Page 17 of Raul's Revenge

'Forget? I intend to forget,' she spat at him, her blue eyes flashing, hating him. 'Forget I ever met you.' She noticed the look of stunned shock in his dark eyes and wanted to laugh, but she didn't get the chance.

Raul's face flushed with violent rage. 'You bitch!' he snarled, and, clamping her to him, he ground his mouth down on hers in a bitter travesty of a kiss.

He plundered her mouth like a man possessed. She felt no pleasure, just dull acceptance, and when he finally pushed her away from him she swayed unsteadily, lifting a trembling hand to brush her swollen lips.

'You asked for that,' Raul said harshly. 'You deli­berately provoked me, Penny, but it will not work. If you want to go, go...'

'Go,' he had said—this from the man who a few short weeks ago in Dubai, after a tumultuous coupling, had sworn that he adored her and that she could ask any­thing of him and he would give it to her. Lies. All lies...

She watched him in bitter, hostile silence for a moment. He had withdrawn behind a cold mask of in­difference, his dark eyes blank, expressionless. She had her answer. Raul did not love her. Never had...

'I think that will be best,' she said in a cold, dead voice, and, slowly turning away, she added, 'I'm going to pack.'

'Wait, Penny.'

She turned, a brief flicker of hope in her heart. She searched his hard face for some sign of regret. But there was nothing.

'Don't forget this.' Raul withdrew from his pocket a glittering bracelet. ‘I found it in the bedroom of our hotel in Dubai after you had left. I was waiting for you to realise you had lost it but obviously you were not im­pressed by the gift.'

She automatically reached out her hand and took it, slipping it on her wrist. Ashamed to admit that she had forgotten all about her birthday present, she glanced at Raul and imagined that she saw a flash of something like pain in his eyes. The next second she knew that she was mistaken as he added with biting cynicism, 'But it is rather valuable, and under the circumstances I think you have earned it.'

She didn't speak; she couldn't. The world had

caved in on her. She loved Raul, and yet he could treat her like some gold-digging tramp he had picked up off the street!

'Nothing to say?' he queried coldly, and, when she still didn't speak, he added with cruel mockery, 'Or perhaps you think you're worth more? So send me a bill, honey, and I'll think about paying.'

The tears she had held at bay for so long threatened to overwhelm her and, spinning on her heel, she dashed out of the room.

Hardly aware of her surroundings, tears blinding her, Penny packed quickly, deliberately leaving behind all the designer clothes that Raul had insisted on buying for her. She checked her purse—she had money enough for a taxi. The glint of metal caught her eyes and she withdrew the plain latch key, then snapped her purse shut.

With a thumping headache to go with her broken heart, suitcase in hand, she walked stiff-backed through the living area. Raul was nowhere in sight. She dropped the key on the hall table and closed the door quietly behind her. She rang for the elevator, and when it ar­rived, her eyes dry, her face rigid with resolve, she stepped in.

Out on the street she hailed a taxi and gave the driver her own address. The cab pulled away; Penny closed her eyes and never looked back. It was over...

CHAPTER FIVE

'Now, Miss Gold, don't get upset—' the man in the dark blue uniform spoke slowly, softly '—but we have to ask you these questions.'

'Upset!' Penny bawled, tears rolling helplessly down her cheeks. 'Can't you understand someone has stolen my baby, my James?'

It was a nightmare, Penny knew. In a moment she would wake up and everything would be back to normal. She looked up at the plain round clock on the stark white wall. Six o'clock—time to lock up the shop and go up­stairs to the apartment and James.

'What about the father, Miss Gold?' a voice said, then louder, 'Miss Gold! The father?'

She stared blindly at the man opposite, his voice seemed to be coming from a long way off.

'Nine times out of ten in this kind of case we find the father has arranged to steal the child.'

Penny could block out reality no longer. The full horror of the situation hit her in every minute, tragic detail... Her head spun and her stomach churned with nausea. She wasn't in the store, James was not upstairs in their apartment with Amy... She was in the medical centre. It was not a nightmare. She was not going to wake up...

Penny rubbed a shaking hand across her eyes. Someone had stolen her child—the child of her heart, her reason for living. She did not want to believe but there was no escape. James was gone...

'He does not have a father,' she whispered, choking down on her tears.

'Maybe not now, but he must have had one originally. Perhaps the man has decided—'

'No. No, you don't understand,' she cut in. 'The man does not even know my child exists—never has done. Please don't waste any more time. James is only sixteen months old; he is helpless; he needs me,' she pleaded desperately. 'Can't we go and look for him?' Jumping to her feet, she rushed to the door. 'I must; I've got to find him.'

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