by Lucy Monroe
There was no answer to his knock. That did not surprise him, either, but he did not give up, knocking again. No sound came from the other side of the steel door.
The next time he knocked, he called her name. Then called out, “Ellie, it is Sandor. I have news of your father.”
Still nothing.
He strode quickly to the apartment that housed her security detail and banged on the door.
A tall man in his fifties, but obviously fit, opened the door almost immediately. “Yes?”
“You know who I am.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Has Miss Wentworth left her apartment this evening?”
“No, sir.”
“Are you certain?”
“We have taken additional precautions since the slip she gave us last week, sir. There is no way she has left the building without us being aware.”
Sandor nodded and turned, going back to Ellie’s door and pounding on it until he heard a voice from the other side.
“For goodness’ sake, Sandor, one of my neighbors is going to protest the disturbance.” Her words were muffled by the door, but the scolding tone was clear. “Go away.”
He stared straight at the peephole, hoping she was looking through it. “No.”
“I’m not letting you in!”
“Your father is in trouble, Ellie.”
“Yes, he is.” She sounded both angry and hurt.
Sandor grimaced, hating having to impart this news. She had been through enough today, but there was no help for it. “He is in the hospital as we speak.”
Silence reigned on the other side of the door. Then his cell phone rang.
It was her. He flipped it open. “I am sorry,pethi mou .”
“What do you mean he’s in the hospital?”
“Hawk informed me that he was discovered collapsed on the floor of his office over two hours ago. He was rushed to a private hospital.”
The phone went dead. Then the boltssnicked signaling she was unlocking the door and then it opened. She stood with her hand on the knob, her eyes a chilly blue, the green almost completely absent. They were also red and puffy. “This had better not be a trick.”
“I would not make something like this up.”
“So you say.”
Sandor did not take umbrage. He was well aware he could not afford to in their current circumstance. He was firmly in the wrong and they both knew it. What he did not know was how to undo the damage of their earlier conversation. He thought she could forgive him for believing her unfaithful; the evidence had been overwhelming. But he did not think she would forgive the business agreement he had with her father where she played a key role.
Sandor sighed. “As I said, George was discovered collapsed on his office floor this afternoon. His staff has been trying to reach you, but you are not answering your phone.”
“I don’t want to talk to him or you.”
So, she had ignored caller identification that had indicated him, his company or her father’s company. “I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” Her chin trembled. “You don’t love me. You can’t understand at all.”
CHAPTER NINE
HE DID NOT KNOWwhat to say to that. “I will take you to the hospital.”
She shook her head, but he could see that her slim body trembled. “I can drive myself.”
“You should not drive in your current state.”
“What state is that, Sandor?” Anger leaked into her gaze. “Bleeding inside after finding out how thoroughly you and my father deceived me?”
“I knew nothing of your sister’s existence.”
“But you knew about the business merger. You knew that you saw me as nothing more than a contract guarantee. You were set to use me until you got what you considered evidence that proved me unworthy of being your pawn.”
“That is not the way it was.” But he’d known she would see it that way. Women and men did not think the same. He and Ellie seemed even further apart in the way they processed certain information than most. “I did not plan to use you. I wanted to share my life with you.”
She shook her head. Denying his words? Denying herself? He did not know.
She swallowed convulsively, clenching her jaw to stop her chin trembling. Yet he sensed the stoicism was only a step away from emotional breakdown. Something in the fragile way she held herself.
“I’m not going to discuss this right now.” She sounded firm enough, but then she just seemed to crumble. “Is he really in the hospital?”
He pulled her into his arms rather than let her drop to the floor. “Yes,pethi mou . I called to check his condition on the way over here. He is stabilized, but they do not know yet what caused it.”
He was grateful, but surprised when she did not pull away.
“Iknow,” she mumbled against his shirtfront and then her lithe body shook with a sob. “It’s my fault.”
“No. That is not true.”
“I told him about her. About my sister. Without any warning. Then I accused him of giving up on her and me. Then I left. I wouldn’t listen to anything he said.”
If he had realized the woman in the photos was not Ellie, he would have been with her when she confronted her dad. He could have made it better for both the woman he wanted to marry and her father. But he’d been deceived by his own eyes and now they would all pay the price.
“Shh…” He smoothed his hand down her back. “You were hurt. I should have been there with you. If we had not argued, I would have been. I am sorry.”
She pulled away, somehow managing to stifle the emotions emanating off of her like an electric storm. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands and sniffed. “We need to go. I have to see him.”
Sandor breathed a silent sigh of relief that she had decided to let him take her. She needed him even if she did not realize it.
They were in the car when Ellie asked, “How did you know about my sister?”
“Hawk called.”
“Oh.” She sighed. “That’s right. You said something about talking to him. He told you about my dad?”
“Yes, in a later phone call.”
“It was so shocking to find out I had a sister.”
“No doubt horrifically so for you. But I had begun to suspect something was not right with the photos before I spoke to Hawk.”
“What…why?”
“The woman in the pictures looks like you, but there are subtle differences.”
“Why didn’t you notice those before you accused me of sleeping around?” He could feel her intent stare as he negotiated city traffic.
“I was too angry to look at the pictures closely at first.”
“But you weren’t too upset after?” She sounded very confused.
“After you threw me out of your apartment, I went to my office. The pictures were there…” He let his voice trail off, unwilling to admit to the compulsion to be connected to her even if it was through looking at pictures of her with another man.
“And you looked at them?”
“Yes.”
“Closely enough to notice the differences in the way my twin and I look?”
“Yes,” he ground out.
“I would have thought you’d burn them and say good riddance.”
“They were on my computer hard drive.”
“Delete them then.”
If doing so could have erased the feelings that came with looking at them, he would have. Nevertheless, he said, “I am glad I did not.”
“Why?”
“I saw the truth.”
“But I bet you didn’t accept it until after Hawk’s phone call.”
“You are right.”
“But you found it comforting?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure I understand why. Since your watchdog was so obviously observing the wrong person, there’s nothing to prove that I wasn’t having a hot affair with some Spanish stud at the same time. Maybe I discovered the joys of fulf
illing sex with you and decided to experiment a little.”
He tried not to let her flippancy get to him. In some ways he definitely deserved her derision, but a primitive part of him wanted to growl at her to shut up. He did not like those words coming out of her mouth. “You came home prepared to marry me, you would not have done so if you were interested in experimenting sexually with others.”
“Maybe I decided you were better in bed than my other experiments.”
He couldn’t help it. A growl escaped. “You would not do that,” he said as evenly as he could, his grip on the steering wheel white-knuckled.
“That’s not what you said this morning.”
“I believed the evidence of my eyes.” Maybe he had been premature in believing she would understand and forgive that aspect of their argument more easily than the other.
She turned to look out her side window, creating a mental distance that was intolerable. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I do not agree,” he ground out. “I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For not trusting you. For accusing you of infidelity.”
“We aren’t married, I can’t be unfaithful to you. Even if I had sex with ten other men—and you can’t be sure that I didn’t—it wouldn’t mean I was unfaithful.”
“You did not have sex with someone else. Stop implying you might have.”
“Why?”
“You are goading my temper.”
“So?”
“So, I do not want to have another argument with you.”
“Maybe I do.”
“Later…when you are not so fragile, pick a fight. For now, please…I am pleading with you, Ellie. Stop provoking me.”
She gasped as if in shock.
Did she think he did not care enough about her to put his pride aside to protect her? He was not so weak.
After a couple of tension-filled minutes of silence, she sighed. “It really doesn’t matter, but I didn’t have sex with anyone else,” she grudgingly admitted.
“I know.”
“That doesn’t make any difference. I’m not going to marry you, Sandor. You may have decided you can trust me, but Iknow I can’t trust you now. That’s not going to change.”
He did not agree. “Because of the business merger?”
“Yes.”
“We will overcome that.”
“No, we won’t.”
They arrived at the hospital and he accepted now was not the time for this conversation. He had lost ground with Ellie, but she had come home willing to marry him. He would bring her to that place again. “We will discuss this later.”
“There’s no point.”
Instead of arguing, he parked the car and went around to help her out of her seat. Her face was pale, her eyes were still red and once again filled with moisture.
He leaned down and kissed her temple. “He will be all right,pethi mou. He is a tough man.”
“I know.” But, once again, she had to blink away tears.
He clasped her elbow and took it as a good sign that she did not pull away. It also disturbed him. George was not the only tough Wentworth. For Ellie to be willing to lean on Sandor feeling toward him the way that she did, she had to be feeling incredibly vulnerable.
He slid his arm around her waist and kept her close as they entered the private hospital.
Ellie walked into the hospital room, a cauldron of emotions swirling through her. She was still angry with her father, but she felt guilt, too. There was pain there as well, both at his and Sandor’s betrayals. And fear. Horrible, mind-numbing fear. She didn’t want her father to die. He was all she had, even if they weren’t as close as she would like.
He was awake, his light blue eyes fixed on her as she approached the bed. He didn’t smile. He didn’t speak.
She stopped about three feet from the bed, not knowing what to do. Wishing he, or Sandor, would say something. Her throat was too clogged.
Then George Wentworth did something he hadn’t since she was very little and then so infrequently, her memories of it often felt like dreams. He put his arms out. “Come here, sweetheart. Please.”
And she ran to him.
He pulled her into his embrace and held her tight against his chest and she started to cry. “I’m s-sorry, D-daddy. I d-didn’t mean f-for this to h-happen.”
“I know, baby, I know.” He rubbed her back, his hold warm and strong. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m here because of my own mistakes, not yours.”
She lifted her head, trying to hard to control her tears, but they just would not stop. “But I s-said…”
“The truth.” He cupped her cheek. “Listen to me, Eleanor. I’ve made a lot of mistakes with you. I’ve made a lot of mistakes period, but I’ll never regret the words you said this afternoon. They woke me up. You gave me hope for the first time in over twenty years that I would see my other little girl again. And as angry as you were, you made me realize that I had a daughter who needed me now, if I never find your sister.”
“How could you not know I needed you?”
Agony darkened his eyes. “For more than two decades, I’ve practiced at ignoring your needs because I could not deal with feelings at all. Not yours. Not mine. I was a lousy father and I wish I could go back and change the past, but I can’t. When your mother died, I shut myself off. It happened so fast, by the time your sister’s disappearance came to light, I was already closed off from my babies. I didn’t try hard enough to find her. I accepted without question…” His voice broke and it was a second before he could continue. “When the investigators told me there were no more leads to follow, I didn’t argue. A year after her disappearance from the hospital, the police put her case on indefinite hold due to lack of new information. I closed the case with the investigative agency I’d hired as well.”
Unbelievably he started to cry, turning his head away from her. “I have no excuse. When I look at your childhood, I feel as if I shut you out as completely as I did her. I failed you both on so many levels.”
The monitor beside his bed began to beep and a nurse came rushing in, followed closely by a doctor. Ellie tried to get up and out of their way, but her dad wouldn’t let her go.
“No. It’s just my heart. It will get better. It’s not used to feeling and it’s having a hard time with the new experience.” His attempt at a laugh ended in a pain-filled wheeze, but he wouldn’t let her go.
“Please, Daddy, let them take care of you. Please. I don’t want to lose you again.”
“You won’t leave?” His tone was pleading, his normally strong voice choked with tears she’d never, ever seen him shed before.
“I won’t go further than the hall, I promise.”
“I love you, Eleanor. Please believe me. I know I’ve done a lousy job of showing it, but I love you more than my own life.”
She didn’t know if she believed him. She wanted to. So much. And she felt badly, but twenty-four years of neglect didn’t get wiped out with even heart-rending tears and confessions of affection. For all she knew, his illness was making him maudlin and he’d go back to his distant self once he was feeling better. She didn’t say any of that, though.
She gave him a watery smile. “I love you, too. I always have.”
He let her go and she moved back so the doctor could get to him. Then she stumbled toward the door and Sandor was there, his arm around her, guiding her out of the room and into the hall. Once outside the door, he pulled her into his chest, sheltering her from the noise coming from the room and the sense of desolation trying to wash over her.
Suddenly another pair of arms was there, hugging her. And a warm, comforting scent. “Is she all right, Sandor?”
“She is strong, Mama.”
Ellie lifted her head. “Hera?”
“Yes, my child. I am here.” The older woman’s eyes were filled with compassion. “Come, let us go to the waiting room.”
“I told him I wouldn’t leave the hall.”<
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“The room, it is right here, off the hallway. Not more than ten steps. You will know instantly if he has need of you. Sandor will make sure of it, but child you need to sit down.”