Shattered (Broken Trilogy Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

fact that I lost—” I shake my head and try to clear the terrible images flickering in front of me. “To top it off, I had a—” I can’t say the word so I skip over it, “to my head and almost—”
    “You had what to your head?” Both Keith and I jump at the sound of Cole's husky voice. I slowly look over, seeing him standing there in his sweat pants, bare feet, and nothing else. His face looks angry and confused as he takes a few steps toward us. “Someone better tell me what the hell happened while I was gone.”
    Keith reaches over and squeezes my shoulder as he stands up, nodding at Cole. Cole takes his seat and watches me closely. I take a deep breath through my nose, knowing this is the moment when I have to break his heart, as mine is broken, to tell him what we had and then lost—our child.
    “What’s that?” He points at the teddy his father gave me. I hand it to him and watch his eyes roll over the little name stitched into its army jacket. His gaze flicks up to me, making my lip tremble. I slowly turn the small frame around and show him the ultrasound picture. “Are you…?” He looks at my stomach.
    “Was,” I correct him through streaming hot tears. “I was five weeks till the day the video arrived.” His eyes widen then drop slowly and he shakes his head. He then covers his mouth with one hand.
    I want to scream, sob, and run away from all of this pain. I can see I’m about to break him, by chipping away a piece of an already battered soul. It’s just not right. So much of me is shattered.
    “I’m so sorry, Cole.”
    His red glossy eyes shoot up to mine. “No, no.” He kneels down in front of me, holding my hands. “No, baby, I’m so sorry you went through all of this without me. I-I…” His voice catches. “I can’t believe you were pregnant with our baby.”
    Here it goes.
    I pull back to look at him. “I don’t know how you feel about this, but I was going to keep it.”
    “No,” he wipes my cheeks dry and moves to sit next to me, “ we were going to keep it.” My heart swells as I fill him in on all the details, like how Sue and Daniel were the only ones to know, then Keith because I wanted him to keep my secret until he returned safely. I take him through the moments when I miscarried, sobbing quietly as I share the details with him. The whole time he holds me tightly, giving my head light kisses. Then we sit in silence for a while, grieving together. His sobs are hard to hear, but he needs to let it out. It’s hard seeing someone who is normally so strong crumble in front of you.
    Suddenly he stops moving. “What did you have held to your head?” I try to move, but his grip won’t let me.
    “I—I found your gun behind your night table.” His entire body starts to vibrate, and I spit out the words in fear I won’t be able to finish. “I lost you, I lost our baby, and I still don’t know who’s behind my kidnapping. I had no reason to live. I just wanted to be with my family.” The words are falling out of my mouth with no filter. “Then Keith’s cell phone rang, and I hesitated, and he saw me. He...he talked to me, helped me off the ledge.” I just keep talking as Cole's eyes bore into me. “It was a pretty dark time, Cole, the darkest I’ve ever been.” I shift to look up at him. His eyes are squeezed shut now, and I move to kiss his jaw. “I won’t say I’m sorry about it, Cole, because I didn’t know you were alive, and if I am to be honest with myself, I think I would have tried again. But now you’re here, but the baby isn’t, and I’m trying to tell myself it wasn’t meant to be, but it still hurts.” The painful lump grows larger. “It hurts so damn bad, but having you back makes me see we can get through this if we—”
    He suddenly leans forward, capturing my mouth with his. I know the drive behind the kiss is fear, so I follow, letting him take the lead. He needs to feel in control, and I’m willing to hand over the reins. I am