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‘No I know she had postnatal depression I know her andtroubles’

Aidan moved beside her as her very real distress pierced deep inside him ‘Cara, you didn’t make her leave’

‘I just said I know that’ She threw her hands up between them as if to ward him off ‘She wanted a different life and I wouldn’t have fit into that It’s fine’

Like hell it’s fine He reached out and gently drew her chin around so that she was looking at him ‘You didn’t make her leave, Cara’

She batted his hand away and crossed the room ‘You don’t know that If I’d been better, if I’d been prettier …’

‘If you’d been ser If the world had been square …’ He watched myriad emotions chase themselves across her face Pain, despair, loss … hope? ‘It’s not logical, Cara Your mother was an adult with six other children No one knohy she left but her’

‘Well, if it wasn’t me, then why couldn’t ly ‘Why could he never look at me? Oh, I know the answer to that Because I look like her and he hated that she left’

Aidan thought about the ways she turned in on herself when she was really hurt The way she revae every now and then

It was an atteirl who had grown up with selfish parents

‘I loved him,’ she said almost too quietly for Aidan to hear ‘I still love him’

It took Aidan two strides to reach her and then he stopped thinking and drew her into his arainst his neck ‘I wasn’t going to cry any more’

‘It’s okay, sweetheart You’re okay’

A broken sob caught in her throat and Aidan reached down and kissed her It was thein the world to do ‘You’re okay,’ he ently