Twin Deception: A BWWM Billionaire Romance (2 page)

                She watched the wretched pictures flash across the screen. The building on fire. Flames spouting and roaring out of busted windows. Shards of glass sprayed all over the street. A giant hole gaping like a wounded toothless mouth in the side of the building. The side on which Luke's office was located.
Oh Jesus. Luke.

                Sadi finally spurred herself into action. She slid from under the hot blowing air, ripped the black salon covering off and tore off through the front entrance. It did dawn on her that she should pay, but she couldn't wait one second longer.

       Was this really what her life had boiled down to? Thoughts of paying for a half finished dye job she didn't even want in the first place shouldn’t enter her head alongside the worry about her fiancé and everyone else she knew in that building. She had worked there for over a year. She knew at least half of the employees.

                Sadi said a prayer for the first time in as long as she could remember. She vowed that if Luke had survived, no matter what happened to him, she would marry him and do her damn best to try and help them find their way back to where they had been in the beginning.

When they had been in love. She would cherish Luke like she should. She would never take one single thing for granted again.

                Sadi had felt so numb for so long she had thought that her love for Luke was dead, but the thought of him lying injured or worse brought it back in a rush.

Every single feeling and emotion, every joy and sorrow, every memory from their relationship came flooding back. How could she have wasted so many minutes, hours, days, months? Precious time she had with Luke that she hadn't even been grateful for.

                 Sadi felt ashamed as she rammed her car in gear and sped away from the stupid salon. It was true that her life had become all but meaningless, but she had been wrong to blame Luke for what had happened.

The choices she made were hers alone. She had done nothing but waste the money and opportunity she had been given when she had met Luke. She knew there were many people who made it their life's mission to ensure their money was well spent on philanthropic endeavours. They lived to help others. Sadi had lived to get her hair dyed every twenty one days without fail.

                 She glanced in the mirror. She could see the tin foil sticking out all over her hair. Far worse, Sadi didn't even recognize herself anymore. Where was that girl who had grown up rough and tumble? Who didn't care about perfectly manicured nails or if a dark root was showing? Who didn't need designer clothing and fast cars to define her self-worth?

              It was going to change. All of it. Sadi needed it to. If Luke had survived, she knew it was a message. It was a wakeup call, a second chance.

A chance to get to know her husband. To fall back in love with him. To find that girl she had been when she had been proud of herself. Sadi wasn't going to squander it. If Luke was alive, Sadi knew it would be nothing short of a miracle. She had never believed in miracles before, but she wanted to now. She needed to.

Sadi pulled as close as she could get to Pearson and Pearson. The street was a mess of swirling sirens, ambulances, police cars, specially marked vehicles… everything. She got out of her sports car and left it with the door hanging wide open. In the back of her mind Sadi thought she should shut it but she didn’t. She just left it. She did have the foresight to grab her purse.

                She approached the scene with trepidation. The building didn’t look half as bad as it had on TV. The hole that had been blown in the side was much smaller, but it filled her with dread all the same. It was as she thought- the side of the building that Luke’s office was on.

                Sadi approached one of the uniformed officers who was holding back the swarming crowds and media frenzy. There were people holding cameras and people recording everything on cell phones.

      Sadi was disgusted. This was the scene of a tragedy for her and many others, yet to some it was just something to gawk at; a video to upload to the internet for a quick viral buzz. The thought that there may have been people killed, and certainly injured in the blast, filled her with rage. Who could do such a thing? And why Pearson and Person? Luke and Connor were good men who did a great deal for their community. Who would want to hurt them? 

“I’m looking for Luke Pearson,” Sadi said, alarmed at how hysterical her voice was. “I’m his fiancé.”

              The officer turned to look at her but shook his head. “Sorry miss. We aren’t allowing anyone past this line.” He motioned to the yellow tape that cordoned off the area.

“But I’m his fiancé,” Sadi insisted.

              The officer just shook his head. Sadi could feel her frustration growing. She felt it bubble up from the pit of her stomach, choking her with rage. “God, he could be dead! I want to know what happened to him! Let me through!” Sadi screamed. She tried to push past the officer but he held fast. Another man came over to help. The second officer was much younger than the first and he looked at Sadi with compassionate eyes.

“I’m very sorry miss, but you really can’t come across this line. It isn’t safe. The best bet would be to try the closest hospital and see if he was brought there. Most of the ambulances have already left with survivors.”

              Survivors. Oh god. Sadi closed her eyes, fearing for a moment that she was going to be sick. She let the younger officer steer her back in the direction of her car, all the while fighting back bile that rose in the back of her throat. Survivors. The word kept playing over and over in her mind.

“How many people are dead?” She asked the officer.

              The man looked like he was debating with himself but then he shook his head with a small smile. “So far miss, everyone we got out was alive. We have yet to search the building thoroughly though.”

              Sadi nodded. The relief that flooded over her was so great her knees almost buckled. “Thank you,” she whispered. She could see her car now. She let go of the officer’s arm and walked over to it. He looked at her as if he thought it was unsafe for her to be driving, which she didn’t doubt for a second, but he released her arm all the same.

“Take care now,” he said, and turned and walked away.

                Sadi got in, started her car and drove to the hospital as the officer had suggested. It would be the most logical thing. She should have just tried it in the first place. Sadi’s hands shook as she searched for the fastest way to get there. Finally she got an address and her GPS turned on. She normally hated the tinny voice but in the moment it seemed strangely relaxing. Sadi took a deep breath before she drove away. 

                She followed the directions. The route seemed to take forever even though the female voice informed Sadi it was only going to be seventeen minutes in current traffic.

                Finally Sadi approached the building. The dread mounting in her chest threatened to cut off her oxygen.
Please let Luke be alive.
Sadi took a ticket from the dispenser and the bar admitted her into the parking lot. She found a parking spot and hurried into the entrance.

              Sadi had never been in the hospital before, but she was able to find the front desk without a problem. She gave her name and told the young woman she was looking for a Luke Pearson.

       The girl at the desk looked younger than Sadi. She had long black hair that fell to the shoulders of pink scrubs with cartoon characters on them. While the girl typed something into her computer, Sadi stood wringing her hands.

                She was in luck. All the air whooshed out of Sadi’s lungs when the girl said she had a Luke Pearson. The girl looked at Sadi, sympathy shining in her eyes. For a moment Sadi feared the worst. That it was over.
All of it
. That she would spend the rest of her life living with regret. That there were so many things worse than dying.

              Then the girl glanced up at Sadi’s hair and allowed a soft smile. It gave Sadi hope. Surely someone wouldn't choose to smile at her wretched appearance if her fiancé were dead. No matter how ridiculous she looked at the moment, no one could be that cruel.

“Yes we have a Luke Pearson. He’s in room 302. I can take you there if you like?”

                Sadi nodded woodenly. She didn’t think she could have found her way even in the best state of mind. As it was she could hardly concentrate on anything but seeing Luke, alive and well. She prayed that was the case. If something was seriously wrong surely she would have been told he was in surgery or in critical care and taken to another part of the hospital? Or told she wasn’t allowed to see him at all. This had to be a good sign.

                The young woman took Sadi’s arm and led her down the long white corridor. Sadi swallowed hard. It was the first time another person had touched her with kindness in a very long while. Her nerves were frayed and she was embarrassed to find that she was perilously close to bursting into tears. She shook her head and swallowed to clear the fire that was burning in her throat. The woman led Sadi down the twists and turns and mazes of rooms until she stopped in front of a solid wood door.

“This is the one,” the receptionist, or nurse, or whomever she was, said. Her voice was soft. Almost a whisper. Musical. Sadi liked it. She felt its calming effect like a balm to her frayed nerves.

  She watched as the woman pushed open the door. Sadi’s heart stopped beating when she saw him. He was hooked to a myriad of machines and monitors, an IV bag dripping from a pole beside the bed, oxygen going into his nose. His head was bandaged, his leg and arm had white gauze as well but he was alive.
Luke was alive
.

                Sadi was so relieved when she saw the rise and fall of his chest that she crumbled to the floor. She covered her face and sobbed.

“Hey now, surely I don't look as bad as that.”
              Sadi started at the sound of Luke's deep voice. How could he possibly jest? That was something Sadi had always loved about him. How his spirit refused to be crushed.

Sadi allowed the young woman to help her off the floor and into a chair by Luke's bed. She was embarrassed but also moved to further tears by the compassion this stranger offered her. Sadi thanked the girl and watched her exit the room. She closed the door shut firmly behind her.

                Sadi took Luke’s hand in her own, squeezing firmly as if to reassure herself that he was real,  and that he was still with her. “Thank god you're okay,” Sadi whispered. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and leaned forward, placing a kiss on Luke's forehead.

      She was almost afraid to touch him. Afraid if she did he would break. She couldn't quite believe that he was really here, whole and well and alive.

“Have you heard about Connor yet? Did they find him?” There was a catch in Luke’s voice that told Sadi she wasn’t the first person Luke had asked about his brother.

Sadi felt the bottom of her stomach drop and for a second she thought she was going to be sick. She could feel the tremor start in her hands, the sickly sweet heat wash over her.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain her composure. Luke was the one who had been through a bombing. He was the one lying in the hospital bed, tubes and machines hooked to his body. Not her. Yet somehow he was more put together than she was.

“I’m sorry I haven’t heard anything. I came right to the hospital when I found out what had happened. I don't understand Luke, who would do something like this?" The Pearson brothers were good men, well liked and even revered by their peers and rivals alike. It was beyond Sadi that someone would want to hurt them let alone bomb a building filled with innocent people.

              Connor
. Luke had asked about his brother. God, if Connor hadn't made it out, it would destroy Luke. Not only were the two brothers impossible to tell apart, they thought like one man. The two were an enigma to Sadi, their bond something she could never understand.

She had heard the stories of people who had lost their twin. That their life became groundless, unmoored. That the survivor always felt the empty spot where the other half of them had been.

                Luke looked disappointed although he tried his best to hide it. Sadi suddenly glanced down at his wrist.

“Where's your watch?” It was the only way she could tell the two brothers apart. It had become a standing joke between them that if he ever took it off Sadi might accidentally pick the wrong brother. She had bought Luke a watch for their one month dating anniversary. It had been silly and inexpensive, but he had treasured it regardless and worn it ever since.

Sadi had been surprised when she moved into Luke’s house to find a whole dresser drawer full of other, more expensive watches. Some of them were worth well over ten thousand dollars, yet Luke always wore the cheap watch Sadi had given him. She remembered how she had flushed when she thought about it, how her chest had ached with the knowledge that Luke loved her. 

“I lost it in the building,” Luke said. He glanced up at Sadi, eyes shining with uncertainty. “I asked one of the nurses about Connor. She did the best she could to find out what happened to him. All I know is that he hasn't been brought to the hospital yet.”