Page 132 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
She did know him, though, she realised.
‘At least, I didn’t. I know who you are now,’ she said.
His soft, pink lips thinned into a colourless line.
She nodded to herself. ‘You’re Sebastian Shard.’
His gaze narrowed. ‘Does knowing who I am change things?’ His lips twisted into something ugly. ‘Because I’m rich? Because I’m famous?’
‘I’mrich,’ she countered. ‘Probably not as rich as you, but… Of course it changes things.’
‘Why? It will not change the facts. You are coming,’ he said, his voice low and deep, ‘with me.’
‘Sebastian,’ she tested it, rolled the syllables on her tongue.
Understanding formed in her consciousness.
‘You are Sebastian Shard. A man who gives his art freely. A man who donates works worth millions to causes that will help thousands.’
‘Knowing public facts about me,’ he snarled, ‘means nothing.’
‘But it does.’ She nodded to herself. ‘You’re the idol of the underdogs. A homeless man turned billionaire. An artist. A…recluse.’
Maybe she understood him a little more now. His actions, his words… He hid himself away from the world. And yet on the anniversary of a death that hurt him still twenty-five years later, he’d sought company and found her.
She’d made him want and need things he’d denied himself for a lifetime.
She remembered the bulge of tension in his body. The moment she’d thought being with her caused him physical pain.
The intensity of their connection had overwhelmed him. So much so that he’d withdrawn from her and retreated into himself. Back into his reclusive life.
But what did it mean? That he was here now when he could have stayed away… And Aurora would never have known who he was. Never have known he was the father of her baby. Did he deserve a chance to prove he could be the father her baby needed? She’d lived most of her life without choices. Could she really deny him that?
‘We leave now.’ His hands went to her waist, and he drew her in.
Sebastian was unconventional. His arrival, his demands. But a part of her liked it.
Hadn’t she sworn to live her life fully? No half measures? Hadn’t she vowed to herself, after New York, to accept nothing less than what she wanted?
And she wanted to go with him. Some part of her was pleased he wanted to be a part of her child’s life, to be involved. She’d prefer that…
‘I’ll come with you,’ she decided, because he deserved a chance to prove he could be the father their child needed. And if she went with him, it would give her the opportunity to figure out if his determination to be part of his child’s life was true.
His hands tightened on her waist. ‘It was never a choice, Aurora.’ He lifted her, and on silent feet, he carried her out of the door.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe neither of them had a choice in any of this.
Maybe fate had already chosen for them.
CHAPTER FIVE
AS THE HELICOPTERflew above the tree line, Sebastian found it. The light that had been lost to him for months.
It was in her eyes.
Aurora, his brain hummed.
