The Truth of Never (The Never Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  I couldn't let that happen. Forget about protecting my family's legacy and the business they'd built for generations, this could land me in prison for the rest of my life.

  As I got into my car, I pondered on what I could do to get myself out of this disastrous situation. My investors wanted me to accept Roque’s condition since they didn’t want the FBI ransacking their homes, but I couldn’t give Lenora up. That would be losing severely to him and in that moment, that felt worse to me than being locked up in prison.

  He’d hit me in the last place I’d ever expected, and I was stupefied, the feeling of powerlessness and despair coursing through my body, and slowly crippling me with fear.

  I decided to go over to the hospital to visit Elizabeth. There, I’d be able to think clearly. I couldn’t go down like this, and especially not at the hands of Nathan Roque. If I didn’t act soon, the investors would seize all the art works that their investments had gone towards purchasing, and that would ruin the gallery.

  *

  A little while later, I walked into Elizabeth's room, and took a seat on the chair beside her bed. Each time I came in here to see the machines, tubes and wires that were keeping her alive, my heart broke a little bit more. I needed her to get up, I needed her support. For so long, it had been just the two of us, and I’d come to rely so much on her without even realizing it.

  If she were awake, she would have been able to instantly bring the current chaos under control. Now I was terrified that not only might I lose my status, but that I would also lose the gallery that she’d spent so many years in managing.

  Tears filled my eyes as despair eventually overshadowed me, but just then, the door to the room slid open and her neurosurgeon walked in. I quickly pushed the tears back and got up to receive him.

  "Mr. Bach," He said. "I was just about to give you a call. I wanted to speak to you."

  "Doctor Anderson." I accepted his handshake. "Is there a problem?"

  "Nothing out of the ordinary." He replied.

  "So what did you want to speak to me about?"

  He was quiet for a few seconds, before he spoke again. "We want you to consider taking your mother off life support."

  Lenora

  On the morning of the fourth day, I woke up to an empty bed. Nathan’s work schedule had him leaving for the office in the evenings, and then returning by midnight so I’d come straight to his place after work the previous day. I’d wanted to see him as soon as he came in so that I could find out if Damian had responded. However, I’d fallen asleep.

  Immediately, I went in search of him and a few seconds later, found him reading in the living room. I took a seat beside him on the couch and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

  “Hi.”

  “Hey.” He said, and leaned forward to give me a proper kiss. When he pulled away, I asked. “Did Damian call?”

  "He didn’t.”

  My heart fell into my stomach. "So you're going to the FBI?"

  "I am.” He replied, and just then, the doorbell rang.

  “Are you expecting someone?” I asked and got up to answer it.

  “No I’m not.’ He replied.

  I looked through the peephole when I got to the door, and was surprised to see Wendy standing outside. I pulled the door open and just stared at her.

  “Are you going to let me in?’ she asked.

  “Sure.” I replied, and stepped to the side.

  "Thank you." She said, and walked past me with her nose in the air.

  The moment she saw Nathan, she immediately softened. “Good morning.” She sang.

  "Good morning Wendy."

  "Hope you don't mind that I stopped by, I couldn't get Lenora at her place."

  "Of course not. Do you want something to eat?”

  "No, thank you." she responded, and took a seat beside him. I went to join them, eager to hear the reason for her visit.

  "I brought something for the both of you." She said. Retrieving her phone from her purse, she searched for something on it and then placed it on the coffee table in front of us. A few seconds later, an audio file began to play.

  You’re still threatening her? Wasn’t it enough that you blackmailed her into marrying you, by threatening to falsely accuse Nathan of assisting his own mother in committing suicide? You even went as far as forging those letters. What is wrong with you?

  I didn’t falsely accuse him of anything. He is to blame for that accident.

  You knew she was fragile, and hurt, but yet when she called out to you, you ignored her. She couldn't even think straight at that moment…

  Shocked, I slowly turned my head to her with my mouth wide open. She had used her phone to record the entire exchange that we’d had with Damian in her diner, two weeks ago.

  "H-how?" I stuttered.

  "I told you then that I was going to explain why I let him come over. This is why."

  "But why are you just showing it to us now?" Nathan asked.

  “Because Elizabeth is Damian’s mother as much as she is yours. Personally, I never want to set my eyes on him again, but using this against him might land him and Stacy in jail for a very long time. That’s baggage for you both, and it is not something that either of you can easily ignore. So I needed this to be the last resort. I wanted to wait, to see if there was a better way that all this could be resolved, but going to the FBI is going to open another can of worms and I don’t want you both to go through that.”

  “Here's the recording." she gave Nathan a USB drive. "It’s up to you to decide what you’re going to do with it, but this should be sufficient enough to at least obtain Lenora’s annulment, and possibly bring him down.”

  “Thank you Wendy.” Nathan said.

  I opened my mouth to thank her also but suddenly, a wave of nausea hit me. It was so intense that my hand immediately shot up to cover my mouth.

  “Are you alright?” Wendy asked.

  I started to nod but before I knew it, I was hurrying towards Nathan's bathroom. I made it just in time and dropped to my knees to throw up into the toilet.

  Nathan reached the bathroom then, and even though I tried to shoo him away with my hand, he refused to listen. He held my hair up and rubbed my back until I was done emptying the contents of my stomach.

  After flushing the toilet, I got up and rinsed my mouth in the sink.

  “Do you feel better?” he asked, and I nodded. He led me into the bedroom and sat me down on the bed. Wendy knocked on the door then, so we told her to come in.

  “Lenora what’s wrong?” she asked, and came to take a seat beside me on the bed.

  “I have no idea.” I replied. “I just suddenly felt nauseous. Maybe it was something I ate.”

  Nathan’s phone started ringing from the living room so he excused himself, and left the room to get it.

  Wendy peered at me. “Do you really have no idea?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Don’t you think you’re… I don’t know- pregnant?”

  Fear instantly struck my chest. It was a while before I was able to speak again. “I can’t be, I’m on the pill.”

  “You don’t sound like you believe that.” She said, and she was right. I didn’t. In fact, I was almost certain that I was pregnant because I and Nathan had been careless the first few times.

  I rose to my feet, and began to pace. “I can’t be pregnant right now. There’s too much going on. Plus I’m still legally married to Damian.”

  “That will be sorted out soon.”

  Nathan came in then so I stopped pacing, and wiped the frown off my face. However there was shock written all over his. For a second I was scared that he had overheard me.

  ‘Nathan,” I called. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Damian just called.” He said. “Elizabeth’s regained consciousness.”

  Nathan

  I tried my best to convince Nora to remain at home to rest, but she refused. She insisted on coming with me, so less than half an hour after I’d r
eceived the phone call from Damian, we arrived at the hospital.

  I was nervous as I headed towards Elizabeth’s room. I still knew very little of what had happened since Damian had not gone into details, so I didn’t know what to expect.

  When I arrived, I met Damian standing outside and looking through the glass doors at the doctors who were inside with her. I couldn’t even see her face because there were about five of them surrounding her.

  At first, Damian completely ignored Lenora and I, but then he eventually turned, and said to me. “Let’s talk.”

  “I’ll be right back.” I said to her, and followed him. We headed towards the waiting area and took our seats.

  “First of all, let’s get something clear.” He said harshly. “I had absolutely no qualms about taking you up on your threat, and fighting you with everything I have. But yesterday,” his voice softened. “I’d believed that she wasn’t ever going to recover. They said that they were giving up on her, and that she wasn’t going to make it because she was brain dead. They wanted to take her off life support. But as the doctors were speaking to me in her room, her mouth slightly opened, and she tried to speak. Her fingers twitched. It’s the first time she’s showed any response since the accident.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m going to cooperate with Lenora to get an annulment, but I hope that in exchange, our paths don’t ever cross again.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “Although she’s still struggling, there’s a lot of hope that she’ll be able to make it. But she’s lost her memories. The doctors don’t know if she’ll be able to regain them in the future, but with the severe trauma that she’s suffered, they say that it’s highly unlikely.”

  “So you’re asking me to forget that she exists?”

  “I’m asking you to maintain your distance from her, until she regains her memories. You and your brothers have ignored her quite easily these past few years, so it shouldn’t be difficult now. I want her to have a chance at a fresh start, away from all the pain and regret that plagued her before the accident.”

  I thought on his request for a few seconds and then responded “I’ve forgiven Elizabeth for her mistakes in the past, so eventually I want to be able to have a relationship with her. But as you wish, I won’t impose memories of myself on her until she regains them on her own, and chooses to get in contact with me. But until then, I am interested in her well-being, so I will not be ignoring that she exists. Lenora’s lawyer will contact you as soon as possible with the details of the annulment.”

  Rising to my feet, I left him seated there and headed back towards Elizabeth’s room. I met Lenora still watching through the door, so I stood next to her and slid my arm around her waist.

  “How did it go?” she asked, and I nodded in response. “It went alright.”

  She leaned her head on my shoulder, and we continued watching my frail mother through the glass doors. I was incredibly glad that she was now responsive, and on her way to recovery. I remembered then that I hadn’t informed any of my brothers about it so I took my hands off Lenora’s waist and started to reach into my pocket for my phone.

  However, she wobbled on her legs, and would have fallen if my arms hadn’t shot out to catch her.

  “Nora, are you alright?” I asked, incredibly worried.

  She brushed my concern off with a smile and tried to stable herself, but I refused to let go of her.

  “I’m fine.” She insisted. “I just felt a little dizz…” she made a retching sound but quickly brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

  “Lenora!”

  Shutting her eyes, she took a few deep breaths to settle her stomach.

  “Let’s go see a doctor.’ I said, but she shook her head. ‘There’s no need, I’m fine.”

  “Nora you’re not fine.” I grabbed her hand, and started gently pulling her with me but she resisted.

  “Nathan I’m alright, I know what’s wrong with me.”

  That stopped me. “You do? What is it then?”

  She sighed. “I think I’m pregnant.”

  At first, her words stunned the breath out of me. Then my mind flashed back to the ‘Russian Roulette’ joke I’d made in the shower a few weeks back, and soft laughter bubbled out of my lips.

  This surprised her. “You’re amused?”

  I started to pull her into my arms for a hug but she refused. “No, leave me alone. You’re amused? You betrayed me!”

  “How exactly did I betray you Nora?”

  “You promised me back in Portugal that we would be engaged for a while, so that we could get to know each other better. It’s been barely a month and you’ve already gotten me knocked up.”

  A quick glance at my watch told me that if I didn’t leave soon, I was going to be late for an important meeting I had that morning. So I moved forward, and before she realized what I was going to do, I’d scooped her into my arms.

  “Nathan put me down!” she said, but I didn’t listen. Turning around, I started to make my way towards the elevators with my wife; the most beautiful, erratic and pure hearted-woman I’d ever met in my life. Leaning her head against my shoulder, she wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “If you don’t contact your friends by this evening to start making plans for our wedding,” I told her. “I’ll call them myself. You have about two months.”

  The End

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  *

  Finally, this trilogy has come to an end. Writing it was an incredible experience, and I am so grateful to those of you that have come on this journey with me. Please do not hesitate to send me a message on any of my social media platforms concerning your final thoughts on this book. Also, I’d love to know which of the other characters from this Trilogy you’d like a story on. I look forward to hearing from you.

  My next book will be out early next year, and I cannot wait to share it with you.

  Love,

  Omoye Elizabeth Boroni.

  Website: oeboroniauthor.com

  Facebook: O. E. Boroni

  Twitter: @omoyeboroni

  Email: [email protected]

  You can also click on this link to sign up for my private newsletter which will enable you to receive insider information about my upcoming projects, events, extras, prize giveaways, and other newsworthy items.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  *

  First of all, I want to say a very big thank you to all the readers that have picked up the books in this trilogy. Thank you for loving these characters as much as I do, and for investing your precious time and resources into following their journey. I am incredibly grateful.

  Second, I want to thank my amazing support system; Sasha and Uyino, for being angels, and for your constant enthusiasm towards these books. Viano, for always being so supportive, and accommodating. Your input in these books have made them all so much better, and your criticism, helped me to become a much better writer.

  I also want to thank Melissa-Jane Fogarty. Thank you for being such an amazing editor. I couldn’t have chosen a more kind, and brilliant person to work with.

  Then to my family; thank you all for your unconditional love, and your continuous support.

  And finally, to God; I love you. Thank you for always coming through for me, and for loving me so unconditionally.

  OTHER BOOKS BY O. E. BORONI

  *

  The Beginning of Never

  The Way to Never