Grace could hardly blame him. She’d been so unfair to him. Expecting him to wait around for her indefinitely. They’d broke it off so many times, but they always ended up drifting back together – like flotsam and jetsam. He’d even moved away for twelve months but he ended up at Grace’s door again one night – and they’d fallen back into their on-off love affair like he’d never been away. That had been the year Grace had started working with Patrick. She wondered sometimes if she’d be where she was now if Ben had been around. No doubt he’d have tried to talk her out of it, telling her it was too dangerous. But would she have listened? Probably not.

She studied his face, sensing that this time he meant what he said. Could she live without him? Of course, she could. But did she want to?

‘Okay,’ she said and watched as the smile took over his face. ‘But just give me a few months.’

‘Always a catch,’ he sighed.

Taking his face in her hands, she kissed him. ‘Not this time. I promise. But I just need to take care of some things first.’

‘I love you, Grace Sumner,’ he said and kissed the top of her head. ‘But I won’t wait for you forever.’

‘You won’t have to,’ she smiled. ‘But you’d better get out of here before Michael comes back up to check on me.’

‘Ah yes, your bodyguard,’ he laughed.

‘Don’t start.’ She gave him a playful shove.

‘I’m not. I’m grateful that you have him around. He’s like a loyal Rottweiler.’

‘I’ll meet you at the hotel instead then? Half an hour?’

‘See you there, gorgeous.’

Grace watched as Ben walked out of her office. There was only one way the two of them could ever bring their relationship out into the open, and that was if Nathan was out of the picture – permanently. But could she do it or was she fooling herself? If she had the chance to wipe Nathan from the face of the earth, would she have the nerve to go through with it? She certainly hoped so. She’d done a lot of things in her life that she’d never dreamed she was capable of. A lot of things she wasn’t proud of. But Nathan was her son’s father. How would she ever look Jake in the eye again?

As Grace picked up her coat and handbag, she thought about the night that changed hers and Ben’s lives forever.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thirteen Years Earlier