Alexandra Weston
Ten Minutes Later
Alexandra sat inside her car in a parking lot next to the prison. She rarely cried, but today was a rare day. After confirming her pregnancy a couple weeks earlier, she’d had several outbursts like this one. First the denial, then the decision on whether to keep the baby or get rid of it, followed by a plan on how to keep the baby’s father a secret, and whether or not she’d tell Elias the truth. One day earlier she’d decided against telling him. Now, having done it minutes before, she drove both fists into the center of her steering wheel and screamed.
Why did you tell him?
Why? Why? Why?
She could question it all she wanted. She knew why. Somehow over the years, she’d fallen in love with him. Even now, it was hard for her to believe. She was a logical woman. A woman who never made the slightest misstep when it came to her career. In all her years as a writer, she’d never allowed the flirtations of her subjects to get in the way of her work before.
Until now.
Until him.
He hadn’t just made her feel special, and wanted, and whole. He knew her. He saw a part of her no one else did. Her family, her husband, the few friends she had, all of them accepted what little she revealed about herself, a single layer in a much more complex, multi-layered person.
Elias was the opposite. He worked his way in, piece by piece, visit after visit, until she felt raw and naked in his presence. She fought her feelings for years until the awareness of knowing their time was coming to an end overshadowed all else. All reason. All logic. Somehow, it no longer mattered.