Free Only Love (The Atonement Series) by Elle Chardou

in his arms, tears streamed down my face as my whole world slowly began to break apart.
    “Well, if it isn’t your white knight?” Caitlyn said in a drab tone before she collected herself and smoothed down her blonde hair. “Liam and I are going to be late for our flight. We’ll see you soon, Deirdre.”
    I heard them as they stood and left my condo with a gentle close of the front door. I continued to cling to Drake and I couldn’t calm myself down. My sister had said some hurtful and awful statements to me. Did it ever occur to her that I couldn’t be cold and callous enough to abort a baby just because the father didn’t turn out who I’d wanted it to be?
    It was true: I’d slept with Liam and whether it was a night of lust and passion, we hadn’t been as careful as we should have but I couldn’t throw an innocent life away. This miscarriage had been a complete and utter surprise. I was more than willing to raise a child on my own rather than end his or her life prematurely.
    Perhaps she wouldn’t feel so goddamn self-righteous if she knew the truth about what Liam and Colin had done to our father but that wasn’t my place to tell her anything and I wasn’t about to break that promise to myself now, not even if she called me every dirty name in the book.
    I slowly backed away from Drake as soon as I’d fully calmed down. “I think I am okay now.”
    His gaze was intense and his eyes possessed much more blue than green at that moment. “Listen, I don’t like to pry so please don’t think I am some kind nosy parker but…your sister spoke to you like you were a piece of shit. Is she that insecure about her relationship with a man who obviously would rather be with her sister than her?”
    “It’s not like that.” I grabbed my hair and held it at the nape of my neck before I let it go. “I’m nothing to Liam. I was just a conquest. His dream wife is a woman like Caitlyn and it shouldn’t have gone down the way it did but it happened and neither of us can do anything to change it. Unfortunately, neither can my sister either and although she is a bit of a control freak, she’ll calm down eventually.”
    “Is she always so volatile? I would have never guessed it from looking at her but sometimes blondes can be worse than anyone…even redheads.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad they are gone because you don’t need that kind of poison in your life.”
    I looked in his direction. “How do you know what I need, Drake? You don’t know me and you have no idea what happened? I could really say my sister is a horrible person but is she really after what I did to her? Do you think she and her future husband wanted some illegitimate kid wandering around out here related to the perfect family they will create in the real world?”
    “Yeah, but you said it yourself. It happened before the two of them got together. Did you know they were going to get together? If you knew, perhaps you should have deserved the tip of her acid tongue”
    “No, I didn’t.” I finished my coffee before walked into the kitchen where I placed the dirty cup in the dishwasher.
    “Then come on, let’s go. I came by to pick you up and show you a good time. Something completely innocent and a bit naughty at the same time.” He smiled broadly at me and I couldn’t help but return his expression.
    “Fine. But you have to give me a clue where the hell we’re going first. I don’t make it a habit to just wander off with strange men you know. It took Colin a while before he had my trust…” I trailed off.
    What happened between Colin and I was irrelevant to this situation and I realized I had to stop bringing him up every time I wanted to make a point.
    “Well, in case you haven’t realized it, I’m not Colin.”
    “I never said you were,” I responded in a snarky voice. “I will just go freshen up and we can be on our way.”
    I walked to the bathroom and began to run the water as I looked at myself in