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CHAPTER ONE

‘ARE YOU CERTAIN you aren’t still in love with him?’

‘Couldn’t be more certain’

Isabella Nicholson held back on sayingthe truth that she doubted she’d really loved her ex enough in the first place would be e, even if Raphael Dubois was her best friend

Best as in she’d usually tell hie took her, even in the early hours of Sunday ton, four pm Saturday in London, where Raphael worked at his dreay at the Queen Victoria Hospital

Wait ashe currently suffered insomnia it was a no-brainer

‘Hey, why did you call? Not to ask about Darren, surely?’

‘Izzy, is that the absolute truth or are you afraid of the answer?’

Typical Thethe hard questions, whether of her or his patients Yet he always ignored her questions whenever it suited him

Two could play that gah she’d try once more to shut hiling details in this instance

‘You’re good at leaving out the specifics when it suits,’ he confiro the subject of her failed e

‘So what brings you to call in the ht you’d be at a rugby gauys’ One of the for—and it wasn’t her Two years ago she’d returned home to New Zealand with her new husband, full of hope and excitement based around Darren’s promises for what lay ahead, and with the intention of finally stopping in one place and surrounding herself with fae had crashed badly, leaving her dreams up in the air The friends had been all his, and her parents were always busy with their own lives Since then she’d gone back to what she was good at— around the world fro, only for a lot shorter periods than previously A fortnight ago she’d finished a volunteers’ job in Ca where next Only she couldn’t bring herself to go just anywhere this time

Find so into her head Go solo on that drea down

‘I’ve been delivering triplets,’ Rafe replied He’d settled in London, been there nearly three years, bought a house, was keeping sonon as he grappled with his own demons He seemed content in a quiet hich was not the Raphael she’d known most of her life

Please be her turn next Even if it le, which wasn’t so bad She was used to it Nursing and midwifery jobs were fairly easy to co around with her parents in the Foreign Service she’d hankered after settling back in New Zealand for ever when she’d , put too much emphasis on where she lived and not ith So here she was,the hole inside that needed filling with sonisable, and which she suspected had to do with love ‘Triplets Hard to iine how parents cope with that many babies all at once’

‘This couple would’ve been grateful for quads if itparents?

?? His voice fell into sentiuys So cute, looking tiny in their incubators hooked up totheir parents heart failure already’

‘But they’ll be fine, right?’ He’d hate for anything to go wrong When a baby in his care had difficulties that couldn’t be fixed he’d get upset for days, distraught for the parents, bla it wasn’t his fault She’d never been able to find out as behind his extreme reaction that had only started over the last few years Seemed they both kept secrets from each other

‘For triplets they’re in good shape, though one of the a closer eye on hiestation before the Caesarean, which ’s on their side The parents had fertility issues so we did artificial insemination and, voilà, the best of results’ Raphael’s accent thickened when he became emotional

‘Great outcome for all of you’ Because he would’ve been alo out and celebrate’

‘I’uys and their better halves as soon as I’ve talked with you What did you get up to last night?’

Huh? Her social life had never been of ain, recently he had taken to expressing concern about how she was coping with getting over Darren Worried she’d go back to the cheat?

‘I went out for a hbour’ She hadn’t stayed out late, preferring to head back to her parents’ place rather than being eyed up byonly

Getting old, girl

Or jaded

‘Beats staying inside the four walls feeling sorry for yourself’

Again, huh? What was this all about? ‘That’s harsh, Rafe’ She preferred it when Raphael went all senti deeper into her messed-up life ‘I’ll say it one s I had for him died when I found Gaylene Abernethy’s naked body wrapped around him in our bed’ If only it was that easy: bla and feel superior But it wasn’t She’d taken his pro in the gaps hat she wanted and not seeing that he’d never aspired to the sah the affairs were a different story Her husband had gone too far there

‘That’s positive I had to ask’ That couldn’t be relief in Raphael’s voice Then again, why not? The two ot on, were summer to winter

‘Sure you did’

Naturally he hadn’t finished ‘Love doesn’t always stop the moment there’s a reason to’ He spoke from firsthand experience Was that what this was about? Would he finally tell her what had happened six years ago when his heart was torn out of his chest?

‘I did love Darren, though not asto “until death us do part”’