A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby\Marriage Scandal, Showbiz Baby!

Author:Kendrick, Sharon [Kendrick, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-01-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THINGS BEGAN TO go wrong the moment Justina got back to England. It started when the lift in her apartment block broke down and for the next two days, until it was mended, she had to lug everything up and down seven flights of stairs. It might have been simpler if she’d swallowed her pride and asked Dante for help, but she was so determined not to rely on him in any way that she said nothing—just kept reflecting on the fact that he had been right all along and this apartment really was no place to bring up a baby.

It got worse when her breast milk dried up—and she was eaten up with guilt as a result. The midwife told her it sometimes happened as a result of stress, and that she wasn’t to beat herself up about it, but that was easier said than done. Justina’s emotions seemed to be veering all over the place. She felt a failure as a woman and now a failure as a mother.

And wasn’t she missing Dante like crazy? Didn’t the memory of his closeness taunt her to the point of pain when she lay in bed at night, wondering why she felt so empty inside? Hadn’t she been left thinking that the “right” decision now seemed all wrong?

She had only managed not to cry during a midwife’s visit by the simple expedient of rubbing her balled fists against her eyes, and it wasn’t until Dante arrived soon after and started frowning at her face that Justina glanced in the mirror and saw that her mascara-smudged eyes had left her looking like a panda.

‘What’s happened?’ he demanded. ‘Is it Nico?’

‘No. Yes. Well, in…in a way.’ She swallowed. ‘I’m not…I’m not producing any breast milk, and the midwife says that I’m to give him a bottle from now on.’

For a moment his eyes softened, and so did his voice. ‘That’s a real pity, Justina.’

‘Yes.’ She nodded. For a moment she thought that he was going to reach out and pull her into his arms, and how she wished he would. All she wanted was to lay her head on his shoulder and howl her heart out so that some of this horrible emptiness might go away. She wanted to lose herself in his powerful embrace and have him tell her that everything was going to be all right, and this time around she might be prepared to believe him.

But he did nothing like that. He just gave her arm the kind of gentle pat he might have administered to an aging family pet. ‘Babies survive brilliantly on formula milk,’ he reassured her.

Hopefully, she looked at him. She’d forgotten that he’d read just about every book which had ever been written on the subject. ‘Do they?’

‘Of course they do. And in a way this might make things easier.’

‘Easier?’ Justina blinked at him. ‘How’s that?’

‘Well, up until now the fact that Nico relies solely on you has governed our timetable, hasn’t it? But now he’ll be able to come over and spend the night with me.

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