Free A Madam into a Mistress by Nadia Aidan

between the both of them, her gaze wary as she nodded. “Sure. Cade’s expecting me anyway, so I better head home,” she muttered hastily and slipped out the door, closing it shut with an ominous thud.
    Shane’s hands clenched tight, and it wasn’t until something sharp pierced his flesh that he realised he still held the flowers he’d brought home for Cherie. He dropped them onto the kitchen table as if holding them a moment longer would sear his flesh. He must have looked like a lovesick fool—the same fool he’d been in that jail cell eight years ago. And to think, he’d gone and fallen in love with her all over again. He felt like an idiot, and he cursed himself for trusting her a second time when he knew she was nothing but a fraud and a liar.
    “Forgive me, Cherie.” His eyes flashed with bitterness. “I don’t quite know where to begin. It’s not every day a man discovers a woman had his child and never once thought to share that with him in the eight years since they last saw each other.” He folded his arms across his chest. “So I don’t know. How should this conversation begin?”
    She moved towards him, but when he drew back, she stopped.
    “I know you’re angry—”
    He stiffened, her words further igniting his fury. “Angry? Not even close. I’m disgusted that you’re such a liar. I hate that you’re such a manipulator. So much so that I can barely stand the sight of you.”
    He brushed past her and stomped inside his bedroom, slamming it shut. His body shook with fury, and when his door slowly creaked open, he turned to her, struggling not to unleash the full weight of his anger upon her.
    “Go away, Cherie—”
    “I didn’t discover I carried your child for many months after that night.” She spoke softly, her voice shaking, even as she braved the pure rage that burned in his gaze. Any other time, he would have been proud of her defiance, but right now, he cursed it. He didn’t want to hear her farce of a story, but even so, he still stood there silent, allowing her to spew whatever lies she thought would placate him.
    “I was stunned, of course, to learn we’d created a child that night, but I was also so happy.”
    Her eyes filled with tears, but he steeled himself against the emotion he saw there. He knew from experience she was an actress of the worst kind
    “All I ever wanted was to have a family—”
    “And you got your wish. You married some old fool, raised my child with him until it got to be too much of a burden. So who’d you dump our baby off with? What relative or friend did you saddle with raising our child when you realised raising a baby was harder than laying flat on your back?”
    Cherie closed her eyes as a deep, bone-numbing pain settled in her heart. Any hope she’d had that they could reconcile the demons of their past and move forward vanished with his callous words. She unknowingly touched her hand to her belly, steeling herself to simply form the words that even now tore at her soul.
    “I gave birth to a beautiful little girl who died three days later. I named her Shannon Emily Duckett, after you,” she whispered as she lifted her gaze to his.
    The look in Cherie’s eyes made his heart seize, joining a grief he’d never felt in his entire life. She’d had his child only to lose her three days later.
    “I got married a year later, hoping to have the family I’d so longed for, but it wasn’t to be. First my baby, then my husband. I thought I was cursed. And it wasn’t until I met Montgomery and we became friends that I found the will to go on. Her fire matched mine, and we made a life for ourselves out here, but even with all that, it’s been a struggle. I’ve often wondered if I just wasn’t meant to have the two things that would ease the hole in my heart.”
    Her voice broke, and Shane reached out to her but let his hand drop when she shrunk away from him and turned to leave the room.
    He cursed under his breath. Again, he’d failed