Page 183 of The Elusive Billionaire

It’s teamwork.

When I start to fade into sleep, he speaks again. “When he hurt you the first time, you were all alone. I don’t think any of us truly understood just how isolated you were until this happened, but you won’t ever be alone again.”

He twirls the engagement ring he placed back on my finger before they wheeled me off for testing.

“After Violet died, I felt so alone, even though I had Braxton, Ace, and baby Sage. Nothing was ever about me again. I wouldn’t allow it to be. I put all my energy into being the kind of parent Sage would need, the kind of grandson Ace would want, the kind of friend and brother that Braxton would choose.”

“Oh, Grey.”

“I was safeguarding my heart, but really what I was doing was making myself an island that no one could get to. Somehow, you airdropped into my remote way of living and you blew it up spectacularly.”

I’d laugh, but it hurts. Four broken ribs are pure hell. “I do have a way of blowing up people’s lives.”

“But that’s it. Before you, I wasn’t living. I was existing and experiencing life secondhand through my brother and my nephew. You showed me what it means to live, and I refused to spend one minute living without you, so I sat here, swimming in the guilt because when it comes down to it, I was the one who sent Roman’s men away. I’m just as responsible for you being in this bed as Riley is.”

“No. Absolutely not, Grey. You don’t get to carry this guilt around your neck.”

He stares at me with so much pain in his eyes that I know he doesn’t believe me—he thinks this is all his fault.

“I prayed,” he whispers. “I begged. I pleaded and bargained for you to come back to me.”

“And I did.” My eyelids droop, and it’s harder to open them this time. The pain meds are starting to kick in.

“You did. And I’ve never been more thankful for anything in my entire life. I made you a deal a while ago, but I’m ready to renegotiate.”

I smile even as my eyes flutter closed.

“Legally, we’re married, and while I don’t regret doing it this way, I do want to do it again, the right way, for you.”

Someday soon I’ll yell at him about marrying me this way but today is not that day. Not when he wants a big fancy party just so he can declare me as his for all to see.

Honestly, that’s sounding really good to me too.

“Sleep, sweetheart. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

And I know he will be. The innocence I lost as a little girl raising herself throws up a giant two-handed fist pump.

Greyson Reyes has healed a childhood wound I thought could only be patched up and boarded over.

That little girl who sits in the corner of my soul, sobbing into her folded knees, wipes her tears and smiles.

I’m going to be okay.

Grey and I are going to be okay.

We’ll be better than okay, because we have forever to get there.

“You’re going home today.Are you excited?” Madi moves about my hospital room, packing up cards and gifts that have accumulated over my two-month-long stay.

I am excited, but also nervous, though I don’t tell her that. I still have to use a walker—my broken hip on the right and broken leg on the left caused so much damage. It’s been a painful recovery.

And we’re still not sure if I’ll ever walk without some kind of limp again.

“I tested out the elevator Grey put into your house.” She means his house. I’m still struggling to come to terms with it being ours since I didn’t buy a damn thing for it. “It’s going to make it so much easier to get around.”

“I told him he didn’t have to do that.” I’m bitter today, and I don’t know why.

“Sav. I think that man would build you a 50,000-square-foot castle, complete with a moat and private gardens, if that’s what would make you happy.”