them. He reached out his hand. “Laura…”
She slapped it away. “No!”
He glared at her. “I don’t have time for this.”
“So go.”
He briefly considered the idea of dragging her forcibly down the aisle. But she was surrounded by farmers and ranchers and strong neighbors with guns, while to their eyes he was just some stranger who was taking her and Robby away.
But he wasn’t just a stranger. He was Robby’s father.
Gabriel sucked in a deep breath, overwhelmed by the flood of emotion in his heart. He couldn’t give in to the feeling. Couldn’t…
Grabbing her wrist, he started to pull her towards the door. “We will marry, then leave for Rio—”
She ripped her arm out of his grasp. “I’m not going.”
“You’re being ridiculous. Don’t you understand? Oliveira is backing out of the contract! If I don’t change his mind, I’ll lose everything!”
“I understand,” she said softly. “You should go.”
“I’m not leaving the country without you and our son.”
“I’m not marrying you. Not like this.” “You’re being selfish!”
Laura swallowed, her cheeks pink. He could see he’d hurt her with the accusation. But she wasn’t going to let him manipulate her so easily. “I’ll never try to stop you from seeing Robby whenever you want. Our lawyers can work out some arrangement. But I won’t marry you, and I won’t leave the people who love us for someone who doesn’t.”
“So that’s it?” he said incredulously. “You’re giving me an ultimatum?”
“Yes.” Her eyes filled with tears as she gave him a trembling smile. “I guess I am.”
Gabriel swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat. He couldn’t force her to marry him. He couldn’t seduce or charm or bully her into it. When did she get so steady? When did she get so strong?
Raking his hair back, he looked at her. “Laura,” he said slowly. He exhaled a deep breath. “I can’t do it. What you’re asking. I wish I could, but I can’t. I can’t…love you.”
Pain flashed across her face, raw and sharp. Then she straightened her shoulders in her wedding gown.
Reaching up, she pulled the vintage lace veil off her elegant blonde chignon. Her blue eyes were stricken but steady.
“Then I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “But if you can’t love us…you can’t have us.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
GABRIEL had to hurry. Every second he wasted with Laura was like a grain of sand falling through a fatal hourglass. He had to leave at once. And yet he couldn’t.
Leaving her felt like a death. He took a deep, shuddering breath. “This isn’t over,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll be back after I close the deal in Rio.”
“Of course.” Laura’s shoulders straightened, even as her lower lip trembled. “I will never stop you from seeing Robby. I hope…I hope you’ll see him often. He needs his father.”
Gabriel heard the music start to play downstairs and thought of the guests surrounded by white roses and candlelight, waiting for the wedding ceremony to begin. He clenched his hands, feeling that same strange spinning, sinking feeling in the region of his chest.
“Remember,” he said tersely, looking at her. “This was your choice. I wanted to marry you.”
She swallowed as tears streamed unchecked down her pale cheeks. “I’ll never forget that.”
No, he thought suddenly. It couldn’t end like this. Not like this!
With a sudden, ragged breath, he seized her in his arms. Pressing his lips against hers, he kissed her with every ounce of passion and persuasion he possessed. He never wanted to let her go.
She was the one to pull away. He saw tears falling down her cheeks as she stepped back, out of his reach.
“Goodbye.”
He sucked in his breath. But there was nothing he could do. Nothing to be done. “I’ll be back,” he said heavily. “In a few days.”
She gave him a wan smile. “Robby will be glad whenever you choose to visit.”
He left the room. Went out the door. Walked past her mother, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. He went outside into the cold winter air to the limo waiting outside. Gabriel felt a sudden pain in his chest when he saw that someone—one of Laura’s friends, perhaps—had written Just Married across the back window in white shaving cream, and attached aluminum cans to the back bumper to drag noisily down the road.
His hands clenched as he flung himself heavily into the backseat of the limo. Carlos, who’d apparently been texting someone as he waited in the driver’s seat, jumped.
“Mr. Gabriel! What are you doing, so soon…? And where is Mrs. Laura?”
“She’s not coming,” he replied tightly. His throat hurt. “And she’s not Mrs.”
“But senhor… What happened?”
Gabriel looked bleakly out the window, at the beautiful fields of endless white. “Just go.”
Laura stood by the closed door until the sound of Gabriel’s footsteps faded away.
Sagging into a chair, she covered her face with her hands. She’d been happy to be a bride, a single mother no longer—so pleased to finally leave the scandal behind her. She thought of her baby, downstairs now with one of her cousins, and a sob came from her lips.
But she’d had no other honorable choice. If she’d been willing to accept a life without love forever, what would that have done to her soul? What would that have taught her son?
She’d done the right thing. So why did she feel so awful?
She heard the door squeak open and looked up with an intake of breath.
Her three sisters, all dressed in elegant bridesmaid gowns, stood in the open door with their mother. “Why did Gabriel storm off like that?” Ruth asked tremulously. Then she saw Laura’s tearful face. “Oh, sweetheart!”
A moment later, Laura was crying in their arms as they hugged her, and her scowling little sister Hattie was cursing and offering to go punch Gabriel in the face. That made Laura laugh, but the laughter turned to a sob. Wiping her eyes, she looked up at them.
“What do I do now?” she whispered.
Her mother searched her gaze. “The wedding is off? Is it for sure?”
Laura nodded with a lump in her throat. “He said he didn’t love me, that he
