“I know, but I was young and I was hurting and I was confused by what I felt for you. And I had no idea what you felt for me.” She bit her lip. “I guess I didn’t really need much of an excuse to leave.”
There was a lengthy pause as he seemed to assimilate that. Then, “Why didn’t you tell me about the baby when you came back? You’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
Cold fear returned full throttle, but she had to continue on the path of truth she’d chosen. “I was scared for my father’s sake. I’m still scared that you’ll blame him for everything. You see, if I hadn’t left home I wouldn’t have been in that car accident and I wouldn’t have lost our child.” She took a ragged breath. “But as far as I can see he doesn’t remember a thing. And he’s changed, Damien. We can both see that. So please, please don’t say anything to him. And please don’t tear down everything that he’s built. He’s my father. I love him. I don’t want to see him hurt.”
He stayed silent for a couple of interminable seconds, his face giving nothing away. “And that was our child he helped to kill.”
Tears gushed into her eyes. Despite her plea, he was going to take revenge on her father after all. “Damien,” she choked. “Anger won’t bring our baby back. Please, you have to let it go. If you don’t, it will destroy you in the end.”
He held himself stiffly while some moments passed. “I admit I’d like to do Russell harm right now.” Then something seemed to ease inside him. “But I won’t.”
She gave a sob. “Oh, thank you.” The relief was intense and it washed over her like a wave. Her father and her mother could live their lives in peace now. She could live her life in peace now. She swallowed. Except there was the small question of what was to happen between her and Damien now.
“So, you’d rather I think badly of you than your father?” Damien said, bringing her back to the present as he finally moved and sat again on the leather chair.
“Yes.” But she wasn’t going to be a martyr about it. When you loved someone you protected them from harm. That’s all she’d been doing. “There’s something else I have to tell you,” she said, wanting it all out in the open.
He stiffened. “What?”
“Keiran tried to blackmail me. He said I had to leave and not come back.” She went on to tell him about it, knowing she had to be completely honest. “And this morning I went to see him at his girlfriend’s house. He slapped me, Damien,” she said, putting her hand to her cheek.
Damien sucked in a sharp breath as he came around the desk toward her. “The bastard,” he growled, tenderly cupping her chin so that he could see her cheek, his eyes so dark she thought they might never return to their true green color. “Did he hurt you? Are you okay?”
Her heart softened even more at his concern. “I’m okay. But it didn’t get him anywhere in the end. I fired him.”
“You did what!”
“I fired him. I couldn’t let him get away with it.”
A flash of admiration crossed his face. “I’m not sure Russell deserves you.” He dropped his hand but watched her in silence for a moment. “Neither do I.”
Suddenly she felt like she was losing him. “Damien—”
He twisted around and walked back to his desk. “You’re free to go.”
She blinked. “Go?”
“Leave,” he said in a brusque tone, looking up at her. “I won’t stop you from taking your things and going back to Sydney. I won’t contest a divorce.”
Her heart squeezed tight. “Damien, I—”
“Mr. Trent,” a male voice cut across her as a young man walked into the office. “They’re ready to resume the—” He stopped short when he saw Gabrielle.
Damien inclined his head. “Thank you, Liam. I’ll be along shortly.”
The young man nodded, his eyes darting back to Damien. “Um, Mr. Marsden said he doesn’t have much time.”
“Too bad,” Damien snapped.
“Yes, sir,” Liam said, flushing, then left the room in a hurry.
Gabrielle looked at Damien. Time was running out, in more ways than one. “Damien, I—”
“You don’t have to worry about your father,” he cut across her. “I’ll continue to work at Kane’s and help out until Russell gets back on his feet. James can take on more responsibility, too.” He picked up some papers and got to his feet. “As for me personally…no doubt I’ll survive.”
She went to speak, to tell him she loved him. It was on the tip of her tongue, but suddenly she could hear voices out in the corridor and the moment was lost. You didn’t tell a man you loved him when he had people waiting and a major deal to close.
Damien strode past her, leaving behind a whiff of sandalwood aftershave. “Goodbye, Gabrielle.”
His words ripped through her but she let him go, his back ramrod straight, his mind already blanking her out. She understood him now. She knew he was hurting, and that the only way to ease the pain was to stop feeling at all. He must have done that many a time when his parents ignored him.
Only, didn’t he know by now that the pain didn’t go away just because you blocked it out? It was there and would always be there. Unless you came to terms with it.
Well, she wasn’t about to let him block her out. She wasn’t going to do what his parents did and leave him to cope alone. She would make things right between them. How, she wasn’t sure, except that she loved him and she would find a way to show him how much.
The first step was not to let him push her out of his life, she decided, taking the elevator down to the underground car park where she’d left her Porsche. Maybe by the time she got home she’d have figured out how to go about things.
Damien didn’t know how he was stopping himself from going out and finding Keiran and giving the other man a taste of his own medicine. God, how could Keiran have hit a woman, and his own cousin, too? How could he have hit Gabrielle! It was the sign of a coward and a bully, and Keiran had well and truly burned his bridges with the Kane family now. The new Russell wouldn’t stand for his daughter being abused…not that Russell ever would have, despite his drinking problem causing Gabrielle to leave five years ago.