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‘Why?’

Her fingers curled around her piece of bread ‘Becausebecause no one deserves to go through what you did’

Their drinks arrived and he took a healthy gulp of wine, exhaling in satisfaction as the fire in the alcohol temporarily replaced the fire of lust ‘But I survived Some would say I triumphed’

‘But you’re still affected by it, aren’t you?’

He tensed ‘Excuse me?’

‘Yesterday you didn’t want me to find out what your father had done Clearly you’re still affected by what happened’

‘Are we not all shaped by our pasts to so to your own experiences’

Her cheeks lost a bit of colour ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Yesterday you ad with people I don’t need to be a genius to work out the root cause of it’

Paling further, she shook her head ‘II’m not’

‘Tell me how you met Lowell?’ he asked before he could stop himself ‘Of all the men you could’ve dated, why him?’

‘Because I didn’t have a crystal ball that could look into the future to see how things would turn out And you say of all the men as if I had hundreds at my feet’

He barely stopped hi up at her hair The idea that no hable ‘So he was the first man to show his interest?’ He tried to force a neutral tone and barely pulled it off

‘He was charinning I believed I was oals and that s were reciprocated’

Anger roiled through his belly ‘Instead, he abandoned you shortly after you were married?’

Shocked eyes met his ‘How did you know that?’