When Hearts Collide - By James, Kendra Page 0,64

it was a mistake, that I didn’t do anything. What, Pearce, what should I have told you?”

His laugh was harsh. “You didn’t think it was important that the person I have let care for my child has been charged with stealing drugs?”

“I didn’t steal the drugs,” she said, biting off each word.

“You were suspended from the hospital.” He glared at her, his eyes black with anger. “Can you deny that?”

“No, but...”

“There is no but. You were suspended.” His voice rose to a fever pitch. “And I let you look after my daughter. I let you look after me.” His words were like a dagger to her heart. “To think I trusted you. I left you alone with my daughter, alone in my house. I could have been robbed blind. You could have taken off with my daughter.”

“Pearce, please,” Molly pleaded.

He turned away, her words bouncing off his retreating back as he limped toward the open door. “I want you gone today.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. How could he believe she was a thief? She loved him, and he wouldn’t even hear her side.

Molly felt the air seep out of her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. Grasping the back of the chair, Molly tried to coax her collapsed lungs to expand again.

A lump the size of an ostrich egg seemed to be stuck in her throat. Her mouth gaped open, but the lump remained. She couldn’t believe her ears. She’d put her life on hold to look after his daughter and care for him. The arrogant ass! The lump dropped like a lead balloon to the pit of her stomach.

“Damn you. How could you believe that of me?” She ran out of the room and up the flight of stairs. Slamming the door behind her, she turned the lock, and leaned against the smooth surface. She wondered why she’d bothered closing it. It wouldn’t matter if she’d left it gaping like a barn door. He wasn’t coming after her. He didn’t care if she walked out of his life and never came back. Grabbing her suitcase from under the bed, Molly stuffed her clothes into it.

What about Gracie?

Should she wait until the child woke and say goodbye? She thought of the trauma Gracie had suffered with her mother’s abandonment. She’d been a baby. But even infants knew their mothers and suffered when they left them. Molly knew it wouldn’t be fair not to say goodbye to her, but Pearce wanted her out of his house, and she had no desire to be here one minute more than necessary.

Tears running down her cheeks, Molly tugged clothes out of drawers and threw them into the suitcase. There was nothing left for her now. Her life had gone into a tailspin. She’d come here with nothing, had fallen in love with a man and a child, and now she was leaving with nothing but a broken heart.

Molly pulled her hair back in a ponytail, pushing some of the thick unruly strands behind her ears. She glanced in the mirror. Her usual peaches and cream completion was marred by two bright red ovals. The tears flowed again when she bade a silent farewell to the sleeping child she had come to love. As she threw her suitcase into the car and sped down the driveway, her heart felt as if it was being ripped into tiny shreds.

There was little traffic, and she had to keep reminding herself to keep to the speed limit. She was desperate to get as far away from Pearce as she could, and the needle on the speedometer kept creeping up. A few miles outside of town she veered with the curve of the road. She automatically eased her foot off the gas as she did every time she passed this spot in the road.

Her thoughts flew back to the night that had changed her life forever. She felt as if she’d just finished a marathon. Her heart rate galloped and her breathing came in a series of short gasps. She forced her body to calm. She couldn’t go on like this. She was leaving, and she wouldn’t be coming back.

Molly forced her attention away from the site of the crash and back on the road. She pressed her foot on the gas and the car shot forward. She grasped the wheel as the car veered for the asphalt. It was several seconds before she got the car under control, and several seconds more before her adrenaline stopped pumping. Her