Cash managed to persuade Natalia to have a few days away after their wedding, but she’d only agreed on the proviso they stay in the UK. As neither of them could bear to leave Darcey behind, he’d booked a cottage on the outskirts of the Cotswolds, close to a small village with a couple of decent pubs.

He promised her a better honeymoon in a few weeks, although he omitted saying they would take it when Kinga was no longer there. He couldn’t say when she is dead, not even to himself. It sounded too final, too brutal.

As he pulled into the driveway of the house he’d rented, Natalia began to laugh.

“You said a small cottage,” she said, looking out of the window at the huge stone detached house, their home for the next week.

He stifled a grin. “I like space.”

He jumped out of the car and unhooked Darcey’s car seat. She’d slept all the way there, but now that the movement of the car had stopped rocking her, she’d woken. Her big midnight-blue eyes, the replica of Natalia’s, were gazing up at him with the same adoration with which he was gazing down at her.

“Hi, baby girl,” he said, nuzzling her nose with his. She let out the most adorable giggle, and his heart almost burst. “Oh my God, did you hear that?”

Natalia closed the car door, her answering smile wide. “Her first laugh.”

Cash clapped a hand over his chest and sagged a little at the knees. “I’m so in love.”

“I think the feeling is mutual. I shall be having a word with my daughter about the importance of sharing.”

He leaned down and kissed Natalia, hard. “How about we go on a long walk, get lots of fresh air so she’s knackered and sleeps right through?”

Natalia gave him an innocent smile. “Why, ace? What have you got planned?”

He carefully put Darcey’s car seat on the floor and caught her hips, pulling her close. “You, me, a bottle of wine, and zero clothes.”

A slight tremor ran through her body, and his stomach flipped. He still found it an enormous turn-on that she was so affected by him.

“Well, then,” she said, lifting her eyes to his. “What are we waiting for?”

* * *

After a few days of country air, Natalia began to relax. She regained some colour in her cheeks, the worry lines across her forehead faded, and her shoulders spent a lot less time around her ears.

The countryside around the Cotswolds was some of the most beautiful in England, with green pastures and rolling hills. It was impossible not to feel carefree in a place like that. Their days were idyllic. They wandered around quaint little towns filled with thatched cottages and lunched at one of an abundance of cosy tearooms. Nights were spent locked in each other’s arms.

“Maybe we should buy a place in the area,” Cash said on their fourth day as they wandered hand in hand beside the River Coln. “Think how nice it would be to get out of London into all this. It’s only a couple of hours’ drive, and Darcey would love it as she gets older. We could even move the horses over from Marcie’s place in Ireland. There must be loads of liveries around here.”

She turned to him, her face flushed with excitement. “Really? I think that’s a fantastic idea.”

He returned her smile. “I’ll get an estate agent onto it.”

“Try not to buy a mansion, ace.”

He flashed her an overly innocent look, to which she rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Why do I bother? You’ll do what you want anyway. I give up trying to control you.”

“Just as well, sweetness. It always was a waste of time.”

* * *

Cash woke with a start, his phone blaring into the silence of the night. His eyes were stinging from too little sleep. He opened them a crack. It took a moment to figure out where he was. The shadows in the room were unfamiliar.

Beside him, Natalia turned over, but not before making a frustrated noise at being woken so early.

Cash closed his eyes again and felt around until his hand located his phone.

“Yeah,” he mumbled as he answered.

“Cash?”

As he heard William’s voice, he sat bolt upright. Fear congealed in his chest. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s time. Can you come?”

“Already?” he whispered, his stomach churning with an awful sick feeling. He didn’t want to hear it. Shit, he wasn’t ready to lose her. He’d had weeks to prepare for this moment, yet it could have been years, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

“I’m so sorry,” William said, his voice breaking up. “Especially as it’s your honeymoon and everything.”

Cash fumbled for Natalia’s arm and gave her a gentle shake. She stirred, but when he jolted her harder, she sat up. One look at his face and she read the situation. He shook his head, closing his eyes briefly as if that would make this horror go away.

“We’re on our way,” he said as Natalia leaped out of bed and began packing their things. “Where are you?”

“The hospice. I’ll text you the satnav details.”

“She didn’t want to go into a hospice,” Cash said.

“I know.” William’s voice broke. “She’s suffering, Cash. She begged me to bring her here.”

Cash dug his fingernails into his palm until he drew blood. The physical pain was a welcome distraction from the anguish in his chest.

“You tell her to wait for us. We’re coming.” He tossed the phone onto the bed, and for a minute, he sat there, stunned, unable to move.

“Cash.” Natalia knelt in front of him, her face wet with tears. She rested her hands on his thighs. “Let’s go, ace. Kinga needs you.”

His head dropped into his hands, and he began to cry. Natalia climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms tightly around him. “I know, babe. I know.”

He gave himself five minutes, not a second more. He’d have to do the rest of his grieving later. At that moment, he had to man the fuck up. The last thing Kinga needed was him falling apart in front of her. That would make him a dick, given what she was about to face, and he’d spent his life being a dick until Natalia had saved him from himself. He refused to regress.

He washed his face while Natalia changed and dressed Darcey, who was not impressed at being woken before her normal get-up time, and she was unusually grizzly as they put her in the car. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she was picking up on their tension and letting it out the only way she knew how.

The roads were empty apart from the odd lorry whose driver was using the quietness to make headway. They didn’t speak much, but on occasion, Natalia would touch his arm or squeeze his knee, her way of letting him know she was there, that she was feeling the same.

Two hours later, Cash turned the car in to the driveway of the hospice. After he reversed into a space, Natalia grabbed the door handle to get out, but Cash stopped her.

“I need a minute.” He took a few deep breaths, trying to slow his thundering heart and the terrible churning in his stomach.

“Take as long as you need, ace,” she said.

“Are you sure you want to come in?” He knew how hard she found it to be around someone with the same illness she’d lost her father to. Seeing Kinga would bring back all those horrendous memories.

She gave him a hard look. “Yes.”

He nodded, her vehement response telling him he’d have no chance of persuading her otherwise.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

As he opened the door to Kinga’s room, he realised no amount of preparation would have helped him cope.

It had been six days since his wedding—six days since he’d seen her, and the Kinga he’d known from the age of twenty was no longer there. The determined, tenacious, sparky, and sometimes downright annoying-as-fuck woman who had turned his talent for playing tennis into a money-making machine was gone, and in her place lay an imposter.

He slammed a hand over his mouth to stop the gasp of horror that clawed at his throat, desperate to get out. Natalia’s tight grip on his arm told him she felt the same and was trying to hang onto her emotions, because if they lost it now, there was no coming back.

William glanced over his shoulder, but he could barely raise a smile. His face had sunken in on itself, the flesh baggy around his eyes, his skin tone grey. “Thanks for coming.”

Cash had to force himself into that room when all he really wanted to do was run. He didn’t want to remember Kinga like this. But he had no choice. She wanted him there, needed him there, and dammit, he would be there.

“Is she asleep?” Cash said as he fell into a chair.

Her breathing was uneven and shallow, and a horrible rattle sounded in her chest every time her lungs filled with air.

“For now,” William said. “They’ve given her some pain relief.”

Natalia placed Darcey’s car seat on one of the chairs and went to hug William. His face crumpled as she put her arms around him.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “What do you need, William?”

“This. For you both to be here.”

There was nothing more to say, and the room fell silent, but that made the terrible rattling in Kinga’s chest seem even louder. Cash wanted to slam his hands over his ears, to make this all go away. The irony of his baby daughter beside him, her life journey beginning while Kinga’s was ending far too early, was fucking awful.

Hours passed, and Cash began to fear Kinga would never wake up. In a way, he wanted that for her—to let her slip away without pain, without having to look at their faces, unaware of the terrible aftermath that would follow her death.

There, he’d thought it. Death. Because that was the fact of the matter. No point dressing the fucker up. Kinga was going to die. The finality of it all suddenly hit him, and he staggered to his feet, muttered, “Won’t be a minute,” and launched himself outside.

As he closed the door behind him, his legs gave way, and he sank to the floor. For all their problems over the years, he fucking loved that woman. He wouldn’t be where he was if it weren’t for Kinga. Sure, since he’d met Natalia they’d had a lot of issues and said things that couldn’t be unsaid, but the fact that he’d forgiven her time and again told its own story, even if it had been mainly at Natalia’s insistence.

He expected Natalia to follow him, but he should have given her more credit. Her wedding vows had said it all. She knew when to bring him close and when he needed space. She’d always been able to tune in to his needs because she was inside his head and his heart. She knew him as well as he knew himself, and by leaving him alone right then, she was proving that once more.

After about ten minutes, Natalia poked her head around the door. “Cash, she’s awake and asking for you.”

He clambered to his feet, but before he could step inside, Natalia put her arm out. “I know you can do this,” she whispered, low enough so her voice wouldn’t drift into the room. “Be strong for her. Fall apart with me. That’s the way this has to go down.”

Jesus, what a woman she was. He brushed a hand along her jaw and forced a smile. “I don’t deserve you.”

“I know.”

The smile he gave her then was genuine, and as she dropped her arm so he could pass, he took comfort in her strength.

A brief flicker of life appeared in Kinga’s eyes as he walked over to her bed, but then the light faded. She tried to lift a hand, but the physical effort was too great.

“Hey,” she said in a rasping voice that sounded nothing like Kinga’s usual smooth, confident tone.

“Hey yourself.” He wagged a finger at her. “The things you’ll do to get your own way. You’ve wrecked my honeymoon. I hope you know that.”

Her lips twitched in the beginnings of a smile. “My timing has always been impeccable.” She winced then, and her body shifted to the side.

“Are you in pain?”

She nodded and squeezed her eyes together, her breath coming in short pants.

“I’ll get someone, darling,” William said.

“No. Don’t,” she said. “Not yet. I don’t want to be out of it again yet.”

Cash’s lips pressed together in a slight grimace as he found himself stuck between two places, neither of which were appealing. But then his eyes softened, and he leaned across to kiss her cheek. “Stubborn old cow,” he said, which forced a brief laugh from Kinga that sounded more like a cough.

“Have you brought the baby?” she said, trying to lift her head to catch Natalia’s eye. When Cash nodded, she sighed. “Can you hold her up? I want to see her one last time.”

Pain lanced through Cash, and he turned away before Kinga could see the tears that had welled up.

“Here she is,” Natalia said, instantly understanding he couldn’t speak right at that moment. She handed Darcey to him, and he gazed into his daughter’s eyes as he tried to get a hold of himself.

“She’s going to be a heartbreaker,” Kinga said. “Like her daddy.”

Cash met her eyes, and as he did, her face took on a peaceful look. She beckoned him to lean forward as her voice began to fade.

“I love you,” she whispered. “Please don’t forget me.”

“Never.” The tears he’d tried so hard to hold back broke free. “Never.”