Chapter 7
The warmth in her smile stabbed Nicholas more sharply than anger could have.
Before he could speak again, Samantha gave another weak groan and clutched his sleeve.
“Nicholas… can we go now? My head is spinning.”
He glanced at Katherine one last time, swallowed whatever words were rising to his lips, and said only, “Be careful on your way back.”
Then he helped Samantha into the carriage. The curtain dropped. The carriage rolled away quickly, disappearing into the rain.
Katherine remained where she was for a long moment.
The rain soaked through her clothes, but she hardly seemed to notice. Her fingers brushed lightly over the pendant.
She was the cherished daughter of an old East Coast political family. Samantha Lester was the daughter of a judge. Nicholas Padilla was heir to one of the most powerful old-money families in the state. The three of them had grown up together.
Katherine had loved Nicholas for years.
Nicholas, for most of those years, had only loved Samantha.
For Samantha, he had once driven across three states in the middle of the night just because she casually mentioned craving the first peaches of the season. He had fought for her, covered for her, ruined himself for her. Everyone used to say that Nicholas Padilla loved like the heroes in old tragic films, hopelessly and absolutely.
Then Samantha married someone else.
Later, when that marriage collapsed and she returned, everything Katherine had once feared came true.
Samantha was back in Nicholas’s world, and Nicholas became the same man he had always been around her—attentive, protective, willing to give her anything.
He even brought her into the house.
Katherine had endured it all.
Until the day she found out she was pregnant.