Page 185 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
Only herself.
Only her love.
He was sleeping beauty.
And she would wake him.
She reached for her phone next to the bed.
She couldn’t even call him—she didn’t have his number.
But Esther would. Esther would help her.
She rang the number she’d rung so many times during the week of the gala.
And she waited.
‘Aurora.’
‘Can you get me a helicopter?’
‘Why are you so breathless?’ Esther asked.
Was she?
‘I need to go to him…’ Her head swam. ‘Now.’
The line went silent, and Aurora’s heart throbbed.
She could get herself a helicopter. She’d never used one for herself. She didn’t have one in the garden. Esther could arrange it faster.
‘Please,’ Aurora sobbed. ‘He’s all alone. He shouldn’t be alone.’
‘No, he shouldn’t,’ Esther agreed. ‘I can get one for you. Are you at home? At the manor?’
The tears were back, but her smile was new. And it felt good to smile. To know that soon she would be with him. Where she belonged.
‘Yes.’
‘Stay on the line,’ Esther said. ‘I’ll tell you how long it will be.’
‘Make it soon,’ she said.
‘As soon as I can,’ she promised, and Aurora almost jumped for joy, but she was too tired, too swollen and pregnant to do so.
She needed to get ready. She put her hand on the side of the bed and pushed—
Aurora’s blood ran cold.
‘Esther…’
‘I’m still here.’
She sat back down on the bed. Reached for the part of her light blue dress now stained a deep red.
She lifted her fingers to her face. ‘I’m bleeding.’
‘Bleeding?’ Esther demanded. ‘Where from?’
