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Zack felt his heart rise into his throat as the car approached. It was too late to stop. He was too far away to reach her. He couldn’t even get a voice to scream. The car hit her hard and she fell to the ground. Screams were heard and Zack ran to her. He saw her blink slowly, dazed, but he didn’t let her move. Behind him someone called an ambulance and soon his mother was at his side. “What happened, Zack…?” “I don’t know, mom, I was going to look for Andriana and suddenly… she didn’t look, she just… she didn’t look as she crossed… “Is she…? She doesn’t look too hurt,” he murmured because she seemed dazed but conscious. “Yes. I don’t know… but they’ll get there soon…” “Thank God…” She looked into her son’s frightened eyes and took his hand in a gesture of reassurance. “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s just bad luck. She’s going to be okay.” Zack didn’t say anything. He stayed silent as the ambulance arrived and the paramedics pulled him aside to tend to her. Within minutes they had her in and Zack left with her, while Loan accompanied them and Luana took the rest of the family home. Thanks for reading at LeeNovelas.com. Once at the hospital, the doctors took her away to check her over and Loan made Zack stop because he looked like a caged lion walking around the waiting room. “What happened?” she asked and Zack shook his head. “She got a call, she got really sick while talking to someone and ran out to replace Adriana,” he murmured, remembering how little had happened in just a few seconds. “Do you know who called her?” his brother asked and Zack shook his head. “No, I have no idea, but please call Milo and tell him to be on the lookout, to keep an eye on Adriana. Is she okay?” she asked. “This trip has been a mess and I just want… I just want her to be okay.” He tossed his hair in despair and Loan watched him brood over his anguish for another half hour until a doctor came out. Remember. Read this novel only at LeeNovelas.com, not on other sites. “You were lucky, the bruises were light,” the doctor said and Zack sighed in relief knowing that she hadn’t suffered serious damage. “You can take her home this afternoon, but please make sure she watches where she goes next time.” Zack nodded and Loan patted his shoulder as she hugged him. “Thank God everything is okay,” she murmured. “I’m going to stay. Please go home and calm everyone down. I don’t want dad to be scared anymore.” Her brother nodded and soon after the doctor let him into Andrea’s room. She had some bruises on her arms, and a band-aid on one side of her forehead, but she was wide awake. Her eyes met Zack’s and he could see the anguish in them. —I’m sorry… —she murmured as he approached and Zack took her hand to kiss it. —Relax, Cupcake, it was an accident. —It could have been worse… it could have been much worse and Adriana… God, I don’t even want to imagine it!—She sobbed because the biggest fear of her life had suddenly become a reality. What if she died? What would happen to her baby if she died? Who could take care of her, who would protect her? Zack hugged her tightly and Andrea clung to him, seeking calm in the hug, but he had something else that wouldn’t leave his mind. —Andrea, tell me… Who called you on the phone? —Zack asked softly and Andrea turned pale. She was silent for a few seconds and then took a deep breath before answering. —It was… Mason, Adriana’s father —she said at last and Zack felt every muscle in his body tense. —What did he want? — Andrea looked at him sadly and Zack knew that what he was going to tell her wasn’t going to be good. —He wanted to know how she was. He said that… he said he wanted to know if she was okay —Andrea explained with a trembling voice. —And then he said that he would explain to me why he had left. The two of them were silent for a moment and Zack took a deep breath trying to replace the equanimity to ask that. “I need you to tell me,” he said. “What happened between you and him. What happened with Adriana’s father?” He knew it was hard for her, but he couldn’t ignore the truth any longer. He heard her sob quietly but he didn’t stop looking at her, waiting for her to make up her mind. “I didn’t do anything wrong…” she exclaimed trying to wipe her face. “Theoretically, I did nothing wrong, that’s the worst of it all! I planned my life the way I was supposed to!” She paused and Zack nodded to encourage her to continue. “I married in love,” Andrea whispered with her eyes closed. “With Mason… we were happy, for several years, and then I got pregnant with Adriana. I was so excited… we couldn’t wait to see her, and I set out to do everything I could to have a happy family.” I worked hard to put together a little backup capital, so I could be alone with her in her first year… I just wanted to be with my daughter… The sobs choked his voice and Zack felt like he could destroy the world with rage at seeing her cry. “And what happened?” “Everything was perfect until the last day before the birth…” Mason had been restless the last few weeks, but so was I, I guessed that was normal Andrea remembered. “When the baby arrived Mason took me to the emergency room…” She paused for a moment as if it was hard for her to continue, and Zack knew the worst was yet to come. “Adriana was premature, and the delivery was complicated. After what seemed like many hours they finally took me to the operating room to have an emergency cesarean section. Adriana was born healthy, but I didn’t recover so easily… I was in a coma for several days and when I woke up Mason wasn’t with me. A nurse said that after leaving me in the ER he didn’t show up again. Mason abandoned me at the hospital… but that wasn’t the worst part. Zack listened intently to the story, clenching his fists. He was heartbroken for her, he felt all her pain, but he had no words to comfort her.“When I came home with my newborn daughter in my arms, I found it empty. Mason disappeared, he stopped answering my calls, and when I checked the bank account, he had taken every last cent I had saved for Adriana,” Andrea murmured, her eyes lost in a spot on the white sheet. “He didn’t stay to replace out if we were okay, he just left without looking back… No one knew where he had gone or why he had left, but he never appeared again. He sold everything, absolutely everything we had, and left. Since then, I thought about him every day, without understanding what happened to make him abandon us… and then it stopped mattering. Adriana came first, my daughter always comes first, but I can’t even forgive her for what Mason did to us, no matter what the reasons are.” Zack nodded with a heavy heart, but he didn’t dare hug her, because the pity he felt for her at that moment was not something he wanted to convey to her. “Everything is going to be okay.” And Adriana is safe and protected, you don’t have to worry about that,” he told her, but Andrea couldn’t shake that negative feeling. Mason had said he was coming back, and that wasn’t good. The rest of the time she was in the hospital, the doctors monitored her, but at the end of the afternoon they let her go home. Andrea’s heart raced when she heard Mason’s voice.She saw that beautiful family waiting for her, as if she had always belonged to them. The Kellers surrounded her with love and care and none of them let her move a finger until Christmas Day, when Andrea finally rebelled and let her make the desserts. Meanwhile, Zack kept her busy with kisses. Hot kisses, unbridled sex and hugs that lasted all night. Andrea felt protected when she was with him, she felt safe and that was something she hadn’t felt in a long time, and for the first time she began to believe that December could have a thousand days just by wanting it. On Christmas Eve the family gathered again for dinner, but as soon as the twins entered when Luana stopped them in the hall. “If you open your mouths even once, just once, for anything other than saying that dinner is delicious, I guarantee that you won’t inherit your father’s shoelaces. Understood?” — Chiara and Noémi looked at each other helplessly, but their mother’s expression was determined. It’s that or they can leave where they came from. Finally she saw them nod silently and the dinner passed in peace and harmony. Zack danced with Andrea, hugging each other in the middle of the room as if nothing else mattered, and the twins honored the treatment they gave their mother by talking only to flatter the dishes. Loan and Milo had fun guessing the gifts under the Christmas tree and Mr. Nikola enjoyed the baby while telling funny anecdotes about his children when they were little. The melody of the music penetrated the souls of all those who were there that night and when it was time for dessert Andrea took out a cake that she had made herself, full of colorful fruits and full of the aroma of butter and vanilla that Zack liked so much. It was a wonderful night that would be forever engraved in the memory of all those present. A golden and unrepeatable moment that they would treasure because perhaps it would never be repeated. Despite everything, Andrea felt her heart fill with peace, and especially that it quickened when Zack finally bent her under a sprig of mistletoe and kissed her. “Cutie… I want to ask you something, but it might be too soon,” he murmured worriedly. “What is it, Thorcito?” she answered curiously. If it’s too soon, we’ll wait, but I want to know. “Well, these days here with you… they’ve been incredible,” he said. “You’re a spectacular woman, and the truth is I’d like to extend this. Whatever we have… can we really try?” Andrea held her breath as her heart raced. “Zack… are you asking me to be… to be your girlfriend?”