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Not with his body.
His soul.
So after he’d fired her he’d ordered his secretary to block Hallie’s calls if she ever tried to contact him again.
Yet, tonight, he’d been the one who had asked her to stay. And Hallie, without any apparent difficulty or regret, had gotten what she’d wanted and easily walked away.
His pride was in shock.
As a matter of course, Cristiano always put his own selfish desires first. You had to look out for number one.
He’d just never imagined a kindhearted country girl like Hallie could do the same.
Rubbing the back of his head, he put his checkbook back in the safe. He told himself he’d go meet Natalia and spend the evening at yet another bland charity gala, but the thought seemed ridiculous.
Hallie had looked delicious, her body even more curvaceous than he remembered. She had a new maturity about her. Her dark eyes had become guarded, he realized. Not as honest and clear as he remembered. She’d held something back. Some mystery. Some secret.
Cristiano closed the safe, then stopped.
Something didn’t make sense.
When Hallie had first met him in the lobby, she’d been nervous and tense. I have something important to tell you, she’d said. But what was it? Simply that she’d hired a lawyer?
Except she’d never actually said that. Cristiano had. She’d been slow to talk and so he’d filled in all the blanks. When he’d offered her money, she’d been surprised, even shocked. Surely that was why she’d asked to speak to him privately. Because her lawyer had told her to.
Unless she didn’t actually have a lawyer.
Unless she’d come to him for some other reason. A reason she’d decided to forget once he’d offered her a check.
Cristiano’s eyes widened.
He strode out of his private office and down the sweeping stairs that overlooked the huge, gleaming lobby with enormous chandeliers hanging from thirty-foot ceilings. His eyes scanned over the crowd of wealthy tycoons and beautiful starlets that filled the lobby and main bar of the Campania on a typical Thursday night.
He saw Hallie on the other side of the lobby, near the door, talking to two young women, a plump redhead and a pregnant blonde. Hallie smiled, her joy obvious even from this distance, as she reached out to take something from the blonde.
A baby stroller. Looking down at it, she smiled and cooed.
Cristiano’s blood went cold.
A baby stroller.
A baby.
Later, he wouldn’t even remember how he had reached her. His brain was blank, his body like ice as he walked through the faceless crowd toward Hallie Hatfield and the baby stroller she gripped by the handle. When he drew close, he heard her soft laughter as she turned to her friends. The other women’s eyes went wide as Cristiano put his hand on her shoulder.
Hallie’s face was still smiling as she turned. Then the blood drained from her face.
Cristiano looked from her guilt-stricken face down to the small, dark-haired, fat-cheeked baby drowsing in the stroller. He slowly lifted his eyes back to hers.
“Is this your baby, Hallie?”
The fear in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.
The other two women stared between them, wide-eyed.
“You didn’t tell him?” the blonde said.
“Oh, Hallie,” the redhead whispered.
