Greek Mavericks: The Greek's Unforgettable Secret. Кейт Хьюит

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      Racing away again, Thea retraced her steps and re-joined her friends in the orchestra.

      Could a heart break and shatter into pieces? When Lizzie saw Damon’s face she felt sure it could.

      ‘Come with me,’ Damon said when he reached her side.

      He spoke quietly, but in a tone so hostile that everyone around them turned to stare.

      ‘I can’t—the concert’s about to begin.’ Lizzie glanced at the stage where Thea was sitting.

      Thea was her anchor. She couldn’t move.

      ‘You can and you will come with me,’ Damon assured her. ‘The children don’t play their pieces until after the speeches of welcome, and what I have to say to you won’t take long.’

      She couldn’t make a scene—not here, of all places. Thea was sneaking glances at Lizzie to see how her matchmaking was working out. The last thing Lizzie wanted was to give Thea anything to worry about just before her concert began.

      ‘Okay,’ she agreed.

      Smiling and waving at Thea, she indicated how long she’d be with five fingers held up.

      Thea’s smile was so broad and her eyes were so bright with hope that Lizzie knew she’d never felt so ashamed in her life as she walked away with Damon. There was disappointing your child, and then there was completely betraying her.

      Damon ushered her ahead of him inside the school, where they would have some privacy. It was cool after the heat of the sun, and deserted. Their footsteps echoed on the tiled floor as he led the way into a classroom.

      Closing the door, he leaned back against it, trapping them inside the empty room. ‘When were you going to tell me?’

      When Thea knew, of course.

      She raised her chin to confront a man she barely recognised. Damon had pitched his voice low, but it was harsh with shock and anger. She stood about six feet away, with nothing to hang on to except her determination to try and do the right thing.

      ‘I planned to tell you as soon as I had explained to Thea that you were back in our lives.’ And then another horrible thought struck her. ‘Have you told Thea?’

      ‘Do you think I’m mad?’ Damon’s eyes flared with rage. ‘How could you think I’d do something like that?’

      ‘Because I don’t know you—’ That was true. She didn’t know the man he had become. ‘It’s been a long time, Damon.’

      ‘A very long time,’ he agreed in a voice turned to ice.

      Remembering Thea’s happy face the moment she’d spotted Lizzie, waiting to take her seat, Lizzie knew she was overreacting in this instance, and that neither Damon nor Thea had made any connection between them until Thea had run up to Lizzie. Then Damon must have known.

      ‘And in all that very long time you couldn’t find the right moment to tell me that we had a child?’

      He was incredulous. And furious. But she was armed too. ‘It wasn’t all about you, Damon.’

      ‘Or you,’ he fired back. ‘Was a child so unimportant you just forgot to mention it?’

      ‘Thea—not a child. And there is nothing more important to me than Thea.’

      ‘How about giving me a chance to feel the same?’ he suggested cuttingly.

      Damon was incandescent with fury, but she hadn’t expressed her feelings for almost eleven years. She hadn’t had that luxury. She’d been too busy being a mother and keeping food on the table, a roof over their heads.

      ‘I had a lot going on,’ she said, battling to rein herself in. ‘When I did try to contact you, your people blocked me, and I didn’t have the resources to keep on trying to call. And even if I had…’ She shrugged angrily. ‘What would you have done?’

      His jaw ground tensely. ‘I wouldn’t have been as insensitive as you.’

      ‘Insensitive?’ Lizzie clenched her fists. ‘This from the man who turned his back on me after the court case, in spite having slept with me the night before? No doubt you’d washed your hands of everything to do with my family by that time. You’d got your victory, so everything else—including me—was done and dusted.’

      ‘I moved on—as you did,’ Damon countered coldly.

      ‘I moved on because I had to. I didn’t have a home to go to. You walked away without a backward glance.’ Her shoulders lifted tensely. ‘You didn’t care what happened to me after the court case.’

      ‘You weren’t my responsibility,’ Damon said coldly, and with a good deal of truth.

      ‘Correct,’ Lizzie agreed. ‘But you can be quick to help those you want to, can’t you Damon? You just couldn’t see beyond bedding me, and you certainly didn’t care about me, did you? So don’t you dare come back now and start accusing me of handling things badly. We both made mistakes—’

      ‘You can’t turn this around on me.’

      ‘Why not?’ Lizzie challenged. ‘You walked away.’

      ‘There was nothing to walk away from.’

      With a shake of her head, she laughed angrily. ‘Exactly. All I am to you—all I ever was—is a one-night stand.’

      ‘And you had so much going on in your life that letting me know you were expecting my child came well down the list.’

      ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ Lizzie exclaimed. ‘I didn’t have your resources. I was thrown out of my childhood home with just the clothes I stood up in. I didn’t have any money. I certainly didn’t have a phone. I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from, let alone whether I could manage to put a roof over my head. And at that stage, Damon, you were the last person I’d have thought of calling. Why would I, when you’d made no attempt to find me?

      ‘I had no one to rely on but myself—and don’t think for one moment that I’m complaining, because it was a good thing. Being alone taught me self-reliance and helped me to be a better mother for Thea. It made me strong and determined, and I learned that if I took one step at a time I could survive—I could put a roof over my head and I could care for my baby. Those were the only things that mattered to me—not you, nor me. Beyond keeping healthy for Thea’s sake, the only thing I cared about—still care about and always will care about—is Thea.’

      ‘You should have come to me,’ he ground out.

      ‘Should I?’ she demanded. ‘If I could have found you, do you mean? After I’d repeatedly contacted your people and been turned away I made one attempt to appeal to my stepmother, one woman to another. I told her I was pregnant and begged her to help me find you. She laughed in my face and told me never to return. She couldn’t have a slut damaging her reputation, she said. Yes, it was a slap in the face,’ Lizzie agreed, ‘but it pulled me together fast and I managed very well without her—and without you too. It didn’t take me long to learn that I was better on my own.’

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ