He Said Forever

A note to my readers I’d like to share a conversation I recently had with one of my children about regret. I don’t currently choose to waste any time on it. It’s not that I’ve never made a mistake or that all of my choices have been good ones, but somewhere in my twenties I decided to make every decision with the most loving heart I could and it freed me from regret. I accept that I am a fallible human being and that those around me are the same. I choose to start each day with the mindset that I can and will do better than I did the day before. I’ll be kinder. Stronger. More forgiving. A better listener. More present in the lives of those I love. Humbler in the face of the wonder of the world. And when I falter, I do my best to make amends. Not every apology is accepted, but I’ve made myself okay with that as well. The only person I have control over is myself. Regret is a friend I choose to ban from my heart and my house. It brings nothing of worth and instigates trouble wherever it goes. It’s close friends with bitterness and envy. I’ve seen it hang out with spite a few times. It invites depression over on a regular basis. None of them are welcome in my life. If you’re carrying the weight of every mistake you’ve ever made, release it into the universe. Trust me, ban regret from your home and heart. You’ll not only feel better, but you’ll bring more joy to those around you. He Said Forever The Lost CorisisBook 4 Ruth Cardello Author Contact website: RuthCardello.com email: [email protected] Facebook: Author Ruth Cardello Twitter: RuthieCardello Goodreads Bookbub Copyright EPUB Edition ISBN eBook: 978-1-951888-39-8 ISBN Print: 978-1-951888-40-4 An original work of Ruth Cardello, 2023 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental. Table of Contents Cover A note to my readers Title Page Author Contact Copyright Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Epilogue CHAPTER ONE Jared Of course she’s beautiful. Another man might have been pleased that the woman who’d stepped out a blue sedan had legs that went on forever and curves ample enough to strain the top buttons of her sundress. Some might have appreciated the way the wind flattened what otherwise would have been loose clothing in the most deliciously revealing way. Michawn Courter was sheer perfection, but I wouldn’t have expected less from Hamilton. He had excellent taste in women. Long dark brown hair with caramel highlights bounced and was loosely tied back from her face. Her eyes were dark and stunning but it was the smile she shot me that was nearly my undoing. This one would be hard to pass on. As a rule, I didn’t so much as flirt with any of the women Hamilton sent me. Mostly because I had no issues when it came to finding willing sex partners on my own, but also because Hamilton had a bad habit of telling women I was ready to settle down. I wasn’t. Far from it. After what could only be called a late-life crisis, Hamilton had reshuffled his priorities and retired, selling his multi-billion-dollar company to me. His reasoning for changing his mind regarding the importance of having a partner was understandable. Two of his friends had died and he was feeling his mortality. The same man who’d spent the last decade warning me to not let a woman distract me from success had made one woman the center of his universe. Not that Fara wasn’t amazing. She made Hamilton happy and anything beyond that wasn’t any of my business. A recent back surgery for an old injury had her recovering at an exclusive rehab center with Hamilton at her side. My reason for being at his home in Newton was to facilitate his surprise for her and ensure its completion before their return. There were very few people I would cancel meetings for and even fewer who would dare to ask me to. When it came to Hamilton I didn’t say no because I owed him more than I could ever repay. But agreeing to marry simply because Hamilton was indulging in a late-life crisis? That crossed the line of what I was willing to do for anyone. Normally knowing the women Hamilton threw my way came with expectations I had no desire to entertain was enough to nullify any attraction I may have felt for them. This woman was different and I didn’t like it. Sporting a huge smile, she stood in the driveway with a piece of luggage beside her as if expecting me to rush over to assist her. I folded my arms across my chest. Seemingly unbothered by my stance she bent to pick up her luggage and I sucked in a harsh breath. I’d always considered myself an ass man, but the kind of cleavage she flashed would have turned my best friend Calvin’s head and probably his husband’s as well. Damn. When she straightened, she brought her luggage in front of her, holding it with both hands and my mouth dropped open. Right there in Hamilton’s driveway I found a way to end wars. Governments simply needed to have this woman walk