Page 116 of Betrayal of a Billionaire

“No. I don’t want any parts of her. And when we get home, she’s out.” Sierra tossed her thumb toward the window in her room.

He slid his gaze to the sheets on her mattress. He didn’t want to think about when they got home. If Julia wasn’t with them, the house would seem so empty, so cold.

On top of that, the situation with Lydia was already untenable, and without being able to vet ideas through Julia, hedidn’t know what he’d do. He’d come to rely on her so much, he couldn’t fathom moving forward without her.

But he’d have to. For his daughter’s sake. He tried to firm his resolve, but his mind spiraled as he faced the loss of his wife, perhaps permanently.

As he pondered addressing the problem of tossing Lydia out of his house, footsteps pounded down the hall toward the room. He wondered what unlucky patient needed attention that quickly when a shadow hovered on the floor in Sierra’s room.

He snapped his gaze upward to find Kyle panting for breath in the doorway.

His heart dropped. “Is it Julia?”

Kyle nodded. “Yeah. She’s okay.”

He leapt to his feet, one hand still clutching Sierra’s. “They got her out?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. No, she…” His eyebrows shot up as he shook his head. “She found a way out and walked back to town. She’s in the emergency room now. She…passed out when she got to the police station, but as far as I could tell, she’s okay.”

“She passed out?” Grant’s mind whirled as worry consumed him. Not long ago she’d nearly died in a car accident, then she’d suffered from amnesia. The terrifying moments they’d lived through made him worry that something else would be wrong.

“Yeah, she just collapsed. She looked…exhausted. It could be dehydration, could just be from the physical toll of the stress coupled with walking back to town.”

“Well, what do the doctors here say?”

“I don’t know, as soon as they took her, I came up to tell you the news.”

“Daddy!” Sierra said as she squeezed his hand. “Go! Go and see how she is!”

He bobbed his head before he shook it. “Well, I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’m fine, Daddy. You need to check on Julia.”

He nodded again and took a step toward the door when Sierra tugged his hand back. “Wait, wait.”

His pounding heart thudded faster as he placed an arm on her shoulder. “What is it? Do you have pain? Are you sick?”

“Tell her…” She hesitated, a rare vulnerability flickering in her eyes. “Tell her I love her, and I can’t wait to see her.”

He nodded before he kissed her forehead and gave her hand another squeeze. “I will.”

He followed Kyle out of the room, his heart soaring with relief that she was out of that cave though a hint of worry still laced every breath he took. “So, she seemed okay?”

“She was walking, she seemed okay. Heart rate was a little elevated. Like I said, she just looked exhausted. But physically, she seemed fine.”

“Did she say anything?”

“Not before she passed out. And she was still unconscious when we got here, but all her vitals seemed okay.”

Grant nodded as he tried to process the information. Why had she passed out? “Is it normal for her to…be unconscious?”

“Sure. She could have passed out from just the general relief of being back.”

“Really?” he asked as they headed down a set of stairs.

“Yes. Her adrenaline probably kept her going through the entire ordeal. It pushed her to make sure she got back to the police station, and once she did, she just…ran out of steam.”

“That’s all, right? Just exhaustion.”