Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
"Which we are about to receive from Thy bounty ..."
And when he saw her tears start falling again—-
"Through Christ, Our Lord..."
Anah could no longer end the prayer, and she hastily covered her face with her hands because her tears made her feel too vulnerable and exposed. "I'm s-sorry," she whispered. "It just struck me, t-that you will never love me b-back..." Another sob rushed out of her throat, and she found herself crying harder when she felt Ethan turning her face toward him...so he could kiss her tears away.
Oh God.
Why?
Why couldn't she have met him first?
Chapter Seven
Ethan was tired and restless. Had been so for a very long time. Most days, if he were asked about this, he would say it had begun almost ten years ago, the day Guilia had come into his life.
But on the rare days that he was alone, and alcohol had shorn him of his defenses, he would find himself unable to keep up with the pretense. It was the need to constantly hide the truth, to pretend every fucking second, that exhausted him, and it was Anah's feelings that had his soul restless and his heart unable to settle.
There were times when Anah's love was like a brick around his neck. She loved him. She deserved to be loved. But there was nothing he could do. Because it was already too late.
But then there were the other times. Times when Anah's love was the only fucking bright spot in his life, and he was almost tempted to end things with Guilia and start with Anah anew. Times when he was about to lose his mind in jealous rage and bitter despair, and he found himself desperately hanging on to the memory of the softness of her cheek under his lips.
That memory had been his lifeline, the one thing that saved him from going crazy every time he was confronted with yet another irrefutable photo of Guilia hooking up with another man.
When Anah had left for Hartland, he had flown back to Guilia's side in another attempt to work things out. And again, for a while, it had been good between them. But then another media event came out, Guilia had started throwing tantrums, and Ethan was back to being single.
In their first few years together, he had tried to make Guilia understand why Hartland was so important to him and the twins. The helicopter crash that killed their parents hadn't been an accident. Rather, it was cold-blooded murder, and an investigation had eventually led to the arrest of one of his parents' competitors.
It was this kind of attention that Ethan and his brothers didn't want for themselves and future members of their family, and why they had helped set up The Hartland Initiative.
But no matter what he said, it was as if she had been deaf to all his words, and these days, Guilia took her vengeance to a sick new level. She would record clips of her time with other men and send to him like it was some fucking joke.
Time after time, he nearly found himself breaking things off with Guilia for good and asking Anah to take a chance on him.
But because Ethan knew Anah deserved more, he had never allowed himself to give Anah the slightest hint of his feelings. No one - not the twins or his closest friends in Hartland - not a single soul knew, and he was determined to keep it that way.
For as long as Guilia still claimed the smallest part of his heart...Anah was better off without him.
THE USUAL HUSTLE AND bustle drifted to Anah's ears like a cheerful greeting as soon as she entered Redwood Cafe, followed by a genial chorus of hellos and friendly nods from the town's resident secret tycoons.
Many of them still remembered Anah from her intern days, but more importantly, they all looked at her as their honorary little sister, owing to her close ties to the Blackwoods.
"Hello again." Farica, co-owner of the cafe, looked unusually frazzled as Anah settled herself on one of the bar stools. Her lovely blonde hair was twisted up in a messy bun, and her granny glasses kept slipping down her nose. Anah had a feeling it was the older woman's way of making herself stand out less, and well...it wasn't working. Nothing would, with the kind of looks the Dutch heiress possessed.
"Everything okay?" Anah asked when Farica exhaled her breath in an irritable sigh.
"We're short-staffed again," Farica admitted grumpily while handing Anah the menu over the counter.
Anah was stunned. "But didn't you guys just hire the last one?"
"Yeah, she's gone."
Anah winced. "I guess that means she..."
"Couldn't help falling in love with Slade and made a nuisance of herself?"
Before Anah could answer, the other owner of the cafe sauntered up to the bar, saying dryly, "No need to hold back, Fari. Feel free to make it sound like it's all my fault."