A Hurt So Sweet Volume Four - Isabella Starling Page 0,16

what you did. Are they okay? You didn't hurt them, did you?"

"I did what was for the best," she hisses. "I did what I had to do."

Emilian pales. With a single step, he approaches her, wrapping his arms around her. But this is no lover's embrace—no, his grip on his ex-wife carries a warning. She knows he's going to hurt her now, and her Botoxed face pales even more.

"What did you do?" he demands. "What did you fucking do?"

"I gave her some medicine," she smiles sweetly. "What else was I supposed to do? Let her end up like me?" She laughs bitterly, shaking her head. "No. She couldn't handle this. Loving a man who doesn't give a shit about her. Pining after someone who has a new family. Because that's what would happen to her. Just like it did to me."

She shuts Emilian up with those words, pushing past him to glare at me.

"Are you Dexter Booth?" I nod, and she smiles weakly. "You look just like your father."

Her words mean so much to me I almost choke up, but then I remember why we're there. "Where is she?"

"They ran away," Angela mutters. "I don't know where. But I'm warning you now, Dexter Booth. You don't get to break that girl's heart. And you'd better take care of the kid if it isn't gone already."

"What?" I grunt. "The fuck are you talking about?"

Her words wake up Oakes too, and he grabs her, demanding, "What kid?"

"You don't know?" Angela smiles blissfully with the knowledge none of us have. "Your precious Pandora is pregnant. Congratulations, Dexter Booth. You'll be a daddy soon enough."

7

Pandora

"Are you sure this is the right address?" I ask again.

We stand in front of a huge holiday home. It's utterly secluded—in fact, the cab driver refused to take us all the way up here and stopped at the caretaker's cottage a mile away from it. After the long trek uphill to reach the cottage, I'm freaking exhausted, and the last thing I need is for Alli to tell me she made a mistake and we're at the wrong place.

"This is it." She smiles as she heads to the porch, lifting up a flower pot and producing a key out of nowhere. "Oh, good. The key was hidden in the same place."

I furrow my brows. Did she actually bring me here without knowing whether the key would be there?

"What is this place?" I wonder out loud as she unlocks the heavy front door, decorated with stained glass like you'd see in a church.

"It belonged to my father," Alli explains. "I don't think my... uncle uses it at all. We came here a lot when I was a kid. It hasn't been in use since."

We enter the house. The furniture is covered in white sheets and the place looks deserted. I cough when Alli pulls a sheet off the couch, sending dust flying into the air.

"It'll need a good scrub and clean," she goes on. "But we'll be safe here. No one will think to look for us in this place."

I don't know whether that's comforting or scary, but I nod my approval anyway. I help Alli remove the rest of the sheets from the furniture. The place is actually quite okay—a little outdated, but nice enough.

"There's a caretaker, too," she says. "Although I think he hasn't been in here. But he took care of the property, and he still lives in that shed we passed. We can get anything we need from him."

"Great," I mutter, groaning when I feel another cramp in my stomach. "Fuck."

"Sit down." Alli makes me sit on the floral couch. "I'll try to get the generator going so we'll have water and electricity."

I nod, watching her leave the room and feeling utterly miserable.

Did I really do the right thing when I left Eden Falls?

I can't stop the thought from entering my mind. I keep wondering whether I should have left in the first place. Not my mother's home—I knew I had to leave that place, knowing what she had tried to do. But Father wouldn't have tried to make me lose the baby. He'd be proud. He'd place me on the highest of pedestals and the baby wouldn't be in danger.

But by abandoning ship, I risked the baby's life. And if it hadn't been for Alli's quick, smart reactions, I wouldn't be pregnant anymore.

We saw a doctor in Stormcliff, who confirmed with an ultrasound the baby was unharmed. It was also the first time I finally