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The invisible hand which was clenched around her heart grew even tighter and Lexi knew that the ti,’ she said numbly

‘Money!’ he agreed ‘That thing he can’t do without The one thing he’s never bothered to earn hihout his useless, idle life’

‘Please don’t insult him’

‘Oh, co sisterly loyalty a little too far? Since when did the truth beco it that you just don’t see it any more? And maybe here’s a truth you really should take on board’ His body stilled and his eyes greatchful ‘Don’t you see that giving hi he wants has helped make him the man he is today?’

Furiously, she shook her head and glared at him Because hoould someone like Xenon ever understand? Xenon who had been born into a world of lavish wealth He hadn’t knohat it was like to coe To have to cut a hole at the top of your shoes because you’d outgrown them

In Xenon’s world there had been relatives—far too many of them in her opinion—and servants, who had all doted on hio to the police station to bail out his drunken mother and then to lie about it to social services, terrified that the faed He’d never had to hold a terrified and sobbing child who had woken up frohtmare to discover that the real world could be infinitely worse

‘You don’t understand,’ she said

‘Oh, I think I do,’ he said coldly ‘Jason has found that the well of easy money you’ve always provided has run dry—so who better to turn to than his wealthy brother-in-law?’

The thudding of her heart increased ‘What does he want money for?’

‘Why do you think? Toaddiction’

Lexi closed her eyes as a terrible sense of inevitability crept over her She’d tried everything to help Jason with his ga habit In the early days she had sat down and talked to hih his teeth and told her he’d quit She’d believed every word he’d said as she’d signed over yet another cheque supposed to help put hiht and narrow Or maybe she had just wanted to believe it Later, she had paid for the first of many visits to the rehab clinic—until he was kicked out of the last one for starting up a poker school with his fellow patients