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‘Do you really wish you didn’t have Elyssa?’

Merry flushed and, thinking about that, shook her head in disnant but once she was here, everything changed’

‘Maybe it changed for Angel as well Maybe he wasn’t lying about that He does value family ties,’ Sybil remarked

Merry frowned ‘How do you know that?’

Sybil reddened, her eyes evasive ‘Well, you told me he meets up with his father twice a month and never cancels…and naturally I’ve read about his elina’s exploits in the newspapers She’s a real nut-job—rich, stupid, fickle If he’s still close to her, he has a high tolerance threshold for ee and the er by the year’

Merry’s eyes widened ‘I had no idea’

‘Shallow sexual relationships are all he saing up, all he’s ever had as an exa that he is the way he is I won’t excuse him for the way he treated you but I do see that he doesn’t know any better,’ Sybil co Merry’s surprise ‘But you could teach him different’

‘I don’t think you can domesticate a wild animal’

Sybil rolled her eyes ‘Elyssa has enough charis rhinoceros’

Merry tossed and turned in her bed, despising herself for her nervous tension Angel had cast a long shadow over her afternoon with Fergus, depriving her of relaxation and appreciation She had ivable cohly inexcusable level, she still craved the buzz of exciteel had filled her with and that unsettled and shaone she had been left pregnant and alone and now her memory trailed back fifteen months…

Discovering that she was pregnant had proved a real shock for Merry because she had not seriously considered that that single accident was likely to result in conception and had hoped for the best She had barely settled into a new and very challenging job, and falling pregnant had seemed like the worst possible news She had suffered froe had even feared she was on the brink of having a e She had waited until she was over three el to tell hi his child She had never had his personal ot to speak to hi that calls from her were on so a letter or an email that would probably be opened and read by a fore In the end she had used her working knowledge of Angel’s diary and had headed to the hotel where he met his father for lunch twice a month

That unwise but desperateencounter of Merry’s life Angel had had a very tall and beautiful blonde with him when he entered the bar, a blonde with bare breasts on display under a gauzy see-through dress She had looked like the sort of woman who didn’t ever wear underwear and every man in the place had stared lustfully at her, while she’d clung to Angel’s arled and touched hi at her, Merry had felt sick and ugly and plain and boring because pregnancy had not been kind to her Her body had already been swelling and thickening, her eyes had been shadowed because she couldn’t sleep and the smell of most foods had made her nauseous She had stayed concealed in the bar behind a book and round a corner while Angel, his companion and eventually his father had sat down to lunch on an outside terrace

If Angel had not reappeared at the bar alone, she would probably si to achieve her goal But when she’d seen him she had forced herself up out of her seat and forward

‘I have to speak to you in private,’ she had said ‘It’s very important It will only take five minutes’

He had spun back frouarded eyes ‘I’’

‘Could we go out into the foyer?’ she had pressed, very conscious of the number of people around them ‘It would be more private’