Breaking Love Full Hearts 2 (36 page)

Yours,

Megan

Simone quickly selected Mark Unread on the email and sat for a moment, shocked at both what she had just done and what she had read. Her fingers shook a little as she made a decision she knew she needed to make if she was ever to have a chance with Luc. She deleted the email, then opened his deleted items and cleared them from his account. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked up at Luc as he swept through the room buttoning up the sleeve of his crisp blue dress shirt. His hair was damp and he smelled clean and utterly intoxicating to her as he stepped behind his desk.

“What are you working on?” Luc asked.

“Just clearing up some trash for you,” she replied, smiling up at him sweetly.

Boulder

Megan shut down her computer. It was late evening and she had been finishing up edits to some baby photos she had taken earlier in the week. She was unable to concentrate, staring at the adorable little child on the screen, so content in his father’s arms. The sight of the two together tugged at her heart mercilessly. It had been twenty-four hours since she sent the email and she knew Luc would have seen it by now. It had taken her most of the previous day to draft the note—thinking about it, writing it, rewriting it over and over until she finally pressed Send.

He would have been getting up for work soon after she sent it. He should have contacted her by now. Unless he needed time to think. Every
ping
of her computer caused her heart to skip a beat; no matter how she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking that maybe it was his answer. As the evening wore on, every car that drove past her house could have been him. He would have had time to get here by now, and if he
really
was in love with her and they really stood a chance, he would come to her.

Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the fantasy from her head. She could picture him getting out of a cab in front of her house, rushing to the door with a bouquet of flowers in his hand to pledge his undying devotion to her. She stood at the living room window and sighed heavily. That was one fantasy that she could not afford to entertain. She was disgusted for allowing herself to daydream like that. Each passing minute she didn’t hear from Luc meant it was less and less likely she would get the happy ending she hadn’t really believed in in the first place.

She knew her email had said she wouldn’t try to contact him, but she just had to know. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the email? She decided to text him to figure it out. Megan picked up her phone and tried to think of what to write. She looked her text over several times before pressing Send, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

Luc, it’s me. I wanted to know if you’ve been thinking about us.

She waited a full five minutes, trying to leaf through a magazine, before allowing herself to look down at her phone again. When she did, she saw the message light flashing. She held her breath as she swiped the screen on her phone and read his message.

What’s to think about? I’m afraid I have absolutely no interest in getting involved in that type of mess. Three is always a crowd and never fails to disappoint.

Megan gasped at his response. “What the fuck does that mean?!” she exclaimed to herself. “He has absolutely no interest in that type of mess?”

She paced around the living room furiously, working herself up into a full-on rage. “What happened to ‘call me if you need anything ever, I will come’? That
fucking
liar!”

She furiously pounded on the screen of her phone.

What. The. Fuck. Is that what you’re really made of, Luc? Here I thought you actually gave a shit about me, and it turns out you’re just a coward who runs as soon as things aren’t perfect.

* * *

Luc sat up in bed staring at his screen in disbelief. It was seven in the morning, and he had been woken up by the buzzing of his cellphone when Megan’s first message had come through. He was tired from being out late at Cloud the night before and was in no mood for drama, especially from a woman who had moved on. Now she was accusing
him
of being the bad guy? And a coward, no less?

“She must be fucking crazy,” he murmured to himself. “Why the fuck would I want to be in the middle of that?” He texted back without thinking.

I don’t know what your problem is right now, but you should just move on with your life. You’ve decided what kind of family you want, and I don’t want any part of that. What sane man would?

* * *

Megan actually growled when she read his last message.
How dare he? How fucking dare he treat me that way! He gets me pregnant and then asks me what
my
fucking problem is?

She dialed his number four times, ready to let him have it, and then hung up four times. She knew calling him would be a mistake. She was a ball of fury right now and would only end up screaming at him.

Oh God, I wish I could have a glass of wine right now! I bet he’s having a drink. He’ll just go on drinking wine and port and Scotch with his perfectly ripped abs as I sit here unable to drink, getting fatter and fatter until I can’t see my own fucking feet! That son of a bitch! Three’s a crowd. Fuck him.

She stomped to the kitchen, opening the pantry cupboard and digging around until she found a bag of potato chips. “Perfect. Salt!” she exclaimed angrily.

Tearing the bag open, she shoved a handful of chips into her mouth, spilling crumbs onto her shirt as she chomped down furiously. As fast as she could, she crammed in another mouthful and another, until the bag was empty. Now she felt sick as well as angry. The chips had not calmed her the way she had hoped they would. Apparently they were not powerful enough to turn Luc into a decent human being. She stared down at her cellphone. He was still an asshole.

In a surge of hormones and desperation, Megan began to weep. She plunked herself into a chair and sobbed until snot ran down her face. Until that moment, Megan hadn’t realized how attached she had become to her new dream of her and Luc making a family. In the past twenty-four hours she had let herself believe that everything was going to be alright. Luc would come back as soon as he knew about the baby, and they would get married and live happily ever after. Instead, he had decided that three was a crowd.

Paris

The next morning Simone sat alone in a café along the Seine, picking at her breakfast. It was her day off, and she had decided that getting some fresh air might make her feel better. She hadn’t slept more than two hours the night before and had gotten out of bed with a horrible sense of dread. She had no appetite after having crossed a line that, until the day before, she had never considered herself capable of crossing. For some time she had pushed Luc’s women out of her way, but never like this. It had always been the one-night-stand or the overly ambitious waitress who had set her sights on Luc’s money. Simone had always considered it an act of love toward him. She was making Luc’s life easier, less complicated.

But yesterday she had let her love for Luc deal a death blow to her sense of morality. She had done something so cruel she didn’t know if she could live with herself. She had deleted Megan’s email, knowing that Megan was not likely to attempt to contact Luc again, and that he might never know he had a child. As she sipped her coffee, she tried to tell herself that she was saving him. He had never wanted children. If Megan had been stupid enough to get herself pregnant then it was her own problem, and she didn’t need to ruin Luc’s life along with her own. Deciding there was nothing she could do about it at this point anyway, Simone pushed away her breakfast and left, leaving a small tip on the table.

Outside, it was a sunny and warm day. Her favourite time in Paris, late spring. The streets were crowded with tourists and cars rushing around, but she loved it. It normally made her feel alive to be part of the romance and the glamour that was Paris. She loved to see the look of awe the tourists wore. It always gave her a smug sense of satisfaction to know she had grown up in this beautiful city and knew all the secrets they would never know. But today was different. Her heart was heavy with the burden of betrayal. She had done something unforgivable. If Luc found out, it would be the end for them. He would hate her.

She walked along the Left Bank with her coat folded over her arm, barely noticing the heat of the sun on her body or the beautiful surroundings. Walking past a newspaper stand, she turned her head, and what she saw stopped her dead in her tracks:
Style
magazine.

“Oh shit.”

She had completely forgotten Harper would find out Megan was having Luc’s baby. It would be only a matter of time before Harper would come after Luc, and it wouldn’t take him long to question whether Simone had deleted the email from Megan. He would remember how she had run Megan off when she was in Paris and would certainly start to suspect her. She somehow needed to make sure he would never know what she had done. She could deny it, but she would need to find a way to make her denial believable.

A smile spread across Simone’s face as she continued to walk. She had the answer. She could delete a few other emails in the coming days. She would make sure none of them were vital, but they would all be messages their senders would follow up with him on. When Luc was questioned about them, she could blame it on their server. A glitch she could offer to take care of for him.

She hurried along now, her heart pounding. She had gone too far to go back now. She could never admit what she had done, but she could cover her tracks.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Boulder—Two Months Later

“You’re getting married?! Oh, Mom, I’m so happy for you!” Megan hugged her mom tightly.

“You don’t think I’m crazy? It’s been only a few months since we started dating.” Helen pulled away from her daughter’s hug so she could see her face.

“I don’t think that at all! I’ve known Charlie for a long time and I know you’ll be really happy together. He’s kind and funny and I know you’ll take good care of each other.” Megan gave her mom a wide smile.

“Oh, I’m so relieved. I thought you were going to give me a hard time about it,” Helen replied, giving her daughter a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m the one who’s relieved,” Meg answered with a wry expression. “Now I’ll have you off
my
hands.”

Helen shook her head. “You little brat. And here I was just about to ask you to be my maid of honor.”

“Really? Thanks, Mom!” Megan wrapped her arms around her mom again.

“I was going to, but now I’m thinking I should ask Charlie’s daughter,” Helen teased.

“Wow! It didn’t take long for you to replace me with a new daughter.” Megan laughed.

“It was only a matter of time, really. You’re a bit of a pain in the butt,” Helen replied. “Now, should we have the wedding before or after the baby is born? I was thinking before so you won’t have so much on your plate.”

Megan’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open.

“Of course I know. I knew when we were at the barbecue. I’ve been waiting for you to be ready to tell me about it, but you seem to be intent on keeping it a secret. Don’t worry, I’m not going to lecture you about it or ask you any questions. You already know I’m here if you need to talk, so there’s not really anything else for me to say.”

Tears of relief sprung to Megan’s eyes. She had felt very alone with her secret for weeks now. Helen wrapped her arms around her daughter and kissed the top of Megan’s head as she cried onto Helen’s shoulder.

“It’s all going to work out, sweetie. I have a feeling that things will be okay. I’m going to sell my house and move in with Charlie, so we’ll be right next door. Between all of us, we’ll manage nicely.”

Megan pulled back and nodded her head as her mom wiped the tears off her cheeks with her fingers.

“Thanks, Mom,” she whispered.

“Thank you! When this year started I thought things would just stay how they were. Because of you, I’m getting married to a wonderful man,
and
I’m going to have another grandchild to spoil.”

Paris

Luc sat at his desk at Cloud, rubbing his temples with the pads of his fingers as he stared down at a copy of the listing for his new house in Boulder. His head ached as much as his heart just looking at it. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to call his realtor and admit that the house needed to go back up on the market. It had sat empty for weeks now waiting for an owner who would never come.

He knew he needed to get rid of the house but he hadn’t been ready to face doing so yet. It would be the final nail in the coffin for his relationship with Megan, and the humiliation of calling the realtor was something he had been avoiding. The despair that had fallen over him the night he stood in front of Meg’s house watching her with Ian still had a hold on him in spite of the time that had passed. Even after their angry exchange of texts, Luc still had feelings for Megan. She had been trying to reach out to him, and his pride and mistrust had turned her away. It didn’t sound to him like Ian was still in the picture, but Luc could never feel confident that he wouldn’t be back again. Not after what he had seen.

Today he realized he needed to get on with it. Once the house was sold he would finally be able to move on with his life. Texting the realtor, Luc told him they would have to meet in two days. He felt a need to go back in person to see the house one last time and take care of all of the paperwork in person. Somehow he felt that the trip would allow him time to grieve the end of his relationship with Megan, and hopefully that would put an end to this horrible yearning.

The house had sat on the market for several months before he bought it, and he knew it would be a long process to sell it now. There were few people who could pay over two million for a home these days. Luc hoped that by the time the house did have a new owner, the memory of Megan would be faint.