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“It wasn’t like that, damn it! I did what I thought was right.”
“For who? Surely not for Samantha. And not for me.”
“Remember when I said I wanted to talk to you? It was about this. About you and Sam. But I had to wait for the right time.”
He gave a hollow laugh. “Another lie. How many more will you tell before I know the entire truth?”
Tally stared up into her lover’s enraged eyes. He was right. It was time for the truth. All of it.
“No more lies,” she said, her voice trembling. “Here’s the truth. Sam is yours. There was never anyone else. And I left you—I left you because I knew I’d fallen in love with you.”
“Such a pretty story.”
“I swear it’s true! I still love you. I always will.”
“As soon as my daughter is fully recovered,” he said, as if she hadn’t spoken, “we’ll fly back to New York.”
“Damn you, Dante! Listen to me!”
“You will move back into the guest suite. I’ll permit that because I don’t want my child to be traumatized by too many changes all at once.”
A cold knot of fear gripped Tally’s stomach. “What does that mean?”
Dante smiled thinly.
“It means,” he said silkily, “that Samantha is mine. That you stole her from me. That you are an unfit mother.” He paused. “And that I intend to gain custody—sole custody—of her.”
“No!” Tally’s voice rose in horror. “You can’t take her from me. No court will permit it!”
Dante ignored her, walked to the room where Sam lay sleeping and sat down in a chair beside the crib. So much for love. For putting your heart in someone’s hands. For being foolish enough to think life was ever anything but a cruel joke.
He took his cell phone from his pocket, called his attorney, cut through the man’s perfunctory greeting and told him he’d just learned he was the father of a two-year-old child.
The lawyer, who dealt with several wealthy clients, cut to the chase.
“How much does the woman want?”
“You misunderstand me,” Dante said. “I don’t want to deny my paternity of the child, I want to claim her. I want full custody. Will that be a problem?”
He listened, answered a couple of questions, then smiled.
There were times having money, power and the right connections paid off.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MOMENTS LATER, TALLY entered the room.
Dante, still seated beside the crib and the sleeping baby, looked at the nurse.
“Please take your dinner break now.”
He spoke politely, but that didn’t lessen his tone of command. The woman left without a backward glance. Tally looked at him, but he didn’t acknowledge her presence.
Anyone looking at him would assume he was angry.
She knew better. He was furious. And it frightened her. Dante was a powerful adversary in any situation. Now he would be formidable.
But he wouldn’t win. She would do whatever it took to keep her child and defeat him, and that meant facing up to him, starting now.
