turned on the spray of the shower and stripped off, stepping into the small cubicle. She used the shower head to clean herself, careful to keep the wound dressing dry.

When she was finished she wrapped herself in a towel and washed her face, brushed her teeth, avoiding looking at her face in the mirror. But then she caught her reflection and stopped. Her eyes looked like two huge pools of pain. Her skin was white, stretched taut, her cheekbones standing out starkly.

All of a sudden she couldn’t contain it any more. The emotion rose up and came out of her in great, shuddering sobs.

* * *

Gabriel came back into the hospital room carrying coffee for Leonora. He stopped when he heard the sobs coming from the bathroom. His blood ran cold. He’d never heard such a raw outpouring of emotion before, and every instinct in him told him to go to her...but he knew she wouldn’t welcome it. This was a very private pain, and for the first time in his life he knew what it was to be helpless.

A week later

Leonora was sitting on a chair on the back terrace of the castillo. The late-summer early evening still held lots of warmth, but nevertheless Ernesto had insisted on putting a rug over Leonora’s legs.

The spectacular grounds of the castillo soothed Leonora’s ragged emotions, so she’d taken to sitting here every day, while her body healed on the outside. She was still numb on the inside, though. Still trying to compute the catastrophic loss of her fertility. Ev

ery time she tried to dwell on it her mind skittered away.

Her parents had come to visit and her mother had been pale. She’d said, ‘Por Dios, Leo...he’ll have to divorce you if you can’t give him an heir. What will happen to us?’

Leonora’s father had taken her mother away after that, telling Leonora not to listen to her. But her mother was right. And it was something Leonora knew she’d have to discuss with Gabriel sooner or later. The fact that she was no longer capable of providing her husband with an heir.

At that moment she heard footsteps and her skin prickled with awareness. Still. Even after what had happened.

Gabriel came into her field of vision, tall and broad. Dressed in a three-piece suit. His long fingers were tugging at his tie, opening it and the top button of his shirt.

‘How are you today?’

Leonora nodded. ‘Feeling much better, thank you.’

Gabriel sat down on the lounger beside her, his dark gaze roving over her face. Leonora knew she must look pale and wan.

‘The doctor came to see you today?’

She nodded. ‘He was here earlier. I’m healing well.’

Physically.

Gabriel nodded. ‘That’s good.’

Leonora forced herself to look at him. ‘We should talk about—’

He held up a hand. ‘We’re not talking about anything until you’re back on your feet. All you need to think about now is recuperating.’

Leonora swallowed her words.

Gabriel stood up. ‘Dinner will be ready shortly. I’m just going to take a shower and change and then I’ll come back down.’

Leonora watched him walk away, athletic grace in every move he made. She turned her head, eyes stinging suddenly. She pulled her glasses down over her eyes in case anyone saw her emotion.