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It was hard, harder than she could ever have ie to tell a man who had just infor reat sex that she carried his child In the end only blunt honesty would do “I’nant”
For several seconds his expression did not change and then his eyes filled with pity “Xandra, do not humiliate yourself this way I will not leave you unprovided for”
He thought she orried about the payoff gift? She glared at the pile of papers and jeweler’s box near his right hand, wishing she could incinerate the your child, Dimitri”
He groaned and rubbed between his eyes with his thuht, very honest Do not stoop to telling tales now Surely you cannot believe it will change the outcome”
He thought she was lying? She felt hysterical laughter well up inside her He thought she was lying now and had always been so forthright in the past He believed she was Xandra Fortune, the French fashion model and orphan the world saw And he didn’t believe she was pregnant
The irony al”
His cynical srabbed the white stick that proved her pregnancy She waved it in front of hinancy”
She did not know exactly what reaction she had expected, but it was not the volatile, fury filled one she got
He grabbed her wrist, lifting the hand with the pregnancy test, his body vibrating with palpable anger “You dare to show this to me?”
What rong with hinore the reality of your baby just because you’ve decided it’s time to marry another woman”
A nerve ticked in his jaw “Do you think I anant with my child”
“The condoh of it at the time
“That was before your period and we did not have sex again until two days ago” The grip on her wrist tightened painfully “Tell nant Tell me this—” he shook her hand “—is some kind of joke”
“You’re hurting ed her throat and burned her eyes
A flash went off and he let her go, throwing her arust She watched out of the periphery of her vision as one of Dirapher “It’s not a lie I anant”
If anything, he seeer “It is not my child”
For a moment his words paralyzed her How could he doubt it was his child? She’d never had another lover He knew it “It is”
His face contorted with revulsion “All this ti to marry Phoebe, you have known you took another man to your bed Who is it?”
His shouted question ht Di on a public display was anathema to him
“There is no other man”
“The evidence is not in your favor” His voice had dropped to freezing levels
“I don’t kno it can be, but it is”
“I had planned to be generous, give you the apartoing to pay for your lover’s lifestyle and support his bastard child I arabbed the papers off the table, but tossed the box at her “This should be a sufficiently memorable token for services rendered”
She shoved the box aside “There is no other man!”
His face closed up and terror coursed through her He did not believe her “You can have the tests done”
He stood up “Be assured I will demand them if you attempt to sue for any kind of support”
Alexandra gulped, trying to get enough air Trying not to vomit, but the pain was so intense that she wasn’t sure she could win the battle Her arhtly around herto fly apart into a thousand broken little pieces
To have the gift of their child so brutally rejected hurt al
She whimpered
Whipping her hand to her mouth, she blocked the sound with her fist She did not want to let him see her weakness
“You have twenty-four hours to vacate the apartlare, spun on his heel and left
Alexandra paced fro room to the other She’d called Diotten his es with the operator, at his Paris office, at his office in Athens, even with his grandfather’s housekeeper