Page 113 of Last Summer

To his surprise, she didn’t. Yes, she was angry he didn’t tell her—she felt betrayed. She also didn’t speak to him for two days. The longest two days of his life. But she came around, and better yet, she was understanding. She was open to adopting, or they could foster. They could also find a donor. There are a million ways to have a baby, she had said.

A million ways.

And the best way for them came in the form of Nathan Donovan.

Damien’s plan was spontaneous, but his wife was on board and it had worked. Perfectly. That was, until Ella let the guilt over what they’d done consume her. Because something had happened while on assignment that neither Ella nor he could have predicted: Ella had fallen in love with Nathan. And after everything he’d been through with Carson, after she found out she was pregnant with Nathan’s son, she felt they could no longer deceive him. Nathan had a right to know he was going to be a father.

Damien adamantly disagreed. Nathan could never know the truth. If he did, Simon would no longer belong to Damien and Ella. Nathan would be a part of their family, too. They argued for months until everything came to a head that fateful November evening. Damien distinctly remembers how, after a dinner of pork loin and rice pilaf, Ella said she planned to call Nathan, how she grabbed her car keys and slammed their front door in his face. Then everything changed. The accident. Her emergency C-section. Simon’s death. Nathan’s audacity to show up at the hospital a few days later and insist on the truth. Was he Simon’s biological father?

That night after the hospital staff forcibly removed Nathan, Ella, devastated and racked with guilt, confessed the last thing Damien ever expected to hear from her. She still loved him, but she also loved Nathan.

Ella knew she had to choose, and thankfully, his wife chose him. She then proposed her own plan. She’d intentionally forget Nathan and everything she felt for him, and she knew how to do that. It was the only way she believed they could truly start over.

Damien did what any loving husband would do to help his wife. He went along with her plan. He did what she asked of him. He wouldn’t answer her questions about the seven months leading up to the accident, no matter how hard she pressed. He would misdirect and mislead anytime she got close. He would scrub her phone, laptop, and cloud accounts. He even took it one step further on his own and wiped Rebecca’s and Nathan’s servers of their email exchanges with Ella.

At first, he didn’t believe Ella when she told him that she couldn’t remember the pregnancy or accident. He had a hard time believing Dr. Whitely’s methods would work. But when it became evident she didn’t recall his sterility, their argument in the Maldives, or the plan they came up with last summer either, he saw a new opportunity, especially when he noticed that she didn’t start back up on birth control after her miscarriage. His wife wanted a baby, and he was determined to give her one. This new plan was his gift to her.

Men like Nathan Donovan are predictable. Damien knew Nathan wouldn’t give up until he had Ella’s confession about Simon’s parentage. He’d be back. And it only took hacking intoLuxe Avenue’s email server and sending one email to Nathan from Rebecca’s assistant’s email address for him to show up. It took Nathan over a month to reply, but when he did, all Damien had to do next was lure his unsuspecting wife back into Nathan’s bed. Ella could finally get what she’d been wanting most, and Damien would get Ella’s lifetime loyalty and devotion. He’d keep her happy.

This time, though, they’d do things differently. By forcing Ella to choose him over Nathan and capitalizing on the guilt Ella would feel from cheating on him, not once but twice, as he let her believe, there was no way in hell, no matter the circumstances, Ella would risk betraying Damien a third time.

Damien can all but guarantee Nathan Donovan is—once and for all—out of the picture. Because Damien Russell doesn’t share.

Damien spins his chair to face his desk. He plugs the drive into his computer. A new window opens on his monitor, displaying 2,084 files, exactly two more files than were on the drive he gave Ella. Damien ensured that drive didn’t include one of the nine transcription files from her interview with Amira Silvers, where Ella confessed their plan. How disloyal of her. It also didn’t include the code for Ella to unblock her memories. The code, Ella once explained to him, that is as unique as the individual’s mind it’s programmed into.

He doesn’t want her to remember last summer’s plan or how guilty she felt about it, else she’d be inclined to confess to Nathan—again—and invite him back into their lives. He especially doesn’t want her to remember what it felt like to love Nathan. That’s why, this time, Ella needed to believe she didn’t wrong Nathan. Rather, she cheated on Damien. She needed to believe she’s the one at fault. She betrayed him, twice. Guilt will keep her by his side.

See? Loyalty and devotion.

He also doesn’t want her to suspect how he took advantage of her memory loss. The internal investigation over CyberSeal’s meddling with PDN’s trade secrets and client list? It couldn’t have happened at a better time. It kept him distanced and made him appear distracted. Ella would have no choice but to seek answers elsewhere. She’d look to get them from Nathan. Because Ella is as ruthless in her pursuit of a story, even if it’s her own, as Damien is with a deal. That’s why they make the perfect team.

Does he feel guilty letting her believe events unfolded the way she thinks they did? Not at all. If he felt any remorse about any of the decisions he’s made or strategies he’s devised and implemented, he wouldn’t be where he is today: CEO of a top-ten private cybersecurity firm. Husband to a gorgeous, intelligent, and passionate woman. And soon, a father.

Damien erases the files on the drive and shuts down his computer. He shoulders his jacket, tugs down the cuffs of his shirtsleeves, and straightens his tie. He picks up his biometric briefcase and heads home. His pregnant wife is waiting for him.

CHAPTER 37

Last Summer

The Plan

Damien strides into Ella’s office with two steaming mugs of Ethiopian blend. Setting one down within her reach, he leans a hip on her desk and studies her intently. He’s been doing that a lot since they returned from vacation, as if trying to anticipate her next move so that he can counter or assist. She knows that he still expects her to leave him. Just like Anna.

“What are you working on?” he asks eventually.

Ella clicks through photos of Nathan Donovan, landing on a headshot from early in his career.

“Rebecca called with a new assignment.”

“Nathan Donovan? Isn’t he that survivalist guy?”

“Yes and yes. It’ll be a cover feature, for sure. Rebecca wants me to spend five days with him.”

“Five days,” Damien repeats in a flat tone.

He doesn’t want her to leave, not with things unsettled between them.

“I think the time apart will be good for us,” Ella says quietly. A needed distraction from how messed up their marriage has become. She and Damien could use the distance to think and regroup. To decide if adoption, fostering, or a sperm bank is in their future. Unless their marriage is destined to be childless.

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