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Caught completely by surprise, Ross howled in pain and sagged down against her, pinning her to the armchair.
Panic added extra adrenalin, and she shoved frantically at Ross’ much larger body and managed to scramble out from underneath him.
“You broke my nose,” he howled, blood dribbling between his hands as he staggered to his feet.
Ignoring him, Lila scanned the room looking for a weapon of some sort. Just because she had avoided what he’d had planned she was by no means safe.
Yet.
Her gaze settled on a vase, and she didn’t hesitate to grab it. When he came storming toward her, she said a quick prayer and swung it at his head.
Luck was on her side, and it connected with a very satisfying thunk.
Ross dropped.
She ran.
Adding to her lucky streak she had hidden herself away in a small study with an exterior door. The door was almost hidden from the outside because it opened into a walled garden that then had a door hidden in the ivy growing over the stone fence.
All day she had kept her boots on just in case she got a chance to run. As she fled out the door and into the garden, she wished she’d had a coat as well. It was cold out, and she had no idea how long it would take her to reach a town. Her t-shirt, blouse, and cashmere sweater were going to have to do, and if she kept moving, she was sure she would stave off hypothermia.
No, she was determined she would.
There was no time to worry about the fact that she was cold, hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours, was already thirsty and hadn’t slept properly in days. She had one goal, one focus, and that was to survive.
There was no sound from the house behind her as she left the walled garden and entered the forest. When she’d been staying here as a teen and pregnant with Ross’ baby, she had spent hours roaming through the forest. It had helped her process the rape and the fact that her parents weren’t going to allow her to keep her baby.
Even though she had been torn between loving it because it was part of her, and being terrified she would hate it because it was also part of the man who had violated her, in the end love had won. But at only seventeen with no skills or ability to care for an infant on her own, she had tearfully kissed her baby boy goodbye and prayed he wound up in a loving home where they would treat him right and give him all the love in the world, something she had never had.
She’d also prayed he wouldn’t hate her for giving him up.
Her baby boy was a teenager now, yet today she was back in this same forest, pregnant again, only this time she was older, wiser, free of her parents, free from the paparazzi, and had the love of a man who would do anything for her.
It was love for Christian and their baby that spurred her on and gave her energy when her legs wobbled and threatened to give out beneath her.
She wasn’t giving up.
She wasn’t going to let Ross and Zara destroy her or use her as bait for Christian and his team.
Her baby deserved a life.
After being forced to give up her first baby, she hadn’t thought she could ever handle having another. But already she loved this little baby bear growing inside her. This time no one was going to take it from her.
Whatever it took, she was going to give this child everything she hadn’t had, everything she wished she had been able to give her son. She and Christian would raise it together in a home full of love, laughter, happiness, and freedom. Freedom for her child to be whoever they wanted to be, not molded into an image she or Christian had of it.
“Lila.”
Her name echoed through the forest.
She panicked, sure she was about to be caught and hauled back to that house.
Lost her footing.
Then she was falling, tumbling down the side of a sharp drop.
There was no time to worry about pain, about injuries that would prevent her from running, about Ross and Zara getting her, or even about whether the fall would claim her baby, because she slammed into something and was knocked unconscious.
Chapter Ten
