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His brain fought to focus; his body felt supercharged He rolled the idea around his head as if testing it, seeing if it ht fit

Pregnant?

The probleht that was the last thing she’d said to that godawful nurse with the irritating voice, but then he hadn’t been thinking straight froht of Saskia—the woman who had haunted his dreams for the last three months

The blood roared through Malachi’s ears

And elsewhere, if he was being honest

When he’d heard her nant as he’d approached, he hadn’t really thought a lot about it After all, sheabout any one of her patients Or colleagues But then they’d sat in that on-call roos had started slotting themselves into different places and suddenly he’d found hi about herself

In that s he’d thought could never be in his future Two things he’d sworn never would be in his future Not after the childhood he and Sol had endured Not after beco-addled mother and kid brother when he’d been a h responsibility and commitment to last a lifetime, and he’d sworn to hih any more as an adult

Nor would he put any kid through the traued as he was for a father

Instead he had dedicated himself to his work, his business, his charity Partly because he lived for those things, but also because it ensured he’d never have ti—or anyone—else

And now this

Maybe

Possibly not

Yet some sixth sense—the one he had trusted his entire life, the one which had allowed his eight-year-old self to keep his brother and ether and a roof over their heads, the one which had helped hie of fifteen, his first hteen, the one which had ensured he could send his brother to lobal business—told him it was true

No wonder his entire world was teetering so precariously on the edge of some black abyss

Hoas it that in the blink of an eye everything he’d worked for could suddenly be hovering over soone in one word