Page 46 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

Everyone looked around, as if she could be hiding under a rug or behind a door.

Even as they searched the house calling her name, he knew she’d gone. She’d slipped out with his uncle and grandfather without saying goodbye. He yanked his phone out of his back pocket and called his uncle.

Why would she do that? That wasn’t Lena. She would never just disappear without saying goodbye and thanking his parents for their hospitality. She just wouldn’t.

His uncle finally answered.

‘Is Lena with you?’

‘No. Why?’

He disconnected the call and, for the first time since he’d left her in London, dialled Lena’s number. It went straight to voice mail.

His phone rang. His uncle calling him back. He thrust the phone at his mother. ‘You talk to him. I’m going to find her.’

There was no sign of her on the terrace.

He hurled himself down the steps and onto the street. The Christmas lights were illuminating the town in their festive colours. Illuminating the street.

Which direction had she gone?

He tried to think calmly, no easy feat when panic had gripped him so completely.

Why the hell hadn’t he forced her to talk earlier? No, why had he admitted defeat when the dinner gong had rung?Theos, all he’d needed to say were three little words.I am sorry. More than anything, those were the words he needed to say to her. He didn’t think he’d find peace or sleep again until he’d said them.

There were no hotels to the right of the restaurant so she must have turned left, he determined, his legs already setting off as the thought formed. He knew she was staying at a hotel here; he’d overheard her telling Rena.

Upping his pace to a run, he flew up the winding road, rounding yet another bend until he spotted the figure in the distance, close to the town’s giant Christmas tree.

‘Lena!’ he shouted. Tried to shout. It came out as a croak. Still running, closing in on her with every stride, he shouted her name again, louder, more audible this time. On his third attempt, she stopped.

Lena froze. For a moment she was too scared to turn around.

When she did turn, her tears blinded her from seeing clearly the tall figure rushing to her.

Rubbing her face with the palms of her hands, desperately trying to stem the flow of tears, she didn’t give him a chance to have a go at her for her rudeness when he reached her, saying in a tearful rush, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to skip out without saying goodbye.’

‘Then why did you?’ he asked with surprising gentleness.

‘Why do youthink?’ she wailed, rubbing away more tears. ‘I thought I could do it, okay? But like with everything else, I was wrong. I didn’t know it would hurt so much. I’m sorry if I’ve embarrassed you and I’m really sorry if I’ve hurt your parents’ feelings. I promise I’ll apologise in person in the morning, just, please... I need to be alone. Please, Tinos, go back to your family. I’m fine.’

‘Lena...’

‘Justgo,’ she cried, losing all control. ‘Please, Tinos, I can’t see you. Don’t you get that? It’s just too soon. I should never have come here.’

Without waiting for a response, she stumbled off, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. They didn’t want to cooperate. The whole of her body was screaming at her to turn back to him.

‘Lena, you’re not the one who needs to apologise.’ There was a tremor in his voice that made her feet refuse to take another step. ‘That’s on me. It’s all on me. I’m the one who should be sorry. Iamsorry.’

Don’t turn around, she pleaded to herself.Walk away.

‘I’ve been trying to find the words since you turned up here. I thought I’d imagined you. I did not guess you would come. But I should have. You always do the right thing no matter the personal cost to yourself. It’s why your family had to force you to leave your sister and forge a real life for yourself. If they hadn’t, you would never have moved to Sweden. It’s why you hid the pregnancy from me. You were protecting our baby as best you could despite knowing the longer it took for you to tell me, the angrier and more unreasonable I would be about it, and you knew that anger would be directed at you. It’s why you hid your pregnancy from your family, too. You didn’t want to add to your parents’ worries until it was absolutely necessary or have your sister face the reality of another of her dreams never being realised. You always put everyone else’s needs above your own.’

She heard the crunch of his footstep closing the small gap she’d created. When he next spoke, his voice was so close she could feel it breeze against her hair.

‘You came here today for my family’s sake. You knew you would see me. You knew it would hurt you, and still you came. For their sake. Strangers to you. If I wasn’t already in love with you, that would have pushed me over the edge into it.’

Her breath caught in her throat.

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