da, every beat of her heart seeming to shatter beneath his gaze.

empire and brought your beloved woman back. Wasn't destroy

gh, the ache in her chest nearly unbearable. "Keep dreaming

lan's mouth. "Is that igno

across her face. "

go and imprisoned her because you wanted to marry me and he thought she w

ial spilled out in a shaky whisper. "

e's even lost her womb. Her mother died saving her life. That woman was like a mother to me." E

the words from her lips. "My dad isn't capable

e contract. Give Claire the child she can't have

led. Did he really l

and the check with trembling hands. "I'd rather di

could expect her to keep swal

flush on her cheeks-traces of longing still e

o long years, he'd tried to keep his distance,

them, he spoke with chilling patience. "Bold claims, Melin

fled the hotel, plunging hea

dominance he left behind, now twisted insi

st a wall, teeth chattering, only now feeli

ed toward what once had been

zed that place wasn

other piled so high that her only r

ite. Declan had stripped that away and left her

r father's office, tossed the divorce agreement onto the floor, and presse

Dawson, who'd thrown himself from a

elinda still burned with that same hatred, remembering her

. Still, every time she thought about givi

ve for Declan that had brou

him stretched far bey

he day he rescued her and suffered

es. As the castaway son of the Gibson family, he had been

the motive behind Declan's de

ther couldn't be that cruel. Ther

her way back to the hospital, desperate

egetative state. She couldn'

he once was-reduced to frailty, though just months earl

his children never in question, his af

l ended their marriage, he chose grace and

h gentleness in him be

ago-Declan was only friends with Claire, and he married me willi

secretaries. If anything secret or underhanded

both their numbers, but n

ecretaries were fired and returned to their hometow

ally be a mer

d taken the reins, and it made sense that

"Maybe they could prove Dad had no

man!" Suddenly, a voice

n through Melinda, an