CHAPTER FOURTEEN
OTI STARED OUTSIDE. The rain lashed against the windows, the wind screaming around the building. A perfect storm to match the one howling inside her, just as it had been for the last two days, since Lukas had thrown her out of his office.
But she was going to let it roar and rage for as long as it took, because it couldn’t go on for ever. And when it eventually blew itself out, she would pick up the pieces of her shattered heart and she would move on, just as she’d told Lukas he needed to do where his father was concerned, and she would make a life for herself, and this precious baby she carried inside her.
Lukas’s baby.
And no matter how much he’d hurt her—because
she had sobbed for hours and hours when he’d sent her away—or how much she’d tried to tell herself that she was better off without him, she couldn’t bring herself to hate him.
He had given her this inestimable gift, which meant she could never regret a moment of their time together. No matter that she was humbled by it, whilst he was immune to it.
The knock at the door caught her off guard.
Unfolding herself from the sofa, she moved across the room. She knew it was him even as her hand reached for the handle.
Hesitating for a fraction of a second, she closed her fingers around the cold metal and carefully opened the door to see him braced against her door frame. A bleak expression that she didn’t think she’d ever seen before clouded his face.
It was a small comfort that he looked as drawn and drained as she felt. Perhaps worse.
He didn’t move at first, and she didn’t speak. And then, without waiting for an invitation, he moved past her into her apartment. Belatedly, she realised that she had stepped aside enough to allow it, her guard down.
A mistake she wouldn’t make again.
Those granite-grey eyes seemed to root her to the spot, made her skin pull tight.
Jerking herself back to the moment, she would never know how she managed to galvanise her legs into action, carrying her away from him as though mere physical distance could somehow protect her heart.
‘Did you mean it when you said you love me?’ he demanded.
She drew in a deep breath. ‘I love the man I saw in Sudan. The one who was full of life and fun. Not this version of you, mired in the past and weighed down by revenge that is, frankly, beneath you.’
It wasn’t a complete answer, yet Lukas nodded, as though this was enough for him.
‘I contacted your brother the other day, Oti.’
The heavy door slipped from her fingers as she turned to look at Lukas. Neither of them heard the loud bang as it slammed closed in the breeze.
‘You spoke to Edward?’
‘I did. I asked him how he was doing after his operation, and then I told him that he was getting his company back.’
‘You’re returning Sedeshire International to him?’
She wanted to ask more. She needed to understand. But her entire body felt numb. Paralysed. Her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth, as if she’d just eaten one of her brother’s infamous peanut butter sandwiches.
‘It was his company, his baby. Edward’s hard work built it into what it was. And he only lost it all because the board lost faith in him after the accident. And because your father is too weak and incompetent to make a business decision if it killed him.’
‘Sedeshire International was Edward’s baby. Just like LVW Industries is yours,’ she managed.
‘Not any more.’ Lukas shocked her by shaking his head. ‘Not now I know what it’s like to be expecting a different kind of baby. Our baby.’
Her heart stuttered and leapt. He’d said ‘our baby.’
‘What about taking down the Rockman family?’
‘I think Edward can do that all by himself. Turns out your brother may hate them even more than I do.’