‘Answer me!’
His face was only inches away from her own, bombarding her with the full force of his anger.
She shook her head. ‘You don’t understand, Liam—’
‘Robert Shipley was your guardian, wasn’t he?’ he ground out fiercely. ‘The adored Uncle Rob you talked about all the time?’
‘Yes!’ she burst out forcefully, the tears beginning to fall hotly down her cheeks now.
Liam thrust her away from him, staring at her disbelievingly. ‘I thought—believed—I’ve been making an idiot of myself, haven’t I?’ he exclaimed impatiently as he moved away.
‘Where are you going?’ she choked as he strode over to the door.
He looked back at her with glacial eyes. ‘As far away from here as possible!’
‘But—’
‘Don’t say another word, Laura,’ Liam bit out in a dangerously controlled voice. ‘Not another word. I won’t be held responsible for the consequences if you do!’
She watched mutely as he swung the sitting room door back with a bang. The slam of the front door seconds later told her that he had gone. Never to return, probably.
And with that realisation came the knowledge that she still hadn’t told him about Bobby, his son…!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SHE hadn’t told him anything that mattered!
That, much as she had loved Robert, it hadn’t been in the way she loved Liam. That Robert hadn’t loved her in a romantic way either. That, as well as trying to help her once she had told him she was expecting Liam’s baby, Robert had seen their marriage as a way of having the family he would never have had otherwise.
Liam had left before she could tell him any of that. Before she could explain.
She sat down, wondering what to do next. That Liam would never willingly come near her again she was certain. And he had to know the truth. No matter what the consequences, he had to finally know that. After the last few days she knew she owed that to Bobby as much as anyone else…
It didn’t take long to organise herself—to check with the hotel Liam had stayed at previously and find that he had booked in there again earlier today, to knock on the door to Amy’s flat and ask her to mind Bobby while she just popped out for a short time, to get her car out of the garage and drive to Liam’s hotel. Before she lost her nerve!
That Liam would be reluctant to see her she didn’t doubt. But he had to hear what she wanted to say. Not because she thought there was any chance left between the two of them, but because Bobby, without even knowing who Liam really was, had grown to love him. Her marriage seven and a half years ago had been to give Bobby a father, and, no matter what it cost her, she couldn’t do less for him now.
‘I believe I saw Mr O’Reilly go through to the bar a short time ago.’ The pretty hotel receptionist answered her query brightly.
Laura was sure that if that was what this young lady believed, then it was true; Liam’s attractiveness certainly hadn’t dimmed over the years!
‘Thank you.’ She smiled distractedly, her steps reluctant as she walked towards the hotel bar. If Liam was drinking again…!
Do it, Laura, she told herself firmly. You came here to talk to him, and that’s what you’re going to do.
He sat alone in a corner booth of the dimly lit bar, a glass of what looked like whisky in front of him. Untouched whisky, if the high level in the glass was any indication.
Laura came to a halt beside his table, managing to remain unmoving as, sensing her presence, he looked up at her, his gaze instantly fiercely angry.
‘What do you want?’ he demanded unpleasantly, the lines about his eyes and mouth more pronounced.
What she really wanted was for him to sit there and listen while she talked, saying nothing in response to anything she said, and then for him to let her leave again!
‘Can I join you?’ she said quietly.
‘Why not? It’s a free country. Although there are plenty of empty tables if you just want a drink.’
‘I don’t.’ She slid onto the bench-seat opposite his in the booth. ‘You left earlier before I had finished talking,’ she explained softly.
His gaze was scathing as he straightened, one hand reaching out, the fingers curling about the glass of whisky. ‘Don’t look so worried,’ he derided as she gave a wary glance at the glass. ‘I ordered this twenty minutes ago and I haven’t touched any of it yet!’ But there’s still time, his words seemed to imply!
Laura sighed heavily, shaking her head in the direction of the young barman as he came over to see if she would like a drink; she already knew she wasn’t going to enjoy the next few minutes, and Dutch courage wasn’t going to help!
She drew in a deep breath. ‘Liam, there are—things about my marriage that you can’t possibly be aware of,’ she began carefully. ‘Circumstances that—’
‘Are we talking about Bobby?’ he cut in harshly.
She swallowed hard. ‘What about Bobby?’
‘Maybe these will help,’ Liam ground out, reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket to pull out several photographs. He placed them carefully, side by side, on the table in front of her.
Laura moved forward slowly, looking down at those photographs. Apart from the fact that the clothes were all wrong, dating the photographs at thirty years or so ago, the little boy smiling into the camera in all of them could have been Bobby!
‘You?’ she managed to croak.
‘I asked my mother for them when I was in Ireland,’ Liam confirmed, gathering up the photographs to put them back in the pocket of his jacket.
Laura moistened dry lips. ‘How long have you known?’
‘That you must have been pregnant when I left eight years ago?’ Liam paused. ‘From the first moment I set eyes on Bobby.’
Her eyes widened incredulously at the admission. ‘Then why—?’
‘Why didn’t I say something?’ Liam finished raggedly. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to tell me! Again I was being stupid.’
‘I was going to tell you—’
‘When?’ he demanded.
‘Tonight. But before I could—’
‘I realised that your husband had been your beloved Uncle Rob!’
‘We decided when we got married that it would be better for everyone if I called him Robert in future,’ Laura put in inconsequentially.
‘Convenient,’ Liam drawled.
She
