Page 150 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

A hissing sound of exasperation left his lips. ‘Let it go, Amy. I appreciate that the situation with your mother was horrendous and you felt obliged to stay, but you could have contacted me, explained.’

She could tell by the way it exploded out of him that this had been eating away at him.

‘I did try to contact you.’

‘Just leave it, Amy.’

‘You don’t believe me! I did ring you, but you’d already blocked me and then it was number unknown. I even tried to follow you on social media, I was so desperate. But then…’

‘Fine, you tried, I believe you, but just let it lie now, Amy.’

His attitude, as if he was doing her a massive favour, snapped something inside her.

‘I got on a train, even though I didn’t know where I was going, just because I needed to tell you something important.’

‘What,’ he mocked, ‘that love conquers all?’

‘No, that I was pregnant.’

In the aftershock of her explosive reveal there was a pulsating silence that seemed to go on for ever.

‘You were pregnant and you didn’t tell me?’

She couldn’t take her eyes off the pulse throbbing in his cheek.

‘I just told you I tried to call you.’

‘My baby?’ He turned to look at her, his dark eyes bleak and filled with nothing resembling love or even liking. ‘Where is he now?’

‘I had a miscarriage.’

‘And you could have told me that how many times over the past weeks?’

‘What would have been the point? It’s history.’

‘Is it? Or is it your version of history? How do I know there was ever a baby? How do I know you didn’t get rid of him or have him adopted? I could have a child out there…’

She listened to his increasingly irrational flow of accusations, growing colder and colder inside.

‘If any of that is what you truly think me capable of, I think you should start advertising for a new chef and do not expect me to work my notice. Also, this Cinderella doesn’t wear ballgowns and I hate red!’ she shrieked.

Chapter Thirteen

The thing amyhad always feared had happened. She’d always been secretly afraid that if he had known about the baby he would have rejected her and now, nine years later, that was exactly what he had done! There were no tears, though, not even when her hot emotions cooled to cold misery as she jogged back to the castle, not looking back. She slowed to a more sedate pace as she went past the musicians who were setting up in the marquee and the lighting technicians who were putting the last touches to the laser display that was timed for midnight, and went straight to her room.

She would leave tomorrow, she decided, looking at her dry-eyed reflection in the mirror, but she couldn’t leave them in the lurch tonight. Ben could have the business; she wanted a total change.

The annoying stitch in her side took a long time to go away and by the time it had subsided there wasn’t really time for a shower. But she made time before dressing for work, glancing at the dress still hanging up. She shook her head and straightened her shoulders before she donned her kitchen whites.

She walked into the kitchen and realised how much she would miss this place.

But not him—she hated him. He had made her love him all over again and she would never forgive him for what he’d said to her. Those accusations, they were… She shuddered when she thought of his words, remembering the emptiness in her life after she’d lost the baby.

Leo didn’t watch her leave. He turned in the opposite direction and stood there, staring out at the sea, his thoughts churning.

Hehadblocked her calls, he remembered now, taking petty satisfaction from the action, or maybe he had just been protecting himself from the fact that he didn’t think she’d try to contact him.

The idea of her being alone, like his own mother, coping with the tragedy of loss with no support, crushed something inside him. Maybe he should be asking himself why she hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him about the baby when she’d finally opened up about her mother.