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He sed

She’d been so wan after theirout that he’d been worried about her, which unnerved him; he didn’t normally feelhim inside out

“What do you have there?” he asked, trying to distract hi her load of laptop and files

“I was going to work on the foundation in here, but if you’d rather I used the dining room—”

“No, here is fine” He looked at the cover of the laptop balanced on the stack of file folders as he set everything on the desk The label juo and its scrolled initials: VVE

“It…was soave me to work on, then said I should keep it” She bit her lip, her upward glance culpable

Aleksy tensed The man was dead, but he just wouldn’t die

“I’ll get rid of it,” Clair said flatly “I just want the foundation files off it Then I’ll throw it in the incinerator Honestly, I feel so sick with myself!” She covered her cheeks with her hands, her blue eyes clouded with repentance “I didn’t realize he contributed to your father’s death Youto do with him I am”

Mental walls were clashing into place, trying to lock out what she was saying, but the words were spoken He couldn’t ignore them All he’d said earlier crept around hi hile him up more painfully He didn’t knohy he’d let hirief or Victor’s role in his father’s death He just wished he could forget them

He suddenly stopped cold What was he thinking? For twenty years those horrors had been upper Victor pay for them To put any of it out of his mind was a betrayal of his parents’ oing was now evaporating

While Clair was seeping in

His heart gave a hard, unco to mean too much to him