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“Noah?” Leia stood in front of him, her face creased in worry. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “I think…” He stopped and swallowed. “I think Ashley checked herself into a clinic this morning to get rid of my child.”
Noah had little memory of driving to the clinic and virtually no memory of calling his attorney. But Sam Ferranti was waiting for him outside the clinic when he arrived with Leia.
“Sam?” He frantically searched the other man’s face.
His lawyer’s expression confirmed his worst fears. “I’m sorry, Noah.”
First he went numb. Then a well of hatred and fury cannonballed through his chest. “Is she here?” he rasped.
Sam nodded.
“What room?”
“I don’t think they’ll let you?—”
“The bitch just aborted my child. She’ll damn well see me!”
“She’s upstairs. Room 21. We’ll go together just in case…”
Noah’s feet pounded up the stairs. He had a vague notion that Leia trailed him with Sam, but his mind was refusing to work properly. And the ache taking root in his heart grew by the second.
He located the private suite and yanked the door open.
Ashley lay in bed with her face turned toward the window, her expression as serene as a mountain lake. At his entry, she turned her head and her eyes bulged in alarm.
“You. Fucking. Bitch.”
“Do you blame me? When you can’t do anything right?” she snarled.
He struggled to speak through the tentacles of pain and anger. “Excuse me?”
She shook her head. “I told you there was something wrong. While you were gallivanting all over the world with your little whore, I had the baby checked out. Turns out there was a 5 percent chance it would’ve been born with birth defects.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Dr. Franklin never mentioned anything?—”
“She wanted me to wait and see,” Ashley sneered. “As if I wanted to be saddled with a defective kid. I really don’t know why I chose to overlook the fact that you’re not normal. I think I fooled myself into thinking you were worth considering for a relationship. I supposed after Taylor died, I panicked. I was the last of my family. It made me forget that there’s something broken in you. Hell, your genes aren’t even up to creating anything but a deformed baby!”
He sucked in a shocked breath. “My God, are you for real?”
“I don’t know what my brother saw in you, but before he died, he convinced me to give you a second chance. God, how I wish I hadn’t. I’ve wasted far too much time on you. I’m going back to New York. You can carry on hiding away here where everyone around you is just as depraved as you are. Was that the attraction to moving into this godforsaken city in the first place?” she mocked.
“For the love of Christ, do you hear yourself? Are you even sorry for anything you’ve done?”
Her smile held razor-sharp calculation. “I have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t want me here. I’ll get out of your hair as soon as we reach a financial understanding.”
Noah waited for the punch line. None came. “You really are serious, aren’t you?”
“As a heart attack. You’ve ruined my life for long enough. I’m not going to go quietly into the night.” She folded her hands calmly over the satin sheet.
“Oh no?” He smiled. And it must have been one worthy of a horror flick because she recoiled just a tiny bit and lost a little of her bravado. Keeping his eyes on her, he withdrew his phone from his pocket. His call was answered immediately. “Sam, can you come in please?”
Sam walked in with Leia. Ashley’s face turned more vicious. “Ah, there’s your little trollop.” She tilted her head to get a better view of Leia. “I hear your warehouse burned to the ground, taking all your ghastly collection with it. What a shame.”
Noah froze.
Leia stepped beside him. “How the hell did you know about that?” she asked.