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He swore, then accelerated as the lights changed, his gaze focused straight ahead.
‘I came over tonight to tell you—’
‘That I have a daughter?’ he roared, gripping the steering wheel again, an obvious attempt to regain control. ‘She isnine,’ he said, the words dragged from him. ‘And this is the first I am hearing of her?’
Alicia squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I tried to tell you.’
‘When? When did you goddamned try to tell me about my daughter? She isnine,’ he repeated, in shock.
His anger was understandable—she’d expected it—but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.
‘I tried to tell you,’ she said again, sucking in a deep breath. ‘Back then, when I found out. You made it impossible.’
He snorted. ‘Come on, how can that be?’
‘You told me you didn’t want to hear from me—’
‘So you blurt out that you’re pregnant!’ he roared. ‘Youfind a way.’
She shook her head. ‘You think that’s easy? I was sixteen, completely alone, living in a foreign country, terrified, hurt, rejected and ashamed.’ She twisted her face away from him. ‘You were awful when Ididcall.’
‘So your pride was hurt, and therefore you kept my child from me?’
‘You don’t even want children!’ she snapped.
‘Don’t.’ His lips pressed together, and she knew that was a mistake. How he felt about a hypothetical child was completely different to how he might feel about a daughter already in the world.
‘Fine.’ She lifted a hand appealingly. ‘But you have to see this my way—’
‘No,’ he refuted swiftly, driving through Hammersmith without so much as a glance at Alicia. ‘I don’t. I need only see the facts.’ He pulled up on a double yellow line outside the hospital. ‘You have had nine years to tell me about her—’
‘You’re not exactly an easy person to speak to!’ she said quickly. ‘After you changed your number, I had literally no way to find you.’
‘Through my office?’
‘I tried. But short of telling the receptionist who answered our personal business—’
‘Why not do that?’ he demanded fiercely. ‘Why not do whatever it took to get this information to me? Do you think I wouldeverhave chosen to be absent from her life if I’d known?’
A huge lump formed in Alicia’s throat. ‘I don’t know,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘I just know that I wanted to tell you, and then I rationalised that it was better this way.’
He swore in Spanish. ‘That’s convenient for you.’
‘Don’t,’ she spat, putting her hand on the car door. ‘Don’t you dare imply that I took the easy way out. If you hadanyidea how hard this has been for me, how much I struggled raising our daughter on my own...’
‘Because of a choice you made,’ he said, unrelenting. Her heart hurt. She loved him, but she hated him, and she could see more clearly than ever that any future was impossible for them. There was too much water under the bridge, far too much resentment.
He opened his car door, stepping out into the evening, hands on hips. She did the same, staring at him over the bonnet of the car.
‘Graciano, I’m—’
‘Which way?’ he interrupted, eyes boring into hers.
She blinked away, staring up at the hospital, then sucking in a deep breath. ‘You can’t mean to come in with me?’
‘She’s my daughter, too, isn’t she?’
Alicia bit into her lip. ‘Yes, but this isn’t the time to meet her. This is a little girl we’re talking about, and she deserves better than to have this kind of drama. Especially when she’s hurting. Just—go home. I’ll call you when I know what’s happening.’
