Matt stopped. Emma looked up and saw it was Will. Relief and dread flooded her. She hadn’t seen Will in a month, and there he was right when she needed him. But he had found her in a terrible position. His eyes were angry, but there was never a way to gauge his reactions. He could have been angry with her for all she knew. “I think she said she didn’t want you. Twice,” Will hissed, stepping towards them. Emma pushed Matt away and he ran like the coward he was. Emma panted, trying to catch her breath. Her heart rate was still sky high. She felt her chest would burst from the thundering under her ribs. She leaned against a wall and attempted to calm herself down. Her legs were shaky beneath her, and all she wanted to do was sink down to the floor and cry. “Have you forgotten our contract?” Will said to her. “What?” Emma was confused. “Have you forgotten that I broke that off?” “You’re not supposed to get involved with any other men,” Will answered, ignoring her question. Emma wa

Emma’s last hope died with that phone call. Her attacker continued to assault her. He grabbed her breasts with forceful touches, and she kept kicking and screaming beneath him. His mouth trailed along her neck in slobbery, slovenly kisses and bites. “Such soft skin,” he commented. “And your breasts are perfect. Nice and young. Just the way I like them.” He went to put one in his mouth, but Emma squirmed and battled against him. With her freed legs, she pushed herself up and he fell back. She tried to get up, desperate for every chance she could take. However, he was so much larger. He pulled her back and pinned her beneath him. Emma was frantic with panic. She had to escape him. She just had to. “This would be easier if you held still and just accepted it,” he snarled. “I won’t! I don’t want this! Please stop!” Emma thrashed beneath him. He pinned her harder to the bed. Her strength was fading, and she realized with terrifying clarity that she had no chance against him. She thought

Will kissed her again. It was deeper and more passionate. His lips moved to her neck. He kissed each mark left behind by the attack as though he were trying to replace Maurice’s touch with his own. Emma’s heart and body were at war. Her body longed to let Will eradicate Maurice’s lingering touch. But her heart was still afraid. She wasn’t ready to be intimate this soon, and in such a vulnerable state, she’d lose herself to William Stewart forever. He was an ocean, and she couldn’t swim. Emma pulled away from him.“I can’t,” she whispered, but looked away from him. The lust in his eyes was always too much for her. She knew that if she looked at him now, she wouldn’t be able to resist him. Will moved away, his face soft with surprise. But within a few seconds, his expression morphed into his usual smirk.“You’re denying me?” he asked.“Please Will,” she pleaded. “I want to. But… not right now. I’m… not ready.” She didn’t expect for him to understand, but hoped that somewhere in his hard

Will drove like a mad man to the private hospital. Emma insisted she come with them. Conrad was so sweet to her, and she cared about him. Will didn’t say anything, but he hadn’t stopped her from coming with him. Emma sat in the back with Conrad’s head in her lap.​ “We should have called an ambulance,” Emma commented.​ “Shut up,” Will said. He knew she was right, but he wasn’t thinking straight. The image of his grandfather fainted on the floor was burned into his mind. His heart raced. If something happened to his grandfather, he would never be okay.​ The butler had called ahead to the hospital. They were ready to received Conrad as soon as Will pulled up. The hospital staff took Conrad to the OR and directed Will and Emma to the waiting room. Emma settled on a hard plastic waiting room chair. Will was silent, but he couldn’t stop moving. He would sit with his head in his hands while one of his legs bounced.​ “He’s going to be okay,” he muttered to himself. “He has to

The words rang in her head like alarm bells. In all of those private talks with Conrad, he never hinted at what he was plotting. Emma should have realized that was his plan when he gave her his late wife’s ring. How could I be so stupid? She chastised herself.“He wants you to marry me?”“For the love of God, Emma. Drop the fucking act!” Will yelled.“Don’t yell at me! And there is no act. I have no idea what you’re talking about!” “Do you expect me to believe that all of those times he pulled you away, and you two had private little walks and conversations that it never came up?” Will asked. He was taunting and sarcastic, and Emma was losing what little patience she had left.“We never even talked about me! We talked about you! And how Grace was the center of your whole fucking life.” Will’s eyes narrowed at her. “Stop talking about shit you don’t know anything about!”“You wanted the truth? That’s the truth. He showed me pictures of you and Grace and he told me about how she was t