Broken Read Free Page B

Phillip, for whom she’d discovered she still felt tendrils of love. However, she had hung on long enough for her daughter Zoe to have a fighting chance.
    Zoe was why she hadn’t given up and let death take her, despite coding twice on the operating table. It’s because of Zoe that Cassidy walked with a limp when the doctors feared she’d never walk again. Her sweet, precious Zoe was her reason for being.
    Thoughts of her daughter calmed her. Max was in the past. He’d made his choice and Cassidy wished him well. She had Zoe, her family, Nell, Erika, Dave, and their daughter Macey to love and support her. She was alive. Tonight, it was enough.
    Philadelphia was a large metropolitan area. Odds were she wouldn’t see Max or his wife again, but if by chance she did, she’d be better prepared.

    Max jerked awake, a cold sweat bathing his body. The echo of Cassidy screaming his name lingered in the still air. “Shit!”
    He rubbed the remnants of the nightmare from his face. And to think, he’d thought the other dream was bad. Dreams of holding Cassidy and making love to her only to wake up empty armed, the feel and scent of her still strong in his mind.
    Max scooted to the edge of the bed and sat there a minute, giving his system a chance to stabilize. His heart pounded and his breath came in jerky gasps.
    “ When she needed you, you weren’t here. ”
    Apparently, Erika’s words had made more of an impact than he’d believed. Or maybe it was the graphic pictures of the crushed vehicle he’d viewed. It was a wonder anyone survived.
    Hurt and bitter as he was at Cassidy’s betrayal, he hadn’t wanted her dead. While he didn’t agree with her decision to remain with Phillip, in a way he could almost understand it. However, understanding didn’t change his resentment. He’d warned Cassidy if she changed her mind and decided to stay with her husband, he wouldn’t empathize, and he wouldn’t forgive.
    So why the hell was he still so consumed with thoughts of her? She’d made her choice. At first he hadn’t believed she’d chosen Phillip over him. She’d been so adamant about wanting a divorce; so impatient to be free. When the year they’d agreed upon had passed with no word from her, he’d gone hunting.
    She’d left her apartment and the manager wouldn’t provide any information. A property search showed only the home she shared with Phillip. Her phone was out of service, and there was no divorce filed on record. Added up, he’d come to the obvious conclusion—she’d changed her mind about the divorce.
    In the month after they’d first separated, he’d worried over the infrequency of her messages. Then they’d ceased altogether. Nicco had explained she was worried about Phillip discovering their duplicity and wouldn’t be calling anymore until they could safely be together.
    Phillip had known about their affair and terms of the bargain she’d made was no contact with him. Max hadn’t liked it, but there wasn’t much he could do. Besides, he’d understood her caution. The consequence for breaking her side of their agreement was a nasty divorce, including a custody battle for their unborn child neither Cassidy nor her lawyer was sure she could win.
    As a lawyer, Phillip had the knowledge and the tenacity to make things as difficulty for Cassidy as possible and had already shown a willingness to do so. In fact, Phillip had threatened her with the actions he’d take if she proceeded with the divorce.
    Cassidy had to have known he would never stand by and allow Phillip to take her child. He would have used all the funds at his disposal to hire a team of lawyers to make mincemeat of the other man and enjoyed doing so. He’d suggested as much to her, but Cassidy was independent minded. She’d wanted to handle everything herself.
    In fact, Cassidy had been so determined to keep Max out of the middle of her divorce, it became a source of conflict between them. He’d wanted to know what was going on