Happy Mother's Day!

‘Well, until you got my letter you seemed happy with the situation.’ Erin’s stomach lurched sickly as her eyes fell from his. It would be too much to hope he hadn’t heard the quivering note of bitterness in her voice.

‘You expected me to run after you?’

She started to shake her head in denial while he was still speaking.

A s

low smile crossed his lean features. ‘You wanted me to chase after you.’ He sounded smug about the discovery.

‘That’s the last thing I wanted,’ she denied, her cheeks burning with mortification at the suggestion. ‘I was relieved that when you thought about it, you realised I was right.’

‘Now whatever gave you that idea, cara?’

Her head lifted. ‘Because you’re not a passive person. If you’d wanted me …’ She stopped, hot, mortified colour flooding her face. ‘You’re not the sort of man who would meekly stand to one side and let something happen if it’s not what you actually want.’

‘So what you’re saying is I don’t want you, cara.’

‘Don’t call me that!’ she spat, covering her ears with her hands.

‘Cue a ranting irrational outburst. Now that,’ he mused, sounding bored, ‘was predictable.’

‘What was? What are you looking at me like that for?’

‘Whenever you get close to acknowledging a problem you start an argument to deflect the discussion … either that or,’ he observed with a hard laugh, ‘you pack your bags.’

Her denial was automatic. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

Francesco’s brows lifted. ‘Is it?’ he asked, dragging a hand through his dark hair. ‘I think if you let your mind drift back …’

Did he have a point? Her expression troubled, Erin shook her head in rejection of his theory. ‘How is this suddenly my problem, my fault? You spent the night with another woman.’

Still scanning her flushed face, he shook his head. ‘I don’t think that deep down even you are insecure enough to believe that. No, infidelity wasn’t the problem in our marriage.’

She folded her arms across her chest and tried to disguise the fact his assessment of the situation had shaken her deeply, and raised some uncomfortable questions in her mind.

‘So you’re saying I was the problem? Even if I was wrong,’ she said, grudgingly conceding to herself for the first time that it was possible, ‘it was only a matter of time before you did cheat.’

There was a moment’s silence.

‘Now that was a very revealing comment. Don’t you think so, cara?’

Hating the feeling of exposure, of emotional vulnerability, Erin shook her head mutely.

‘So you left in anticipation of my cheating on you just as your father cheated on your mother.’

‘This isn’t about my parents!’

‘I know that, but do you? Let me be clear, Erin. What you are basically saying is that you never expected me to be faithful. You never expected our marriage to last. Does the term self-fulfilling prophesy mean anything to you?’

‘You’ve been telling me half-truths from the moment you met me.’ She heard the defensive note in her voice and bit her lip.

He hit her with his trump card then and watched the guilt wash over her face. ‘And your conscience is totally clear on the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth front, is it?’ He watched the stricken look of guilt spread across her face and was surprised to find it did not afford him the satisfaction he had anticipated.

Erin studied the toe of her shoe with deep interest as she tried to force the words from her dry throat. ‘Francesco, I’m …’

‘You’re pregnant.’

Her head came up with a jerk. Her wide, shocked eyes meshed with his implacable dark, accusing stare. The air between them vibrated with a static electricity that was almost visible.