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Her legs obbling Her stoer of arousal still claement She sank down on to a sofa, pale and drained and deeply ashamed that he could exercise such effortless power over her

'You really do hate ht no answer si that happened four years ago You don't want to accept that the view is very different from my side of the fence'

'Is it?' There was no emotion whatsoever in the flat response

'You walked out, not me,' she condemned in an undertone 'I needed to find somewhere else to live and I was broke-'

'The rent on that apartment was paid up until the end of the year,' Vito incised drily 'There was no need for you to move out I also opened an account for you so that you would not be short of money'

'Yes…' A choky little laugh escaped her 'I'll never forget that most sentimental of final farewells A cheque-book delivered by specialdevotion What did you think I was? Some little bimbo you had to payoff?'

An alh cheekbones 'I was responsible for you I discharged that responsibility in the only way open to me at that time'

'I didn't take your money when I lived with you Why would I take it when you were gone?' she whispered hoarsely 'I couldn't go back to the flat I'd shared because I sublet it teeks before you left That's why I ended up on Steve's couch'

'The baby… was itHe was out of context but she could see by his stillness, his cold concentration that it was really the only topic he was ready to focus on 'The subject is closed', he had said a week ago, but even Vito was

human

The raw cruelty of that question pierced her like a knife And the strength of her own pain surprised her or she had believed that she was prepared for that suspicion 'How can you ask asped

In the s pulse of the silence, Vito elevated a satiric ebony brow Ashley bowed her head, quivering with a hatred that was but a thin patina over a painful surge of confused eer, she needed that anger But instead she was suffering a desperate sense of loss and futility Why did it hurt so ly vulnerable? Why all of a sudden did it matter so much that he believed her?

'It was yours' She surrendered, despising herself for the weakness 'And-'

'That's all I want to know,' Vito interrupted fiercely 'But how did you know?' she demanded finally

'I put a private investigator on you I was curious' Vito cast her a freezingly shuttered glance but one brown hand clenched into a fist in betrayal as he spoke 'I believed that there was another le was immaterial Purely by accident, I discovered that you had a farme out of your life’

Ashley flinched He thought that she would have gone to any lengths to ensure that she had the freedom to dispose of their unborn child It was a sordid picture and one she did not have the means to dispel In her absence she had been convicted and sentenced four years ago and he was allowing her no right of appeal

'You won't listen to me,' she pointed out strickenly 'But I didn't have the abortion I changed e a couple of months later'

'We should return to the party'

'Vito, you can't do this to me!' she cried