Her hand flew through the air and slammed against his jaw.
“You bastard,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “You evil, horrible son of a bitch!”
“Don’t bother with the theatrics,” he snarled. “Or I’ll call you some names of my own.”
“I don’t understand why Kay loved you!”
“Your sister never loved anything that didn’t have a price tag on it. Now, go on. Get the hell out before I change my mind and call the police.”
“She loved you enough to let you talk her into having this baby!”
Damian had swung away. Now he turned around and faced Ivy Madison.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know damned well what I’m talking about! She lost the first baby and instead of offering her any comfort and compassion, you told her to get out because she couldn’t give you an heir.”
Could a woman’s lies actually leave a man speechless? Damian opened his mouth, then shut it again while he tried to make sense of what Ivy Madison had just said.
“You would have tossed away the woman who loved you, who adored you, just because she couldn’t give you a child. So my sister said she’d give you a baby, no matter what it took, even after the doctors said she couldn’t run the risk of pregnancy!”
“Wait a minute. Just wait one damned minute—”
Ivy stared at him, emerald eyes bright against the pallor of her skin.
“You used her love for you to try to get your own way and you didn’t care what it did to her, what happened to her—”
Damian was on her in two strides, hands gripping her shoulders, fingers biting into her flesh, lifting her to her toes so that their faces were inches apart.
“Get out,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “Do you hear me? Get out of my home and my life or I’ll have you arrested. And if you think you’ll walk away after a couple of hours in jail, think again. My attorneys will see to it that you stay in prison for the next hundred years.”
It was an empty threat. What could he charge her with besides being a world-class liar? He knew that. What counted was that she didn’t.
But it didn’t stop her.
“Kay was in love with you.”
“I just told you what Kay loved. You have five seconds, Miss Madison. One. Two—”
“She found a way to have your child. You were happy to go along with it but now, you refuse to acknowledge that—”
“Goodbye, Miss Madison.”
Damian spun Ivy toward the door. He put his hand in the small of her back, gave her a little push and she stumbled toward the elevator.
“I’m going to call down to the lobby. If the doorman doesn’t see you stepping out of this car in the next couple of minutes, the cops will be waiting.”
“You can’t do this!”
“Just watch me.”
The elevator door opened. Damian curled his fingers around her elbow and quick-marched her inside.
Tears were streaming down her face.
She was as good at crying on demand as Kay had been, he thought dispassionately, though Kay had never quite mastered the art. Her face would get red, her skin blotchy but despite all that, her nose never ran.
Ivy’s eyes were cloudy with tears. Her skin was the color of cream. And her nose—damn it, her nose was leaking.