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Would it be better for Melanie if she gave her up? she actually found herself wondering Suddenly she was starting to see the future through the baby’s eyes And her aunt could well be telling the truth; Melanie would have no grounds to thank her for conde her to the kind of life she could provide for her

Silently shebaby in her crib in the corner She was so thin now that the pair of jeans and stretch-cotton blouse she earing were hanging on her body Only a couple ofas you would have expected any healthy young woman’s clothes to be

But a couple of o Melanie had not been born And Claire’sbirth to a new life, which she’d seen as the path to a whole new beginning, after what the previous few years had put theh

Just three years ago Claire had been the only child of two utterly doting parents Then her father had died at his own hand when he couldn’t face the fact that his business had failed, taking just about ev

erything they owned along with it They’d lost their home, their furniture—even most of their clothes had to be sold to pay back their debtors By then they had moved from the Holland Park area of London into rented accommodation here in the East End

Victoria Stenson had never really recovered from the way her husband ofher to pick up the pieces On top of all that, she’d had to watch so-called friends melt clean away as her circumstances altered Claire had had to leave her private school to finish her final year of education at the local state school She too had had to watch her friends disappear in much the same way her mother had done

It had been a tough, painful ti very disillusioned and bitter She’d had to find a job, which, having spent the last twenty years of her life being taken care of, wasn’t at all easy Oddly enough, it was Aunt Laura who’d helped then She’d found her sister a job working in an up-market fashion boutique where her natural flare for style and what suited people had come in useful

But then, Victoria Stenson had been a very classy lady As a tall and slender natural toffee-blonde, at forty-two years old she had still been a very attractive woood at her new job So when the lady ned the boutique had suddenly taken ill and could not go on a planned trip to Madrid to check out one of her fashion suppliers, she’d felt no qual Victoria in her place

The rest was history By the tie in her mother She’d looked almost happy; more relaxed, more—at peace with herself A couple of weeks later she’d found out why

‘I’ht months later little Melanie was born Small, sweet, olive-skinned and with a crop of black hair that they’d both found so co It was love at first sight for all three of them

They’d brought Melanie home here to this small flat with its two small bedrooms and tiny kitchen and bathrooone back to work It was August, and Claire was on her long summer break from university, so it had worked well that she could care for Melanie while her mother was out They would have to find a baby-minder later—they had been aware of that—but for now they were both happy to share the caring between the to look up for theht

Then tragedy had struck yet again Victoria Stenson had suffered aClaire shell-shocked and utterly grief-stricken, with a baby to care for and nothing much else to help her to do it

Outside a car horn sounded Behind Claire, her aunt Laura took a glance at her atch and frowned ‘I’ve got to go,’ she oodness’ sake,’ she then snapped out ‘Will you leave the child alone for a moment and listen to me?’

As if she could actually feel her aunt’s animosity towards her, the baby let out a soft yelp It was purely instinctive for Claire to reach down and brush a soothing caress across the baby’s petal-soft cheek, and as she did so a well of love ca up inside her

It wasn’t fair, she thought tragically It just wasn’t fair what life was throwing at her! She wanted to keep Melanie with her! She wanted her mother back She wanted her father back She wanted her life back how it used to be before all of these horrible things began to happen

‘What are our options?’ she questioned thickly, tears clearly not far away

Behind her, her aunt sensed success co closer and s lists longer than you can irateful to you for—’

‘I don’t want gratitude,’ Claire cut in, straightening to slice the older woman to ribbons with a razor of a look

‘No’ Wrongho fa with that’

But I would not have a place in her life, Claire thought bleakly And tried to i for her, feeding her, clothing her—loving her …

A cold sense of despair went chasing through her syste as the tears tried to follow

‘There are discreet ways of going about it,’ her aunt was saying ‘Private agencies that only accept the very best of society onto their books The kind of people ouldfor the rest of her life Surely it is at least worth considering the idea—if only for Melanie’s sake …’

For Melanie’s sake Having found the right button to push, the super-sharp PA to one of Europe’s top bankers was now using it ruthlessly

‘You could go back to university and finish your degree,’ Aunt Laura continued ‘I would be prepared to help you to do that, because I think it’s the right thing for you to do But not this, Claire,’ she s ‘I will not help you to wreck two lives when both you and Melanie deserve better than this …’

Melanie