Tears of Endurance (Romantic Drama) Book #1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

funeral. He recalled the grief-stricken look that resided permanently on Ben ’s face for many weeks. It was a great loss to them both and one he thought Ben would never recover from at the time. Their mother’s death had hit them both hard and life without her the following months was tough as they missed her so much. He often wondered if Ben deliberately kept a distance in his relationships so as not to get hurt should it all go wrong. Tristan had always been Ben’s protector as children and way into their teens and although Ben had grown up and no longer felt the need for the protection of his older brother, Tristan was always there in the background should he ever need him.
    “ So are you going to tell me what happened with Dena? Your secretary, Lisa, gave me a brief overview at the hospital the first time I visited you, but there has to be more to it than what she told me, Ben. I mean, you have to be pretty callous and heartless to just walk away from your partner when they have just suffered a life-threatening fall. I’m sorry to say this, Ben, but you’re clearly better off without her. Better that you find out early on in your relationship what she is really like.”
    Ben looked out of the passenger window. He knew Tristan was right but it didn ’t help remove the sting of such a rejection. “Tristan, it seems that she was with me to enhance her career; at least that’s what Lisa thinks. I have to agree with her. When I think back to those months we spent together, all she ever talked about was work and she was always encouraging me to go to all those laborious functions the company organised. I went to the important ones, of course; as chief engineer and partner, it was expected of me. But Dena wanted to be there at every single one of them and when we did go to a function together, within five minutes of arriving she would be off mingling with all the other directors. I knew she was a driven woman when I started dating her, although I never imagined she was with me for any other reason than mutual attraction.”
    Dena was only interested in furthering her career but Ben was so overworked, he ’d been too blind to see it and failed to notice the all too obvious signs over the months. She made it quite clear to Lisa that she was not ready to play nursemaid to anyone, that she couldn’t cope with it and she thought Ben would be better off without her. She didn’t even wait around long enough to see if he would make a full recovery.
    Ben felt the all too familiar pain making an impromptu visit ; he took the bottle of pills out of his jacket pocket and popped two in his mouth, washing them down with a bottle of water.
    “ You okay, Ben? I can pull over at the next services if you want to get out and take in some fresh air?” Ben just nodded, his face as white as a sheet as the pain gripped him once more. “You really need to go back to your consultant, Ben. Get that headache checked out just to be on the safe side, I mean, it can’t hurt to be cautious.”
    Charlie sat up, yawned, and once again stuck his head out of the window. Tristan pulled in at the next service station and parked up for 30 minutes. Ben gave Charlie some water , then grabbed his lead off the back seat and took him for a walk for 10 minutes while Tristan went into the services to pick up coffees-to-go.
    Tristan was far more worried about Ben than he would ever let on ; he decided he was going to keep a close eye on him over the next few months. Seeing the stricken look on Ben’s face when the pain took hold crushed him. He loved his brother with all of his being and since the death of their mother years before; they had become closer than ever. He swore if he ever came across Dena, he would tell her just what he thought of her. Ben was far too good for her anyway; Tristan had never bonded with her, and he had never really been that keen on her either.

Chapter six
    The run-up to the show was manic. Arianna was busy setting up the