Page 132 of Implode

“He saved us all, Claire. Tyler is a hero.”

I reach for a tissue to blow my nose, as tears form in my eyes. “I am just glad we all made it out alive.”

“I will never forgive myself for not seeing it sooner. It was right in front of my face. If only I trusted Tyler the whole time…”

I take a few more bites of my food—mainly to appease Nic but also because it is so delicious. “We all make mistakes, Nic.”

“It was that asshole Dan who”—Nic looks away and takes a deep breath—“was feeding me lies hinting that Tyler was double-crossing me. He put the doubt in my mind about one of my most trusted employees. I had Collins working to see if the speculation was warranted or not, and while nothing was found to incriminate Tyler, the damage to the trust we established was already done. And when I realized he was telling me the truth, Dan had already solidified his plan to run off with you.”

“I thought Dan was just a guy who may have had a crush on me. We would run into each other on breaks throughout the building or outside during lunch. Now, looking back, he was probably stalking me and learning my patterns. I found the”—my body shudders—“shrine.”

“Damn, baby,” Nic says with a sigh. “I was hoping you’d never see that. I just found out about it yesterday. I will forever regret missing all the signs.”

“I was so scared,” I cry. “I thought Dan was going to blow everything up or lose his patience with me or hurt you. And the baby. He wanted to take me and—” I tremble, not being able to complete my sentence. There’s no point reliving the fear and the memories.

“It’s over, baby. You are safe. And I vow to protect you always. I should have never let you go into the building. That guilt and regret will be carried by me for the rest of my life.”

“Nic?”

Taking my hands in his, he kisses each one. “Hmm?”

“Remember the guard who accosted you when you first started working at HH?”

“Yeah, Kevin?”

“I think he was helping Dan.”

“I’m aware, baby. He’s in custody now. Dan never thought he would get caught and got sloppy. Kevin was completely expendable to him, but that’s on him for going into the darkness. Dan tried to throw Kevin to me as a traitor just to get the focus off of himself. The scum wanted to destroy me.”

“Wow…”

“But don’t worry. Everyone involved will pay. With the amount of evidence at HH alone, there’s no way for Kevin to ever step foot outside of a prison.”

I nod in relief. “He had me meet with him recently at a cafe. Was very ominous and vague about having information I would like to know. He basically told me you were tracking me.”

“Never doubt my love for you, Claire. If tracking you helps me protect you, please accept it.”

“I see things so clearly now. I’m sorry I never told you what I knew. I just didn’t think anything was connected.”

“I know.” Nic sighs. “I just don’t know what I would have done if you’d been hurt yesterday. You are my happiness. You are my whole world.”

“Tara was…” My voice cracks as I sniffle.

“Shh…I know. Dan told me before he died. And I’m having my men look into it to make sure she really is innocent in all of this and just wanted money. Brenna was involved too, but it was to protect her boyfriend, Eugene.”

“The employee you fired?”

“Yes. Basically, Brenna came to work for me to try to prove Eugene’s innocence. She suspected Dan had something to do with him being fired and apparently would flirt with Dan to try to manipulate him. He just got caught in the collateral damage like so many others and desperately wanted to clear his name. I owe him a job.”

My hands move over my stomach, resting on top of the stark white freshly laundered sheet. “Is the baby okay?”

Nic nods and smiles. “Yes, the little gummy bear looks perfect.”

I giggle. “So you named our baby gummy bear?” I use the wordourwithout even thinking about it. This is our baby. If Ethan ends up sharing DNA with it, then we can worry about custody issues later. As far as what a daddy represents, Nic will be amazing—I finally have zero doubts.

“Yeah, at least until we find out the gender,” he says proudly.

It warms my insides to know he is excited about the baby. Even though it took me some time to accept the reality, I am thrilled to be embarking on parenthood with the man I love. Sure, we did things unconventionally, but that’s just how we are. There’s no script. There’s no rule book. We can author our own story.

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