Page 15 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

She said, ‘I know it was a big night for you and Devilliers, but it genuinely seemed my best opportunity to get to you.’

‘What if I hadn’t got divorced? How long would you have made me wait to learn that I have a daughter?’

Something jagged entered Mia’s belly. If he hadn’t got divorced he would have been there with his wife last night. Petite and dark. As refined as him. Not that she’d looked them up.Much. Shame filled her at her weakness, her need to torture herself by looking them up on the internet.

She had to admit the truth. ‘I probably wouldn’t have come last night but, as I said, I would have tried to contact you somehow. I knew you had to know about Lexi, married or not.’

‘I should have known about her as soon as you knew you were still pregnant.’

Mia clutched the glass in her hands. ‘I found out the day of your wedding.’ She shut her mouth, aghast that she’d let that slip out. She stood up, feeling agitated now. ‘I told you—I wasn’t even sure I wouldn’t lose Lexi. What would have been the point of telling you and disrupting your marriage only for something to go wrong again? I felt I had good reason to say nothing. And then, when she was born...it was seriously overwhelming. Holding down a job, becoming a mother...just getting through each day was a challenge.’

Daniel frowned. ‘You can’t blame me for not being there to help when you deliberately excluded me.’

Anger mixed with guilt surged inside Mia. ‘And you can’t blamemefor feeling reluctant to tell you after what you said about losing the baby.’

Daniel’s face turned stony. ‘I told you... I had good reason not to want to create a family.’

Mia moved behind the seat, as if that might provide some protection from this conversation. When he didn’t elaborate, she said, ‘I think I deserve to know what you’re talking about. We have a child together.’

Daniel ran a hand through his hair, jaw clenching. He stood up too, and moved over to the window. The suit emphasised his broad back and slim waist. The long legs.

His reluctance to speak was palpable, but as if he knew she was right, he said eventually, ‘I grew up with privilege—extreme privilege. I would never deny that. But my parents were of the view that once we had that inherited privilege nothing else was required. Like love. Or caring. Or nurturing. We were just left...left to our own devices.’

‘You and your sister?’

Daniel turned around to face her. He nodded. His face was in shadow. She couldn’t read his expression. It was disconcerting.

Mia asked, ‘How old was your sister when she died?’

Daniel’s voice was clipped. ‘Six. I was nine.’

Mia’s heart twisted. ‘She was so young—how did she—?’

But Daniel cut her off. ‘It was a long time ago. The point is that we might not have been beaten, or abused in any tangible way, but what we—Iwitnessed was something unbelievably cruel and cold. Neglect is its own form of torture. I don’t have the tools to create a happy family, but I will not shirk my responsibility to Lexi.’

That assertion sent a prickle of foreboding down Mia’s spine, but the tone in Daniel’s voice was so bleak it caught in her chest.

She bit her lip before asking a little hesitantly, ‘Is that why your marriage broke up? Because your wife wanted children?’

He stepped out of the shadows and into the light. She was surprised to see a flicker of something at the edge of his mouth. ‘No, that’s not why we broke up. My ex-wife may well decide to have children in the future, but it wasn’t ever going to be part of our arrangement.’

Mia shook her head. ‘So why bother getting married in the first place, if it was going to end so soon?’

‘It was a business arrangement. We agreed to the length of our marriage from the very start.’

‘Oh.’ That didn’t mean that he hadn’t wanted his wife, that they hadn’t still enjoyed—

‘I can hear your thoughts from here, Mia.’ Daniel’s tone was dry.

She hated it that he still had that ability—it made her want to scowl.

He said, ‘Not that it’s any of your business, but my wife and I didn’t consummate the marriage.’

Mia hated the burst of relief in her solar plexus. ‘What do you mean?’

He arched a brow. ‘Do you really need an explanation?’

She blushed. ‘No, but...why?’

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