The Secrets She Must Tell - Lucy King Page 0,16

She’d already done so much...’ She paused for a second, swallowing hard as a quick frown creased her brow, seemingly lost in thought, but a second later she’d rallied. ‘Besides, she has her own life to lead. Her job is insane.’

‘Remind me to thank her some time,’ he muttered, not wanting to even think about how alone Georgie had been, how desperate she must have felt.

‘She’s going to be intrigued by this latest turn of events. If she wasn’t going away for work tomorrow I have no doubt she’d be banging on the door first thing.’

‘She’s welcome any time.’

For a moment she didn’t say anything, just looked at him, her eyes shimmering with gratitude that he did not deserve when his help had come so late. ‘You have no idea how glad I am to have found you.’

His pulse thudded heavily and something shifted in his chest. ‘Likewise.’

‘You may not think that when Josh is screaming the place down.’

‘The walls are soundproofed.’

‘That’s a relief.’ She gave him a faint smile. ‘So. Is there anything else you’d like to know?’

Probably. No doubt there were questions he hadn’t even thought of. But in all honesty he couldn’t take any more tonight. He was utterly drained. God only knew how she had the strength to smile after everything she’d just told him. But then, compared with what had come before, he supposed relaying an account of it would have been a walk in the park. Her courage was staggering. Her resilience was a thing of awe. He’d thought that he was pretty tough, but he had nothing on her. He had nothing at all. ‘We’ll talk more in the morning.’

CHAPTER FOUR

WHILE GEORGIE GOT ready for bed she reflected that, as she’d suspected, it hadn’t been easy telling Finn her story. In fact, reliving events even on the most superficial level had been horrible and exhausting. But it had also been cathartic. The weight and severity of what she’d been through had been overwhelming and now that she’d shared some of it she felt slightly lighter, as if a socking great rock was beginning to lift from her shoulders.

It had helped that Finn was such a good listener. He’d offered no opinion and no judgement. He’d just sat there letting her talk. Of course, it was entirely probable that there’d simply been too much to take in for him to be able to respond with anything more than the most basic of questions, but nevertheless she was grateful for his restraint. And his involvement. It was such a relief to know that she was no longer in this alone, but who exactly was she in it with?

Remembering his suggestion to look him up, Georgie fished her phone out of her bag, then climbed under the gorgeously soft covers of the enormous bed. She tapped his name—complete with surname—into a search engine and spent the next fifteen minutes clicking on links and reading articles.

But, instead of cementing the feeling of safety and security that had been burgeoning inside her, what she discovered blew it wide apart. Because, while she’d already guessed that Finn was successful—what with owning a hotel and a club, driving a top-of-the-range car and living in a penthouse—never in her wildest nightmares would she have imagined that he was one of the richest men in the world.

Yet he was.

His company owned hotels and bars and clubs and restaurants and he was worth billions. He’d worked his way up from virtually nothing to become a top player in his industry. His power was immense and his influence was wide-reaching, and it was suddenly terrifying because now she couldn’t help thinking that what if, once he’d had time to absorb the truth about where she’d been and what she’d been doing for the last six months and reflect on it, he considered her unfit to be a mother to his son? What if he tried to take Josh away from her in earnest? She wouldn’t stand a chance. If it came to a custody battle, a judge would take one look at her with her recent mental health record and another at Finn with his billions and that would be that. Case closed. She was sure of it.

She’d gone into so much detail, she thought, a wave of nausea rolling up from her stomach to her throat. About her behaviour. About her conflicted feelings towards Josh. She hadn’t told him the worst of what had happened, but it had been enough. More than enough.

Her