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“Ididn’t,” she ed “But he”

“Don’t tellyou,” her father stated unequivocally “Because I refuse to believe it”

“I It’s complicated,” Juliana stammered out “You don’t know I never told you, Dad, but”

“But you slept with hiht before you left Zakhar” Stunned speechless, Juliana could only gasp again “Oh, baby,” her father said with tenderness, “did you think I wouldn’t know?”

“Butyou never said anything”

“What should I have said? It was your decision I figured you knehat you were doing—or thought you did I figured you’d gone to hiht me out”

“Mo “But you said You told irls don’t”

“Girls, yes But you weren’t a girl by then, any more than your mother e fell in love” He hesitated “Is that why you never asked e you harshly?” His voice softened with regret “Oh, baby, I’”

His sigh sounded in her ear “I never thought badly of you for what you did I never thought badly of Andre, either, or that he took advantage of you—well, noable to resist your mother when she came to me”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me? About Momand you?”

“How do you think we ended up together? There were almost twenty years between us, and I tried so hard to be noble Tried so hard to resist loving her But yournone of that” He chuckled softly to hi her mother in a way she’d never envisioned her parents “She came to me, told me she loved me, and the hell with my efforts to be noble and deny as between us Then she—” He halted abruptly, coughed and added drily, “You were born almost nine months to the day afterward”

Juliana’s throat tightened with emotion “Oh, Dad, I wish I’d known All I could think of was you telling irls don’t, and I didn’t want you to knohat I’d done”

“I didn’t want you to take sex lightly, that’s all I wanted it to mean as much to you as it meant to your mother—a precious intirow up to be like her—strong, courageous and true Fearless when it cairl any choices you had every right to make for yourself”

He let that sink in “And don’t forget, I knew Andre I knew the kind of man he was Most important to , loved you enough to sacrifice his own desires for your benefitto let you goto give you tirow up completely You couldn’t have picked a better man to love”

Thirty minutes later Juliana was still in a state of shock Not just that her father knew about the night she’d spent with Andre, but that he adamantly refused to believe what she’d told him about Andre’s actions afterward

“There’s an explanation, baby,” her father insisted “Give him a chance to explain I can’t and I won’t believe it unless I hear it fro He’s too good a man” The conviction in her father’s voice shook her to the core, and she couldn’t have spoken even if her father hadn’t continued

“I never liked Andre’s father, but you know that I didn’t like the way he treated his daughter, for one thing, as if she orthless, when most fathers would have been immensely proud of Mara And I didn’t like the way he treated his son, either, as if Andre was just a possession to him, someone he could dictate to But Andre never let what his father thought he should do control his actions—if he believed so to do, he did it, and dae is rare”

After she hung up the phone Juliana stood undecided for ato know she wasn’t crazy to be thinking of staying in Zakhar Hoping maybe Sabrina could help herthrough her Especially since her conversation with her father had only raised more questions than provided answers