“I’m so?—”

“I do know the entire story,” Patrick continued. His face was fastidiously clean. “Or most of it, anyway. I do know Aleksander pressured you to steal the portray. I do know that your actual title is Emma Armitage, not Emma Reynolds. I do know that you simply left messages for me within the Aurora. I’m just a little fuzzy on the main points, however I solely have one query.”

“Something.” Emma propped a hand on the desk to remain on her toes. She felt faint once more.

“I must know this. Please be trustworthy with me.”

“I’ll.” Emma’s coronary heart squeezed. He most likely wished to ask her what Aleksander had on her. Or he wished to know the place the portray was. Or maybe how she’d infiltrated his firm to start with in order that he may tighten safety procedures.

“All the pieces that occurred between us, our connection, was that actual? Or was that every one a lie?”

“Patrick.” The tears that had been threatening spilled down Emma’s cheeks, however she paid them no thoughts. “It was actual. It was all actual. I do know I did a horrible factor. I do know I betrayed you, and I harm you. However all the pieces I felt for you was actual. Aside from supplying you with a pseudonym title, all the pieces I informed you was actual, too.”

“It was actual for me.” Patrick stepped nearer and took her arms in his. “I do know we now have so much to type out. I do know it’s been months. However I felt one thing for you again then, and I really feel the identical factor now.”

“You do?” Emma was breathless now. She freed one hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “I haven’t been capable of cease desirous about you.”

“I haven’t been capable of cease desirous about you both,” he stated. Emma put her hand again in Patrick’s, and he squeezed it. “I received’t lie. It harm me if you disappeared after our evening collectively. However not due to the portray. I already cared about you greater than any of my artwork. It harm me that you simply left with out saying goodbye.”

“I’m so sor?—”

“You don’t need to apologize, Emma. I do know Aleksander will need to have had some form of leverage on you.”

“He did. He had proof on me that would have gotten me despatched to jail. However I do know I shouldn’t have lied to you, and I’m?—”

“Emma. Cease apologizing. I do know this will need to have harm you as a lot because it harm me. Possibly extra. The one individual I blame is Aleksander Ariti.”

Emma let loose a barely watery chuckle. “He’s… unhealthy.”

“That’s an understatement. I really feel unhealthy that I didn’t discover one thing when he pulled you apart to bounce with you on the gala. However we will type out all the main points later. What I must know now could be if you wish to… nicely. If you wish to strive once more. With me.”

His face was so open, so heat, so hopeful that Emma wished nothing greater than to say sure. This was all the pieces she’d been dreaming about for the final six months. Patrick wished to strive once more. What could possibly be higher than that?

However she couldn’t say sure. The second stretched, and Patrick’s face started to shut. Emma wanted to inform him concerning the child. Proper now. She couldn’t decide to making an attempt once more till she was fully trustworthy with him.

“Patrick.” She squeezed his arms, then allow them to go and reached for the ties behind her smock. “There’s one thing I must inform you.”

Apprehension appeared to warfare with hope for management of his good-looking options. “What’s it?”

Emma struggled with the tie earlier than it lastly got here free. Slowly, she lifted the loop of the smock over her head and let it slide down into her hand. She raised her different hand and set it on the spherical curve of her abdomen, which was now very seen beneath the free prime.

“She’s yours.”

For a second, Patrick nonetheless appeared confused. Then he seemed from Emma’s abdomen to her face and again, a whirlwind of emotion flickering throughout his face. The second stretched as Emma waited, her coronary heart in her throat, to see if her coronary heart could be damaged once more.

CHAPTER 20

PATRICK

Patrick stared at Emma, speechless, as she slowly slipped off her smock. Beneath it, she was carrying an extended skirt and a flowy prime. At first, he simply waited for her to inform him no matter it was she needed to inform him. Then he noticed the swell of her abdomen beneath the highest and heard her say two phrases, phrases he’d by no means anticipated her to say. Two phrases he had bother understanding at first.

“She’s yours.”

On the way in which to the neighborhood faculty the place Emma taught, Patrick had performed out the scene of their reunion 100 occasions in his thoughts. He’d questioned if he would possibly really feel in a different way when he noticed her; maybe the sturdy emotions he couldn’t shake have been only a product of the outdated adage “distance makes the center develop fonder.”

However then he’d seen Emma, and he’d recognized that these emotions have been as actual because the sky above or the paints round them or the heat in Emma’s chocolate brown eyes. He’d recognized, in that immediate, that nothing from their previous mattered. If she felt the identical method he did, he knew they may climate any storm. They might rebuild their belief and develop the connection he already knew they shared.

When he’d confessed his emotions to Emma, her silence had been lethal. He had questioned if all the pieces had been a lie, regardless of the hidden messages and Aleksander’s coercion. Or maybe she had discovered another person within the months they’d been aside. He may hardly have blamed her; she was a fantastic girl and anybody could be fortunate to be together with her.

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