But if Abby was feeling even a flicker of sentiment, it didn’t show.
Instead she crossed the room and stood next to her mother.
“You’re wrong if you think I don’t know about you.” Her voice was steady. “I know you left my mother when she was eleven years old and never got in touch again. I know you’ve been hanging around this place and lying to the staff aboutwho you are. I don’t need to know more than that. You’re not someone I want, or need, in my life.”
Alexandra felt a rush of emotion and knew she needed him gone. She couldn’t hold it together for much longer.
“What do you want, really? Why are you here?”
He paused and then gave a little shrug. “I’m having a bit of a downturn in business as it happens. The economy isn’t what it was. You seem to be doing brilliantly. You have an eye for a deal. Thought we could have a chat.”
She almost laughed.
Money. Of course. He was here because he wanted money. That should have been the first thing that came to mind when she’d been searching for a reason for his persistence.
“I see. So this emotional reunion isn’t about sentiment, it’s about finance.”
It was a relief. That unsettling moment where she’d been afraid she might break down passed. This was business, and she was comfortable with business.
“I do have an eye for a deal. And I won’t be doing a deal with you.”
The door opened and Alexandra glanced across the room, desperately hoping that it was security.
Edward stood there and her heart gave an extra bump.
Edward.
Just when she thought she had her emotions back under control, this happened.
It was too much for one day.
His gaze met hers briefly but then shifted to her father who was frowning.
“Now what?”
“I’m here to escort you from the premises.”
“I don’t need escorting. I know my way out.” He frowned at Alexandra. “I’m your dad. You owe me.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“This is all because you bear a grudge because I left you?”
“No.” She could hardly speak. “I stopped caring about that a long time ago. I stopped caring about you. But I didn’t forget, I can never forget, what you did to my mother.”
“Look, you were a kid. I don’t expect you to understand, but it was tough after her accident. Tough on me, too. She needed almost full-time care, and—”
“Accident?Accident?” Alexandra lost the last of her cool and he looked startled.
“Of course it was an accident. She was hit by a car.”
“A car that you were driving.”
He rocked on his feet, as if he’d taken a blow. “I don’t know what—”
“You didn’t know that I knew? I’ve always known. I saw it happen. She begged me not to tell anyone and I honoured that for her sake, but I always knew. I know all of it. I know that she ran out to beg you not to take the car when you’d been drinking but you were already past paying attention. I know that you hit her with that car, and you drove off without even knowing she was tangled under the wheels.” She had to pause to breathe and to push aside memories she’d worked hard to bury. For years she’d had flashbacks and for a brief moment the horror of that moment returned, along with the awful feeling of helplessness. “I was the one who called the ambulance. I was the one who went to the hospital with her. And I was the one who pretended not to know what had happened even though I saw it all from my bedroom window.”
His gaze shifted away from hers. “It was a tragic accident.”
