Page 59 of Claiming His Baby At The Altar

Flora kept a tight grip on the swell of emotions battering her until she put Benjamin back in his cot beside her bed and he stayed in peaceful sleep. Only then did she crawl under her bedsheets and sob until her throat was raw and her insides battered and bruised.

Justin was already in the kitchen when Flora carried Benjamin down for his breakfast.

‘You look exhausted,’ he observed, taking Benjamin from her and putting him in his high chair.

‘Thank you.’ She tried to sound bright but her vocal cords obeyed only to a ‘listless’ level. It had been the longest night of her life. Every time she’d drifted into sleep she’d had dreams of Alejandro walking past her in the Monte Cleure court, looking straight through her, not hearing her pleas, Flora a ghost he could not see. She’d snapped herself awake from all of them, frozen in her chest and her face soaked in tears.

‘Why don’t I take him out for a walk?’ Justin said once she’d fed Benjamin his cereal and given him his bottle of milk. ‘You go back to bed.’

‘I don’t need—’

‘Yes, you do. Go and get his change bag for me and I’ll take him to the park.’

Oh, but she felt wretched. She hadn’t told Justin that the prosecution against him would be reopened...although, now she thought about it, she didn’t remember Alejandro mentioning it, but it must be a given...and she opened her mouth to deliver the heartbreaking news, but what came out was, ‘Are you sure?’

‘He’s my nephew. Of course I’m sure.’

She closed her eyes and smiled wanly in thanks.

Let her brother spend some time with his nephew in the fresh air before she gave him the news that would destroy his life again.

Soon, Benjamin was secure in the pram that had been sat in the understairs cupboard since she’d bought it all that time ago, and she was kissing them both goodbye.

The house felt so silent without them.

Dragging her weary legs back to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water, Flora found herself staring at her studio door. The space she’d created, her happy place, now tainted for ever.

Would she ever be able to enter her studio without thinking of him and remembering how he’d ripped the heart out of her?

She couldn’t take any pleasure at getting the last word in or from the image of his ashen face when she’d told him to let himself out.

Her words had wounded him, she was sure of it, and, like a wounded animal, it would only make him more dangerous. She should be frightened at where this could lead but her heart refused to accept how far he would go. She didn’t believe for a second he would ever try to take Benjamin from her, not even out of vengeance... He hadn’t mentioned custody either.

She didn’t have the strength right then to pray she wasn’t mistaken in this, not when her heart was so bruised with grief at how it had ended between them, because that was what it felt like. Grief.

But she had to be strong. She had her baby to think of and her brother’s future to deal with and could not afford the luxury of wallowing over a man who, however happy he had made her, didn’t deserve her love.

Rubbing away the fresh tears that had let loose, she was filled with resolve and she marched to her studio door and threw it open...and almost screamed when she saw the figure on the sofa, doubled over, head slumped forwards on his lap, hands clutching his dark hair.

Certain she was hallucinating, Flora blinked a number of times.

‘Alejandro?’ she whispered.

Slowly, the head lifted.

She covered her mouth in horror. The beautiful, meltingly dark eyes were puffy and bloodshot.

Frightened, she took a tentative step towards him.

A contortion of emotions danced over his haggard face. He held out a hand to her. It was shaking.

She took another step and touched the tips of her fingers to his. He sank to his knees and wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly all the breath was pushed from her lungs.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ he sobbed into her breasts. ‘So sorry.’

Utterly thrown, her heart ripping at the animalistic sounds coming from this most arrogant and prideful of men, Flora instinctively cradled him tightly and kissed the top of his head.

When the shudders wracking his powerful body abated, sense came back to her and she let go of him, but before she could step away from his hold, he lifted his head to stare into her eyes. ‘I...’

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