“Please, just leave me alone,” she begged softly. “Don’t say anything else. There isn’t a need. I heard it all. Leave me with some of my pride at least.”

She turned and fled into the elevator, the sound of her quiet sobs echoing through his apartment.

Rafael stood, feeling dead on the inside as he watched the elevator close. “Go after her,” he croaked out to Ryan. “Please, for me. Make sure she’s okay. She doesn’t know anyone here in the city. I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

With a curse, Ryan turned and jammed his finger over the call button. Behind Rafael, Devon got on the phone and called down to the doorman with muttered instructions to stall Bryony until Ryan arrived.

“Why aren’t you going after her yourself?” Devon asked after Ryan got into the returning elevator.

Rafael dropped back into the armchair and cupped his head between both hands. “What am I supposed to say to her? I lied to her. I played her. I used her. Everything she feared I had done, I absolutely did.”

Devon sat on the edge of the couch and eyed his friend. “And now?”

“I love her. And knowing what I did to her, what I felt while I was doing it, sickens me. I’m so ashamed of the person I was that I can’t even think about it without wanting to puke.”

“No one says you have to be that person now,” Devon said quietly.

Rafael closed his eyes and shook his head. “Do you know she’s been telling me that all along? She kept saying that I didn’t have to be the person I always was and that just because something has always been didn’t mean it always had to be.”

“Sounds like a smart woman.”

“Oh, God, Devon, I messed this up. How could I have done what I did? How could I have done something like that to her? She’s the most beautiful, loving and generous woman I’ve ever met. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted. Her and our child. I want us to be a family. But how can she ever forgive me for this? How can I ever forgive myself?”

“I don’t have the answers,” Devon admitted. “But you won’t find them here. You’re going to have to fight for her if you love her and want her. If you give up, that just tells her that you are the man you used to be and that you haven’t changed.”