Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
The heart is fickle. One day, you love something or someone, and then the next, they destroy you with their lies, and that love disappears.
I’m over the lies and the deceit. So, I tell my wife I want a divorce, only to find out she’s fighting for her life, against a disease that doesn’t like to lose. What kind of man would I be if I went through with ending our marriage knowing she’s sick?
So, I stay. I raise our daughter, and I’m there to help her when she needs me. Her best friend, Aurora, is there too, which becomes a problem because Aurora is everything my ex isn’t, and with each passing day, I fall harder for her, and my guilt for those feelings grows.
Aurora
When Hope told me about her diagnosis, I wanted to do anything I could to help her through this. I vowed to be there for her, to help in any way I could.
I jumped in to help with Winnie and picked up the slack where Liam couldn’t. With each day, we watched her condition worsen. I spent more time with them, mostly Liam and me, and in time, we grew to be good friends. After we lost Hope to her illness, the friendship I thought I had found in Liam was destroyed when he pushed me away with words that cut to the core.
When Liam reaches out to heal the wound between us, we begin to grow close again, and I can admit to myself that my feelings for Liam go far beyond simple friendship. When Liam shares the biggest secret of his life with me, and the truth about his relationship with Hope comes to life, everything changes between us. His guilt will not let him fully move on with his life.
How can I convince him that if he’d let me, I’d love him and his daughter for eternity? I’d give him this heart with no regrets.
This Heart is book four, and the last book in the Moose Village series
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Liam
Two Years Ago
I stared at the paper in my hands, trying to make sense of what I was reading. Hope had lied to me.
“What are you doing?”
The sound of Hope’s surprised voice caused me to look up from the devastating news I had just read.
“You lied to me?”
Fear stretched across her face as her eyes bounced from the paper I was holding back to me.
“Liam, you have to let me explain.”
I slowly shook my head. “Is it true, what this says?”
Swallowing hard. Hope looked away and whispered, “Yes. It’s true.”
My stomach felt like it dropped to the floor as I realized that my entire life was nearly a lie.
“How could you do this to me, Hope? How?”
She walked into the room and stopped a few feet from me. “I didn’t have a choice, Liam. I was desperate. I didn’t know what to do, and you…you were there, and I knew you would be able to fix it for me.”
I felt my eyes widen. “Are you fucking serious right now? I don’t even know who you are anymore, Hope.”
She forced a smile. “I’m your wife, Liam.”
“No, a wife wouldn’t do this to her husband. This is low…so fucking low I can’t even look at you right now.”
“Liam, we can make this work. I know you’re mad right now, but we can make it work.”
I drew in a breath, then exhaled. I tossed the papers onto the floor and turned away from Hope. “I’m going tomorrow to file for a divorce. We can work out a custody arrangement for Winnie. I think fifty-fifty is fair.”
A sharp intake of breath came from behind me. “You want shared custody?”
Turning, I glared at her. “I don’t give a shit what you do, Hope. Stay in Moose Village, tour the world like you’ve always wanted, but this between us hasn’t been working since the day after we said I do. You know it and I know it. This little stunt just dealt the final blow.”
I walked past her and stopped at the door. Turning, I said, “I’ll make arrangements to go live somewhere else.”
“What?”
My gaze met hers. “I don’t want to be under the same roof with you ever again.”
With those departing words, I walked down the hall, through the house, and to the front door, where I slammed it so hard I thought for sure I had broken it.
Feeling my heart slam against the wall of my chest, I slid into my truck and shut the door. The crazy thing was, I wasn’t the least bit sad our marriage was over. Hell, it had been over before she had gotten pregnant. I was mad I was so easily deceived.
It started out like a dream. Marrying Hope, moving back to Moose Village. Starting my rooftop bar and restaurant. She had told me she wanted that dream until the day after we said our vows. Looking back, I realized I had been caught up in the idea of us.
Reaching for the ignition button, I started my truck.
“Time to come back to reality and face the future, Liam,” I muttered to myself as I drove away.
The idea was to divorce Hope and get equal, shared custody of Winnie as I possibly could. Little did I know everything would change, and my entire world would be turned upside down in just one month.
One year later - December
Hope sat down in the chair across from Dr. Nelson as I took the seat beside her. Her treatment plan had consisted of radiation and chemotherapy at first. Then they had started her on targeted therapy. After months of hardly being able to get out of bed, Hope had decided she needed a break from all the treatment, and she seemed to be feeling better, although she still got tired easily, which was to be expected since she hadn’t been off the treatments for very long. Today we were due to get the results from her latest scans to make sure the cancer had not spread.
“How have you been feeling, Hope?” Dr. Nelson asked with a warm smile. Something was off, though, I could see it in his eyes.
“I’m okay, I guess.”
Turning to look at her, I frowned. Before I could ask her what she meant, she went on.
“I have a bit of pain in my back and shoulder, but I think it’s from picking up Winnie. I might have pulled a muscle.”
Still staring at her, I tried to remember when she had picked up Winnie, our almost two-year-old daughter. Most of the time she would shoo our daughter away or call our friend Aurora Banks to see if she would come and take Winnie to the park or the bookstore. She hardly ever spent time with anyone other than the occasional time she would ask me to watch a movie with her. Truth be told, she wanted to stay in the house all the time, and she wanted me and Winnie to block out the rest of the world with her. It wasn’t fair to Winnie, and it wasn’t something I was willing to do. So, I had been trying to carry on with life as best I could while also being there for Hope. I hadn’t divorced her yet, not once I heard she had cancer. I couldn’t do that to her, no matter how much she had betrayed me. She was still my wife and the mother of my child.