The Italian Demands His Heirs Read online

  ‘My head’s fine,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I’m just a little...overwhelmed. I never imagined having this conversation, to be honest.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘You never imagined I would one day wish to know my son?’

  Annah didn’t like how that question made her insides twist, as if she had some reason to feel guilty. It made her want to push back. ‘You haven’t met my son. What makes you so certain he’s yours?’

  ‘I’ve seen his birth certificate. And photos.’

  Annah blinked. Photos of Ethan? How? She was always so careful. She only used social media for business and she never posted photos of her or Ethan online.

  Luca slid his hands into the pockets of his expensive-looking coat. With his dark looks, his lean, broad-shouldered physique and his stylish attire, he wouldn’t have looked out of place on a catwalk in Paris or Milan. In Hollyfield, he looked about as alien as Annah had felt the first time she and Chloe had driven into the quaint country village.

  ‘Your son was born at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital exactly thirty-six weeks and five days after you and I spent a night together in London,’ he said. ‘I’m no expert on pregnancy, but I can do the math. Unless you slept with another man around the same time who looks remarkably like me, or you were already pregnant by immaculate conception when we met...’ he paused just long enough for Annah’s face to flame at his reference to how innocent she’d been ‘...I am reasonably confident without the aid of a DNA test—which I’m not ruling out, by the way—that Ethan Sinclair is not only your son but my son, as well.’

  She glared at him, hating that she had no comeback to any of that. ‘What photos?’ she said instead.

  He hesitated for a beat. ‘Surveillance photos.’

  Annah sucked in a breath. ‘You’ve been having us watched?’ Her voice rose in horror. Did he have photos of her, too? The sense of violation made her stomach roil.

  ‘Not me.’

  ‘Then who?’ she demanded.

  His jaw hardened. ‘My father.’

  A chill ran up her spine. ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said tightly.

  She shook her head, confused. ‘Haven’t you asked him?’

  ‘No,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because he’s dead.’

  Copyright © 2019 by Angela Bissell

  ISBN-13: 9781488044366

  The Italian Demands His Heirs

  First North American publication 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Lynne Graham

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