Because of His Fortune (For His Pleasure, Book 25) by Kelly Favor Page A

can get out of the car if you need…if
you need time alone,” she said.   “I
don’t want to be a burden to you.”
    He finally turned and looked at her, and
his eyes were filled with pain, even though his expression was still completely
calm.   “I just need to get to the
hospital to make the identification.   I need to see her and know that it’s real.”
    She nodded.   “Of course.   Of course.”
    He turned and looked out the window again
and Grace closed her eyes and prayed.   She didn’t know what else to do.
    The car moved slowly, horribly slowly,
and the driver was cursing and honking his horn.   Even he was feeling the tension of the
moment, and it was like a lead weight—it was like a poison cloud in the
air as they waited to get free and reach their destination.
    After nearly an hour of tortuously slow
progress, they made their way to the hospital and got out of the limousine,
walking into the lobby.
    Liam was practically running, and Grace
just tried to keep up with him.   When they got inside, she spotted Liam’s brother and sister and waved.
    When they saw she was with Liam, Grace
felt a powerful wave of negative energy coming from them.
    They ran over to Liam, and Liam embraced
his sister, as Exley stood nearby and stared at Grace with a very odd
expression on his youthful face.   “I
didn’t realize you’d be coming to every family event, even deaths and
funerals,” the younger man said.
    Grace looked down at the floor.   “I’m so sorry for your loss,” she
whispered.
    “Well, now that’s out of the way,” Exley
said, his voice dripping with derision.   “I just love a woman who knows how to dole out trite clichés at the
right moment.”
    Liam and Vera were speaking to one
another in hushed voices, and still embracing.   Finally, Liam let go of his sister and
nodded at his brother soberly.   “I
have to go and make the ID of Mother’s body now,” he said.
    Vera turned her head, and she looked more
beautiful than ever, Grace realized, as if her mother’s passing had infused her
with the depth of feeling she’d previously lacked.   Her gaze was all at once sad and
furious, but still composed.   “I
think we’ll take it from here, Grace,” Vera said.   “This is something for our family to
deal with.   Just family.”
    “Yes, of course, I wouldn’t dream
of—“
    But Vera had turned away and started
walking, and Exley and Liam followed her.   Grace felt as if she’d been struck across the face three times.
    The worst, by far, was the blow she took
when Liam just followed after his sister without so much as looking back or
even talking to her.
    Not even a word telling her to leave, or
to wait.  
    Nothing.
    The three of them disappeared around a
turn in the hallway and then they were gone and she was alone in the main lobby
of the hospital.
    Grace sank down into one of the chairs
and put her face in her hands, allowing the tears she’d been holding in to come
pouring out.   Her shoulders and
entire body shook with the force of it, and she just sobbed and sobbed.
    She cried for Liam’s mother, even though
Anne had clearly not liked Grace very much.   But still, Grace couldn’t fathom that
the older woman was just gone—gone in the blink of an eye, without even
the opportunity to say goodbye to those she loved.
    Whatever else Anne was, she was
definitely a fiercely protective mother, a matriarch that seemed to live for
her cubs.
    And Grace cried for her children, and
Liam, who suddenly had to bear the burden of being the male in charge, the
father figure.   He seemed to have
taken it all on instantly, but perhaps the weight of it was already too much
for him.
    Lastly, Grace cried for herself, because
nobody else cared enough to cry for her.   She cried because she’d put herself out there, made herself vulnerable
to a man that she loved, and he’d turned away and left her standing there like
she was less than nothing to him.
    It hurt in a way that no