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‘And I hope to God that I never set eyes on you again as long as I live,’ he finished woundingly.
As if she were a spectator watching a play, Eve watched him get up from the chair, her lips parting in disbelief. It was as if she were watching him in slow motion and something had taken away her powers of speech, for he was almost at the door when she managed to bite the words out.
‘But you…you’re the father, Luca!’
This time the silence seemed to go on for ever. He felt rooted to the spot, as if he had just been turned to ice, yet the blood which roared around his veins was as hot as the fires of hell.
‘What?’
It was a single word, shot out like a threat, as if daring her to repeat her statement again, but she had to. She had to.
‘You’re the father.’
He turned round and laughed. ‘I am not the father!’
And something in his arrogance and contempt brought the real Eve back to life. The real, strong Eve, though a very different woman now. She had to be, nature had decreed it. How dared he? She thought of the life within her, created by accident and now denied by its biological father, and a slow fury began to simmer inside her.
She held her head up proudly. ‘I can assure you that you are.’
His heart pounded. ‘Prove it.’
Now it was her turn to look at him witheringly. ‘I have no intention of “proving” it. And besides, I don’t need proof, Luca—I know.’
‘How?’
‘Because I haven’t slept with another man for two years!’
‘You expect me to believe this?’
‘I expect nothing!’ she retorted. ‘I am telling you simply because I believe it is your right to know—though, God knows, I wish I hadn’t bothered now!’
He was nodding his head, as if a blindingly simple solution had just appeared before him. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Of course.’
Eve sucked in a deep breath. Calm down, she told herself. It isn’t good for you and it isn’t good for the baby. He was bound to be shocked at first and go off at the deep end—who wouldn’t after a momentous piece of news like that? She looked at him hopefully. ‘Of course, what?’
He nodded once more. ‘I understand perfectly now.’
‘You do?’
‘Sure. It’s all coming back to me. That night in London, when you told me you wanted children. I remember you saying it, it struck me at the time. And you’re a career woman, aren’t you, Eve? A woman with a high profile and a demanding job. So who needs a man around? A baby is what you wanted, isn’t it? A designer baby—women do it all the time, these days. And who better to father your baby than one of the richest men in Italy? Well, clever, clever, cara.’
He stared at her as if she were a particularly unappealing creature who had just landed from outer space. ‘But I’m interested to know how you did it. Perhaps you deliberately scratched your pretty pink fingernails through the condom when you were putting it on? If so, it was an ingenious plan.’
She felt as though he had slapped her. ‘Get out,’ she said. ‘Get out of here before I call the police and have you thrown out!’
But he didn’t move. ‘How much do you want?’ he asked insultingly. ‘A one-off payment, is that what you had planned?’ He looked around at her pretty, cottagey kitchen and his lips curved into a disdainful smile. ‘I expect you earn pretty good money, don’t you, Eve? But my kind of wealth is way out of your league. With my money you can afford all the things you really want—the best nanny, a bigger house, a fancy car, holidays. Isn’t that right, cara?’
‘Don’t ever call me that again!’ she spat out. ‘I’m giving you one last chance to leave, Luca, and if you don’t, then God help me, but I will call the police!’
He glanced at the clenched fists by her sides. His temper was on such a knife-edge that he knew he had to get away. For all their sakes. And the fact was the she carried his child, and, though the method she had used was unforgivable, that fact remained.
‘I am leaving,’ he said coldly.
‘And don’t come back! I never want to see you again!’
He plucked a wallet from his jacket pocket, and for one awful moment Eve thought that he was going to throw some money down in front of her. But instead he extracted an expensive-looking business card and placed it on the table with calm and steady fingers.
‘That’s the address of my lawyer,’ he said carefully. ‘I’ll let him know that you’ll be in contact.’
