Twin Consequences of That Night by Pippa Roscoe

Author:Pippa Roscoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-12-28T19:31:03+00:00

* * *

Her words stopped when Nate reached across the table and placed his hands over where her fingers were picking at each other. Suddenly Gabi felt both impossibly young and terribly old, and, above all, utterly vulnerable.

‘That will not happen here,’ he vowed.

She tried to shake him off.

‘Gabi, whatever happens, you will be taken care of, protected, financially at least.’

‘It’s not about finances.’

‘No,’ he admitted. ‘It’s not, but at least that is something that you can see on an account statement and know. The house is in your name. I have set up accounts for you and the children. I have no access to them. I cannot close them.’

His words did soothe something in her, but she also knew they were a patch, to cover her real need.

‘As for parenting and supporting you? This is only something I can show you daily, until hopefully you don’t have to question it any more. If you let me. If you trust me.’

Gabi wasn’t deaf to the plea in his voice, nor the urging of her heart. She knew that she needed at least to let him try—let herself try.

‘But Nate, you can’t just make decisions that directly impact me and the children without me knowing. You’ve been in our lives for five minutes—’

He opened his mouth to speak but she knew what he was going to say. ‘I know that’s not your fault, but it is fact. And there are things you don’t know about the children. What if they’d been terrified of the water and you didn’t stop to ask? What if Antonio had nightmares sleeping away from his bed, or Ana had allergies?’

Nate stared at her, understanding swirling in his gaze, and at least had the grace to look a little ashamed.

‘We need to be able to talk, Nate. Share things,’ she concluded, ‘before decisions are made.’

Like we promised in our vows, she thought.

He looked back up at her, sincerity shining in his eyes as if he’d heard her silent plea. ‘Agreed.’

Eventually she nodded.

‘Gabi, I need to tell you. Your mother—’

‘Was there yesterday,’ she said with a sad smile. ‘I know.’

Nate frowned, clearly having believed that he’d kept it a secret. ‘I didn’t want it to spoil the day.’

Gabi let out a huff. ‘I think we did that well enough ourselves, don’t you?’ she asked ruefully. But she could at least realise that he had tried, in his own way, to protect her.

‘Do Ana and Antonio know about her—Renata?’

Gabi looked down at her hands and shook her head. ‘I left her house the night you visited and have never been back. She never tried to reach me, and I didn’t want to speak to her. I didn’t see her again until court... And grandparents have never come up around them because...’

Because she and Javi had only ever referred to her as Renata, and because there had not been any other grandparents in their lives for them to ask about her mother. Because, as she knew, his parents had passed.

‘Let’s

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.