Chapter 46 #2
Rayna shook his hand, thanking him one more time, before she left his office.
She walked steadily but swiftly through the maze of lab corridors that would eventually lead her to a lift that would take her up to the sealed car park under the Two World Research Limited building.
It’d be a three-minute drive underneath the streets of Khaas before she got to the gated exit.
But as Rayna reached the lift, there was already someone standing there.
A tall, dark-skinned woman with her thin braids bunched in a low ponytail.
Upon recognising who the woman was, Rayna’s heart jolted, and her ears buzzed with caution.
Was it a coincidence there was a Board member by the lift? Or was it an ambush?
Sheun, the woman who’d sided with Jim and Lang against giving her and Dominic time, turned at the sound of Rayna’s footsteps and blocked her access to the lift doors.
So it was an ambush then.
But how had she known Rayna would be there? Rayna doubted Monty would have told her. But the older man had warned them that the Board had eyes everywhere, so of course, Sheun knew.
Spreading to her full breadth and height, Rayna approached the woman.
“Hello, Miss Faez,” Sheun said, her tone crisp and neutral.
“Hi,” she replied sharply. “What do you want?”
“How are you progressing with reducing Dominic’s Rupture?”
“We’re almost there,” Rayna lied with conviction she wished was real.
Sheun eyed her for a few quiet beats, then lifted her chin. “I’d like to offer you some help and advice.”
“I don’t want or need either.”
The historian, in her late thirties or early forties, sighed audibly. “I’m not doing this to try to hurt you or Lord Norland—”
“Really?” Rayna said sarcastically. “Because the more I learn about Dr Pine, the more it seems like he had some vendetta against my mum that he now wants to enact on me too.”
“I’m speaking for myself, not Jim,” the woman replied.
“And as for the rest of the Board, we know of the unethical way he pushed your mum and Mr Aynsley’s parents to do an experiment they shouldn’t have done.
And if you listen to me, Miss Faez, I can guarantee you he will lose his place as CEO and be banned from the POTeM project for good. ”
Rayna dismissed the claim with a shrug. “I don’t need to listen to you to make sure he loses his place as CEO. I will do everything to make sure he does anyway.”
“Then listen to me because you care about Lord Norland and want what’s best for him.”
That made Rayna’s heart judder as the box of doubts and fears she was fighting and failing to keep sealed battered around in her head.
The Board historian seemed to realise her words had hit hard and softened her expression. “If you love him, Rayna, then please make him see that he has to go back. Don’t let him give up the life he was meant to lead. It wouldn’t be fair to him or his family.”
Rayna’s ears and limbs and chest were going cold as she listened to the woman, but she tried hard to suppress the sensation under the heat of Dominic’s promises and feelings.
“He can have both.”
“He can’t without losing more of one thing, and that one thing isn’t going to be you.” Sheun gave a slight shake of her head. “But he’s not meant to be yours. If that were the case, you two would have been born in the same period.”
The truth of her statement struck Rayna, nearly making her sway on her feet like a bruised, bloodied boxer about to collapse.
In her silence, Sheun pulled her hands from behind her back, revealing a white A5 envelope. “This is Lord Norland’s history. Everything you’ve been searching for, collected by the Evidence team when River first scouted him. This is who he was meant to be.”
Rayna stared listlessly at the envelope as the woman moved it closer.
“Lady Claire Ermina—that’s who he marries,” Sheun continued, landing another blow. “She’s the daughter of an earl, a woman who fights for girls to have access to the same education as boys. They meet during the Season of thirty-five in June and marry in March the following year.
“They have four children. Zayan Benjamin Thorne is their firstborn, and they have two girls and a boy after him. All of whom grow up to be great people of power and influence. One of whom opens two schools for girls on top of the one Norland supports Lady Claire to open.
“Eventually, Lord Norland becomes one of the advocates of the 648 bill that allows aristocrats to pass on their titles to a chosen heir while they’re still living.
It’s the reason he’s able to do what he loves and focus on rearing his horses, which leads to him being invited to join the Royal Veterinary Society. ”
There was a long pause where Rayna could taste the blood dripping from her maimed heart within the thick, wet heat coating her mouth.
“He lives a happy, healthy life of great importance, Rayna,” Sheun said quietly.
“Letting him stay would be the same as taking that away from him. Taking him away from Lady Claire, his children, his siblings, everything he’s ever wanted to achieve.
Can you really do that to him now that you know what you’re asking him to leave behind?
When he realises himself, don’t you think he’ll come to regret his decision? Won’t you regret taking it from him?”
Everyone else had dismissed Rayna’s fears, especially Dominic—telling her it was possible, that they’d find a way, they’d be happy together, that everything would work out—but she’d still had her doubts.
Sheun had just confirmed all of them. She’d opened the lid and read them all aloud and told Rayna why they were true.
A wife. A sweet, welcoming woman who wouldn’t hesitate to love him, who’d tell him and show him and be everything he deserved to have. So unlike Rayna.
His dreams. The power and influence he had in his time that he wouldn’t have in the present.
Children. The family he wanted that Rayna still couldn’t decide on. Lady Claire would want that family.
History. His Rupture. The should not have met, would not have met, could not be.
They were complete opposites. Time. Views. Worlds. Wants. Dreams.
So what right did she have to hold on to him?
Sheun moved towards her and slipped the envelope between Rayna’s thumb and fingers. They instinctively closed around it as she felt it slip against her skin.
“I know it is heartbreaking to accept that the person you love isn’t meant to be yours,” Sheun said sympathetically. “But read what’s inside. I think you’ll fully understand then that making sure he goes back to his own time is the right thing to do.
“And even though it’ll be hard for you, it won’t hurt him. Because he won’t remember.”
The older woman stepped back. “Just give it some thought.”
Rayna wasn’t sure how long she stood there after Sheun walked off.
All she knew was that she was scrambling on her hands and knees, legs broken, heart bleeding, mind disorientated as she fought to keep the fading flame of hope inside her alive.