Endless Love: The 4Ever series #3 Read online

  Endless Love

  The 4Ever series #3

  Isabella White

  Contents

  Untitled

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  About the Author

  Untitled

  Copyright © 2012 Author Name

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN:

  ISBN-13:

  To everyone that loved Holly and Jake’s story.

  Acknowledgments

  To God. My Saviour. Thank you for showing me the way. I struggled for years and years not knowing where I am meant to be, what it is I have to do, and then You revealed it to me, dunk me into the writers world and I’m loving every second of it. Thank you, for always giving me new ideas through everything that is around me, the new people I met, the ones that made me gape, and made me laugh out loud. Your creation has been the biggest inspiration of all. Thank you that I have the privalige to know You the Way I do.

  Heinrich, my husband, and my two beautiful girls. I couldn’t have done any of this without your love, time and compassion for my love. You are never second best and I’m really doing all of this for you.

  To my partner in crime, Carlyle Labuschagne, for always hearing my crazy ideas and finding a way to turn it into a reality. Your passion reflects mine and I couldn’t have accomplish what I had if you were not there.

  To Monique Fischer, my writing hand. Hahahaha. You fix all my stories, fix all my grammar and make my writing from blah to way up there. I’m not a writer, I’m a story telling, but your passion turns me into a writer.

  To Sandra, my editor, you turn me into an author. Your passion for this series can never be expressed in words. Passion cannot be bought and I’m privalidged to know you and to work with you. I always get a tate of how my readers are going to react, what emotional turmoil I’m going to put them through, through you. I love your enthusiasm when it comes to the 4Ever series and is so sad that it’s the last novel.

  To Regina Wamba from Mae I design. The Queen of the cover industry. Thank you for creating all my covers in the 4Ever series. It’s a privalidge to know you and have worked with you.

  To Anika, my assistant. You run my house, make sure my kids are fed, and remind me that I need to eat, drink and sleep. Thank you for doing all of that and so much more. I will be completely in darkness without you, never quit, please.

  To my fans. I know the second book took a long time to get here, and thank you for that pasients. The third one was only a year. Thank you for your love of these characters and I hope that they will stay with you for a long time.

  * * *

  Till next time.

  Isabella.

  One

  HOLLY

  * * *

  Holly blinked back tears as she scrolled through the photos of Jamie, her daughter, on her phone. Three weeks had passed since Holly had moved to Zurich, leaving Jamie with Jake. The only consolation she got from the terrible, heart-wrenching loneliness was that she got to Skype with them every night. She missed her little girl so much, her heart ached.

  Jamie lived with Jake now. The transition had gone smoother than Holly had expected it to, but he had an amazing support system. Amelia, Gus, and Robin all jumped at the opportunity to help him out with Jamie.

  At first, both Holly and her mother had been hesitant about how quickly and smoothly everything fell into place with Jamie and Jake. But when they actually thought it through, they realized that to Jamie, Jake had always been in her life, just stuck in a rainbow. To Jamie, Jake had come home now, so it was natural for her to settle in as easily as she had. And she had to admit, from what she’d seen, Jake was a great father.

  Rodney, one of Holly’s best friends and the only male influence Jamie had had in her life for the past almost six years also checked in on Jamie from time to time, not that it was necessary, but he was part of their family.

  The Peters were giving Jamie whatever her heart desired.

  Holly loved that her little girl would finally be able to go to ballet classes and do other activities, but she didn’t want her to become spoiled, and that was a big possibility. Jake couldn’t say no to Jamie.

  For once, things in her life seemed to be going well.

  Even her mother was happy. Jake had offered her a position at Downsend, but she went back to Seattle. Holly had a feeling she was going to try to make it work with Frank again. In Holly’s opinion, her mother couldn’t have asked for a better man. Jane had had it rough with Holly’s father, and her faith in men had disappeared after him, but Frank was different. He was a fantastic guy and he deserved another chance.

  Even though everything seemed to be working out well, there were two things she worried about.

  The first was Mara. Jake was making it so difficult to forgive her.

  What Mara did was wrong on all levels, but Holly had learned the hard way that you had to forgive someone for yourself. The human soul wouldn’t survive and truly be happy if bitterness and anger roamed in the heart.

  She desperately wanted Jake to forgive his mother but he was stubborn. He had his reasons, and she couldn’t argue with them, but she worried about the animosity he had towards Mara.

  The other thing she worried about was Kate. She still felt shitty that Jake had left Kate to be with her. They’d hurt Kate badly, and she wasn’t letting go.

  Jake hadn’t been joking when he’d said Kate was like Mara. She didn’t give up easily. She’d phoned him incessantly in the days before Holly came to Zurich, begging, crying, fighting, more begging.

  Without Holly there, anything could happen. He’d been on the verge of marrying Kate; his feelings for Kate couldn’t have disappeared overnight.

  What if he decided to go ahead and marry her anyway? Jake had showed Holly what he was capable of when he’d cheated on Kate with Holly, and he loved Michael as if that boy was his own.

  But Jake had promised her that nothing would come in between them, not this time. Holly could do nothing but trust and hope she was enough to him.

  She smiled at the memory of Jake telling her over and over that she was everything to him, and that he would keep on telling her that till it sunk in.

  But she couldn’t help it. She was still afraid.

  She figured her fears were rooted in the married woman. He never talked about her, and Holly was too scared to bring it up.

  Scared that she would hear things she didn’t want to hear.

  She knew what Amelia had told her, that he was devastated about the fact that she was married. But then he met Holly and all that seemed to disappear.

  What had happened? Had he had a relationship with her that her husband found out about. Had she broken it off because of that? Or was it something else entirely?

  None of his family members knew the woman, and Holly was scared that a part of him still secretly wanted this other woman.

  It was one of the reasons why Holly still felt slightly insecure with Jake.

  What if that woman came back into
Jake’s life and offered herself on a silver platter while Holly was in Zurich? Would Jamie and Holly be enough for Jake to say no, and would he truly mean it?

  Life was too short to spend it with the wrong person, and deep down inside she knew there was a possibility that she could lose Jake, either to Kate or this mystery woman.

  Holly shook her head. It was no use dwelling on thoughts like that while she was close to 4000 miles away. It only made her worry more.

  Holly swiped through to another photo and smiled as she looked at the photo of her and Bernie with Jamie and Leila, Bernie’s little one.

  She’d eventually phoned Bernie, who had been short with her answers. Holly didn’t blame her. She’d just shut her out and hadn’t bothered to give Bernie a chance to be part of her and Jamie’s life. But the day after Holly had phoned her, Bernie and Leo had rocked up at the cabin.

  Holly hadn’t been ready for the ambush, but Bernie being Bernie, didn’t give a crap about that.

  When Bernie saw Jamie it was an emotional moment, and even more so when Holly introduced her and she discovered that Jamie’s middle name was Bernice.

  Bernie had glared at Holly, who had desperately been trying to hide her tears.

  Sam was almost seven, and he hadn’t recognized Holly at all, but he had been a toddler when Holly left them all behind. Holly was surprised to learn Bernie was pregnant again—she was barely showing—and that she had a little girl, a year or so younger than Jamie.

  Jake and Leo had taken everyone out on the boat, so Holly and Bernice could talk.

  Bernice was Holly’s best friend, and had been since childhood. And Holly hadn’t just left Jake, she’d left Bernie, too.

  They’d needed to sort things out.

  Holly remembered that day so well.

  “You just left!” Bernie yelled.

  Holly looked down and picked at the comforter on the bed. “I know.”

  “No, you don’t. Do have any idea what you put Jake through?”

  Holly lifted her head to look at her. “He told me.”

  Bernie barked out a hollow laugh. “I guess he gave you the subtle version. He was fucked up, Holly. Not even Leo could get him to snap out of it. The punches my husband had to endure…” Bernie closed her eyes and shook her head as she wiped away a tear. “I don’t even want to think about it to paint you the picture, Holly. He looked everywhere for you, and I was no use. I never once thought you would go crawling to your father. You never spoke about him or mentioned his name, so I had no clue where you were. For someone who had claimed to be so in love, you sure as shit ran away as fast as your feet could take you.”

  “I heard him saying—”

  “It wasn’t him. I told you his mother was a psycho. Didn’t you think to phone Gus when you knew you could die? Or when you discovered you were pregnant with twins? I missed all of it. I was your best friend, and you shut me out of your life!” Tears streamed down Bernie’s cheek.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She ignored Holly’s apology. “You didn’t even phone me. Did I mean that little to you? Holly, I stayed with you after Jamie’s death, I was there when fuckface broke your heart. Why couldn’t you just have phoned me? Did I mean that little to you?” Bernie broke down and sobbed. She slid down to the floor and covered her face with her hands.

  “No.” Holly climbed off the bed and crawled over to Bernie. She touched Bernie’s arm. She needed to repair her friendship with Bernie, and could only hope that Bernie would forgive her for treating her like shit. “I didn’t want Jake to lose his friendship with Leo, so I gave up ours okay.”

  Bernie looked over at Holly, wiping her hands over her cheeks. “He wouldn’t have lost his friendship, because I would’ve fucking asked you where the hell you were. Jake was fucking insane with worry.”

  “I know that now, but I didn’t that day. You weren’t there, Bern. You didn’t hear her. I didn’t want to believe it, but then she begged me to phone him, so I did. And he confirmed it. It was enough for me to know that he didn’t want us anymore and I made a choice. It was a stupid one, I know that now.”

  Bernie shook her head, and being her stubborn self, they continued arguing. When everything was in the open and off their chests, Holly apologized again.

  Bernie finally stopped fighting. “Just promise me one thing, Holly. Never, ever do that to me or Jake again.”

  Holly nodded and they hugged for a long time.

  “I missed you,” Bernie said brokenly.

  “You have no idea, sister.”

  Bernie laughed through snot and tears and they broke the hug.

  “Tell me about Romy,” Bernie said as she rubber her hands over her face.

  Holly took a deep breath and told her everything about Romy’s short life, her voice thick with emotion.

  “That bitch! I didn’t want to believe her, because I know she’s insane when it comes to Jake. I was convinced she was behind it, but like you said, Mara finds a way to make you doubt everything you believe in. When you never called me, I believed her, Holly. I fucking believed her while you were in some fucking hospital fighting for your life and your babies.”

  “It’s in the past.”

  “No!” Bernie yelled. “Don’t you dare give that woman the easy way out. She deserves every fucking thing that comes her way. She lied, Holly. Do you know how Gus felt when she told him that the shake didn’t work? He spent years, decades, on that formula, and then he destroyed it all. That lie broke him, made him think he’d wasted all his time, all that effort. Not even to mention what she did to Jake and Amelia.”

  “Amelia?”

  “Amelia hated you, Holly. That walk against abortion, the one in high heels? Do you think she would have done that if it wasn’t a case close to her heart? And she spent all these years resenting you for getting an abortion, because that’s what Mara made her believe.” Bernie let out an exasperated sigh. “That night, after we discovered you were gone, I told Mara she was insane. And she had the audacity to start crying. And she never cries. Jake was in turmoil; he didn’t know what to believe. She chased me out of her house because I knew the bitch had something to do with your disappearance. I knew you would never get an abortion. And I told Jake that. He was really disappointed that you just left without speaking to him. Never in a million years did I think Mara was tech-savvy enough to make you think you were speaking to Jake. That woman is pure evil. When I managed to convince Jake that you’d never get an abortion, he decided to look for you. He hired a private investigator, who tracked your car to the bus stop in Atlanta, and we tried to pin point a location from there.

  Jake was mean and stressed out. He didn’t even care about his residency. He just wanted to find you. We phoned every damn hospital in the country. Gus told us all what to say, what your symptoms would be and then we just waited.

  But Mara probably had Seattle Memorial on her list of hospitals to phone, and she never made any of the calls.”

  “You can’t say that, Bernie.”

  Bernie just looked at her. “She told you he didn’t want the baby, or you, for that matter. She told you to get an abortion. She wanted you out of his life. She didn’t make a single damn phone call. I’m certain of that, because Seattle would’ve phoned Gus when you were admitted, Holly.”

  Holly tried to imagine what those months after she had left had been like for them all—between what Jake, Amelia, and now Bernice had told her, she had a pretty good picture.

  “The leads went dry after the bus stop. The cameras only recorded three days’ worth of footage. Jake was livid, and threatened to sue them. Of course, he didn’t sue them, but he did leave. He picked a direction and went with it. For two months, he was radio silent—at least with me and Leo. And then he rocked up at our house out of the blue.” Bernice shuddered visibly.

  “What happened?”

  “Mara dragged him back. He was obviously upset with me and Leo and that was when I really start to think that maybe, just maybe you went through
with the abortion.”

  Holly nodded. She could understand why Bernie believed that. She didn’t phone her, she just disappeared.

  She wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

  “Do you understand why I’m so upset, Holly? You named Jamie after me but you couldn’t even phone me.”

  “I know. How many times do I have to apologize?”

  “Yeah, it’s in the past now. I’m just…it’s going to take time to get to where we used to be.”

  Holly bit down on her lip. “You really still want to be my friend?”

  She cupped Holly’s face and placed a curl behind her ear as tears rolled down her cheek.

  “You’re stuck with me, whether you want it or not.” Bernie’s threw her arms around Holly and put her head on Holly’s shoulder. “I knew you wouldn’t do it,” She mumbled as she pulled back to look at Holly.

  “Bern.”

  “No,” she sniffed. “In the end I believed her because you couldn’t fucking pick up a phone to tell me where the hell you were or if you were okay. It hurts, Holly, knowing that we could’ve done something to help you during that horrible time.”

  “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want Leo—”

  “Fuck the other people, Holly. For once in your life, think about yourself. You deserve so much more out of this fucked-up life, but you don’t think that you do. I love you so fucking much but I am still so fucking livid with you. What if he married Kate, Holly? What then?”