Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
He stiffened, the terror becoming stronger but still he continued doggedly. “I think you misunderstood. You might have seen her send me a message. Maybe you’ve seen the number of times I called her. I wasn’t cheating on you.”
He paused.
The old Bobby would have protested that last part, would have said something like he couldn’t have possibly cheated on her when they weren’t together.
But the coldly silent Bobby in front of him didn’t even blink at the words.
Her indifference made him draw a sharp breath, but still he forged on. “I managed to persuade her to tie up with your foundation to sponsor a similar program like our club did. She’s going to open her doors to deaf female students who would like to apply as summer interns.” When she still didn’t speak, he said fiercely, “That’s it. That’s completely it, Bobby. I didn’t cheat on you and I would never want to cheat on you.”
It fucking killed him to speak the next words in front of an audience – and especially when that one-person audience was made up of Sabastian Gabris – but Leandro spoke anyway. “I love you. I will always love you, Bobby Granger, so can you please stop hurting me and come back to my side?”
The pain in Leandro’s voice almost made Bobby break down, but she held on to her control ruthlessly, telling her that it didn’t matter if the business about Erica Norwood was nothing like she had feared. It didn’t matter either that Leandro had told Bobby he loved her in front of Sabastian, the man she was engaged to. It didn’t matter that he was practically begging her to come back to his life.
Love just wouldn’t work between the two of them.
He was not in her league, and she was too scarred, too frightened, too everything that he was not for her to take a chance on their love again.
“I can’t.”
Her rejection pierced him like a dagger to his heart, and he asked hoarsely, “Is it because he proposed to you first?” He took out the box from his pocket. He opened it, took the ring out – and his heart along with it – and offered both to her. “Marry me, Bobby.” Leandro took a step towards her, his hand outstretched, his life hers for the taking. “I know I messed up everything for us in the past, but I can make it right. I love you, Bobby, and you love me.”
The diamond ring Leandro offered to her blazed brightly, promising a dazzling kind of hope that she so badly wanted to believe in. But fears from the past kept her from reaching for it. “No.”
The way her voice shook gave him hope. He took another step forward. “Stop being scared, Bobby. Let me prove it to you – you’ll be happy with me.”
In that moment, she knew that he would never stop coming after her, not for as long as he believed that there was a chance for the two of them to be together again. And she was tempted – God, she was so tempted to be with him again, but she knew it wasn’t right. He made her feel so desperately needy. For a year, she had steeled herself against him and yet in just one night, Leandro had managed to destroy all her defenses. She had gone crazy with the pain and jealousy that one text message from another girl had created.
Blindly, she reached for Sabastian’s hand and after a second, Sabastian’s hand engulfed hers. “Sabastian was right to make me go to you. He thought I needed closure before I could accept his proposal. And he was right. The other day...it was a good way for us to be free of the pain and have a good ending to our relationship.”
Leandro was pale by the time she finished speaking. “You don’t mean that.”
She swallowed. Ignoring the pain in his eyes, she forced herself to say, “I mean it. I’m sorry, Leandro, but that’s all it can ever be. A beautiful goodbye.” She made herself step forward. Her hand covered his hand...
Leandro inhaled.
For one moment, he thought she would take the ring.
Then her hands urged his fingers to close over the ring.
And he knew it had been all planned. That she had wanted him to believe he had a chance just so she could take that chance away and crush his heart with it.
He snatched his hand from her hold, and throwing the ring away, he slammed out of the room. He was done. He was just fucking done.
The silence Leandro’s departure left behind him was heavy with tension. And guilt, Bobby thought numbly. She knew that what she had done was cruel and unforgivable, but it had to be done. Leandro had to accept that they were not for each other.