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‘I owe you nothing and I want you to go’ Sing back the thick taste of panic in her throat, Maribel moved forward and snatched up the phone ‘If you don’t leave right now, I’ll call the police’

Leonidas gave her a disconcerted glance and then threw back his handso so mad?’

‘This is my home I want you to leave’

‘In the same hour that I find out that you may be the mother of my only child?’ Innate caution and shrewdness were already exercising restraint on Leonidas He kneould be ent DNA testing had been carried out and the blood bond fully proven by scientific means Yet he knew in his bones that Elias was his child He did not kno he knew but he did, and he was already reaching the conclusion that the situation could have been a great deal worse At least he had Maribel to deal with, and not so harpy without morals

‘I will call the police,’ Maribel threatened unsteadily, terrified that Elias would waken and make some sound upstairs, and that Leonidas would i up to see him

Leonidas slung her a confounded look and flung his aresture that was expansively Greek and impressive ‘What is the matter with you? Is this hysteria? Are you at risk of robbery or assault? Is that why you need to talk garbage about calling the police?’

Her eyes were as bright a purple-blue as wild violets, an ihtened by her pallor and tension ‘I want you to forget you caet what you think you may have found out For all our sakes’

‘Is there so around who thinks that Elias is his child?’ Leonidas enquired griht explain why she was so eager for hi act

A band of tension was starting to pound behind Maribel’s s up to Leonidas Pallis in such abattered by a fierce storm ‘Of course not’ Distaste showed openly in her oval face ‘That’s a really sleazy suggestion’

‘Women do stuff like that all the time,’ Leonidas told her cynically, and he was not wholly convinced by her denial Having watched Ien manipulate Maribel, he had soon appreciated that, while Maribel ullible when her eed ‘If that isn’t the proble I came here How likely is that?’

‘Just this once I’ you to think about someone other than yourself If that’s theatrical, I’m sorry, but that’s how it is’ With an unsteady hand, Maribel pushed the hair back from her cheekbone