Page 116 of A Legal Affair

The house was suffocatingly silent when Daniela returned from campus that afternoon.

She’d attended all of her classes as if it were a normal day, then she’d calmly walked to the admissions office and withdrawn her enrollment. Mistaking the cause of the tears that blurred her eyes, the kind admissions clerk had attempted to console Daniela by telling her that there would always be a place for her at the university whenever she was ready to continue her studies.

She’d cried all the way home.

When she stepped through the front door and was greeted with utter silence, it only punctuated the sense of loneliness and despair threatening to engulf her.

After checking her mother’s bedroom and finding it empty, she assumed that Pamela had stepped out to run errands or visit her friends at the senior center where she volunteered.

Returning to the living room, Daniela kicked off her shoes and sank down on the sofa with the remote control. As she wandered aimlessly through channels, she marveled at the pendulum of her emotions. After the glorious, magical weekend she’d spent with Caleb, she’d been floating on cloud nine. But inthe span of a day she’d gone from feeling the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows.

Because today was the day she’d decided to tell Caleb the truth about herself.

Withdrawing from the university had been the first step, a way to bolster her courage for the difficult task that awaited her.

Difficult?Daniela thought grimly.Try excruciating.

Her only consolation, if one could be found, was that once she came clean to Caleb, dealing with her brothers would be a veritable cakewalk. Because there was nothing Kenneth could say that would make her feel any worse than she already did, knowing she’d betrayed Caleb in the worst possible way, and knowing that her punishment was to face a future without the first and only man she’d ever truly loved.

When the doorbell rang, she got up and shuffled to the door on leaden legs. As if he’d been conjured by her thoughts, Caleb stood on her doorstep.

Her pulse raced at the sight of him. She loved him so damn much. And though she knew it was a long shot, deep in her heart lingered the hope that somehow, some way, she could tell him the truth about everything and still not lose him.

She licked her lips nervously. “Hi, Caleb,” she said with forced normalcy. “You must have read my mind. I was just going to call you and ask you to come by after your last class.”

One side of his mouth lifted in a half smile, but there was something in that smile, something barely perceptible, that sent a whisper of foreboding through her.

“In that case,” he drawled softly, “I guess it’s a good thing that I’m a mind reader, isn’t it?”

Unsure how to respond to the strange undertone in his voice, Daniela merely smiled and stepped aside to let him enter. As he shouldered past her into the house, she noticed a manila folder tucked beneath his arm.

“Would you like something to drink?” she offered, closing the door and leaning against it for support, her knees feeling terribly weak—even weaker than they normally felt whenever she was around Caleb.

“No, thanks. I’m fine, Daniela.”

Was it just her imagination, or had there been a slight edge to his voice when he said her name?

Deciding it was just her guilty conscience getting to her, Daniela pushed away from the door, walked over to the sofa and sat down, automatically expecting Caleb to follow suit.

He didn’t. Moving to the window, he propped a shoulder against the wall and regarded her in calm, implacable silence. He seemed to be waiting for something, though she couldn’t fathom what that might be.

Her hands twisted nervously in her lap. “Have you already eaten? I could fix you something, like a sandwich or?—”

“I’m fine, Daniela.” A shadow of cynicism curved his mouth. “Or would you prefer to be called Miss Roarke?”

For one stunned moment Daniela stared at him, his words not fully registering. But once they did, she felt a huge wave of sorrow, and a shame so intense she could barely hold her head up.

She got to her feet slowly. “Caleb?—”

He pinned her with a look of such scathing contempt that tears burned her eyes. “How long were you planning to keep up the charade, Daniela?” he sneered. “Weeks? Months?Years?”

She shook her head quickly. “No, of course not. I?—”

“Of course not?” he thundered furiously, advancing on her. “You say that as if I should know better, as if the idea of you going undercover for ‘years’ should be any more outrageous than your going undercover at all!”

Daniela strove for calm, though her insides were quaking violently. “Caleb, please let me explain?—”

“Don’t bother!” He slapped the manila folder down on the coffee table, spilling some of the contents to the floor.