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“It must have been hard on you, Michael, knowing all that and seeing Draco day after day.”
“I had to put it out of my mind. I couldn’t change what had happened, could I?” He gave a shrug that tried to be defiant. “And nothing I could do would make any difference. And one day, I’d step out onstage in his place, and I’d be better. That would be enough.”
“You’ve got that chance now, don’t you? A chance to stand in his light. A chance to be with one of his lovers.”
His tightly compressed lips trembled apart. “Carly. It wasn’t like that. I don’t want you to think—”
“Of course it wasn’t.” She put a hand over his. “The lieutenant has a foul mind.”
“Ms. Landsdowne.”
Carly ignored Eve for a moment and laid gentle kisses on both of Michael’s cheeks. “You’ve spilled your coffee. Why don’t you go back and get us both a fresh cup?”
“Yeah. All right.” He got to his feet. “My mother is a wonderful woman.”
“Of course she is,” Carly replied.
When he went back into the kitchen, she turned to face Eve fully. “I don’t like seeing Michael’s vulnerabilities exploited, Lieutenant. The strong are supposed to protect the weak, not kick them in the face.”
?
??Maybe you’re not giving him enough credit for spine.” Eve moved over, eased down on the arm of a chair. “He defended his mother very well. For some, family ties are the strongest. You didn’t mention you were adopted, Ms. Landsdowne.”
“What?” Confusion clouded her eyes. “For heaven’s sakes, why should I have? I don’t remember it half the time. What business is that of yours?”
“It was a private adoption, at birth.”
“Yes. My parents never hid it from me. Neither was it made a particular issue in our home.”
“Did they give you the details of your heritage?”
“Details? Medical history, ethnicity, of course. I was told my birth mother arranged for my placement because she wanted the best for me, and so on and so forth. Whether that was true or not never mattered. I had my mother.”
She paused, then asked, “Are you speculating that my mother had a relationship with Richard at one time?” She let out a rolling laugh and shook back her cloud of tousled hair. “I can assure you she didn’t. My mother never met Richard Draco. She and my father have been happily married for nearly thirty years. Before I was born she was a travel agent, not an actress.”
“You were never curious about the woman who gave you up?”
“Not particularly. I have wonderful parents whom I love, and who love me. Why should I wonder about a woman who’s nothing but a stranger to me?”
Like mother, like daughter, Eve thought.
“Many adoptees want contact, want answers, even a relationship with their birth parents.”
“I didn’t. Don’t. There was no hole in my life to fill. I’m sure my parents would have helped me find her if I’d asked. If I’d needed that. I didn’t. And it would have hurt them,” she said quietly. “I would never hurt them. How is this relevant?”
“Do you recognize the name Anja Carvell?”
“No.” She stiffened slightly. “Are you telling me that’s the name of the woman who placed me? I didn’t ask for a name. I didn’t want a name.”
“You have no knowledge, have had no contact with a woman by that name?”
“No, and I don’t want any.” Carly got to her feet. “You’ve no right to do this. To play with my life this way.”
“You never asked about your birth father.”
“Goddamn it, if she’s nothing to me, he’s less than nothing. A lucky sperm. You wanted a rise out of me, you got one. Now, what does this have to do with Richard Draco’s death?”
Eve said nothing, and in the silence she watched denial, disbelief, then horror flash into Carly’s eyes. “No, that’s a lie. A revolting, vicious lie. You hideous bitch.”
