The Secrets She Must Tell - Lucy King Page 0,59

you fascinates me. The way you twist your hair and chew on your pen. The way you are with our son, your patience and your gentleness. You’re the strongest, most incredible person I’ve ever met. You confront your fears and deal with them and you’ve made me do that too. You let me get away with nothing. You’re beautiful and clever and funny and the woman I love. I’ve never felt like this about anyone ever. I don’t want to be without you, Georgie. I can’t.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, her eyes stinging and her throat tight as she stumbled back in the direction of the door.

‘Don’t do this. Please.’

‘I have to.’

He moved towards her and put his hands on her shoulders, his expression fierce. ‘You don’t.’

‘I do,’ she cried, wrenching away.

‘Where will you go?’

‘I’ll let you know.’

‘It’s late.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘I won’t let you do this, Georgie. I won’t let you leave. Not this time.’

‘This time,’ she said, turning and heading for the door before the tears could spill over, ‘you don’t have any choice.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

AS THE DOOR closing rang in his ears, Finn stood there rooted to the spot, reeling as torment and bewilderment spun through him.

What the hell had just happened?

He’d returned home, all fired up with ferocious determination and the hammering need to put things right, the rings he’d bought her in Paris burning a hole in his pocket. He didn’t know what he’d expected to find on his arrival. He hadn’t given it much thought. However, if he had, Georgie sitting on the sofa in the dark, pale and drawn, would not have been it. The sight of her had knocked him for six. Concern had slammed into him. But nothing had stunned him as much as the conversation that had then ensued.

He felt as if he’d stepped into an alternative universe, one in which there were no rules and nothing made sense. Did she really believe everything she’d said? he wondered, his head spinning and his gut churning. That they had no relationship and never would? How could she, after everything they’d been through together?

Yet that was how it seemed. The more he’d tried to convince her that they did have something, that he loved her, the more she’d backed off. It had been like trying to hold on to water and somehow, unintentionally and agonisingly, he’d made things worse.

Georgie was not in a good way—she’d walked out on their son—and his entire body began to ache with the knowledge that perhaps he couldn’t help her. Perhaps he’d never be able to help her. Her despair, her desperation and the tears that she’d struggled to contain cut through him like a knife. He’d thought he could bind her to him with a civil partnership, but no ties were strong enough to overcome this. Nor was how he felt about her, because he’d tried everything. He’d tried reasoning with her and then pleaded with her and it had made no difference. He didn’t know how to fix this. Never had he felt so powerless. It was agony. It was terrifying.

But there was one thing he did know. When she’d told him he didn’t have a choice she’d been wrong. Dead wrong. It was pretty much the only thing he did have right now, and, despite not having a clue about anything, he was making it because he was not losing her again.

Georgie fled down the hall, the tears that she’d been wretchedly holding back spilling over and streaking down her cheeks. With every step she took the knife slicing her heart to pieces struck harder and faster, the pain flowing through her veins unbearable.

Why was this happening to her? she thought with a desperate sniff. Why was life, her illness, so cruel? What had she ever done to deserve any of it? Why couldn’t she be happy? Why couldn’t she be normal?

Reaching the lift, she pressed the button with one trembling finger, but the lift seemed to be as broken as she was because nothing happened, no matter how much she jabbed away at it. And she really needed it to work because she had to escape. She had to find somewhere to hole up and lick her wounds, wounds that were raw and deep and indelible.

But what if there was no escape? a little voice inside her head cried. What if no matter how far she ran, how hard she tried, this was always going to be her reality? What if she was destined to be