Deliberate Deceptions by Leah Braemel

Author:Leah Braemel [Braemel, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Adult, Contemporary, Thriller
Goodreads: 10764494
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The two of them walked along the path back to the house without speaking. While they walked, Chad wondered if Lauren was composing answers for him with the same deliberation he was preparing his questions. For years he’d been composing what he wanted to ask. Yet so many of the questions now seemed futile or petty. She’d walked away from him. She’d been clear she hadn’t agreed with his decision about the FBI. She’d been furious when that video of the two of them having sex in their bedroom had been posted on the internet and gone viral, how stills had been splashed across every goddamned newspaper on the east coast and beyond. To this day he figured out how someone had managed to sneak a camera into the house. He’d gone over the place with every detector he could lay his hands on and never found a trace of the goddamned thing.

He’d done every damned thing she’d asked. Yet it hadn’t been enough. The sense of hope that had flared to life twisted on him, turned into a serpent intent on destroying his dreams.

Once they were in her room and he’d closed the door, Lauren took a deep breath and faced him. “I really am sorry. About leaving you. I know it was wrong. I apologize for that.”

“You’ve said that already.” He scrubbed his hands over his face as he fought for control. “Look, I know you were unhappy. I know you didn’t agree with some of the choices I made. Thalia told me—”

“Let’s not talk about Thalia right now.” The bleakness in her eyes sucker punched him, driving away the righteous indignation that had driven him just moments before. “Even before Emily’s death, I was pretty messed up. There was something wrong with me, about the way I watched Emily.”

What had he missed?

He thought back on those months, of watching her nursing Emily, cuddling her, sleeping with her right beside their bed, her hand often resting on their daughter as the two of them slept. “Babe, you were the best mother a baby could ever ask for. You were always there with Emily. You carried her everywhere you went. I know. I saw you.”

“From the day we brought Em home from the hospital, I was terrified to go to sleep.” Her voice cracked. “I was afraid if I did, she’d stop breathing and I wouldn’t know.”

How could that be? How could he not have seen that she’d been afraid? Then again he’d been at work during the day, a lot of evenings too. Especially that last month when he and his team had been winding up that inside trading investigation. Had he neglected his family because of a goddamned greedy banker?

“During the day, when you were at work, I’d keep her in her carry seat, so I could take her with me everywhere. I was afraid to leave her alone.” Her voice was a toneless whisper. “Then one day, she turned over on her own.”

He remembered that day.

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