‘Never mind,’ he dismissed angrily. ‘Didn’t it bother you that my uncle was twenty-three years older than you?’
‘Bother me?’ she queried.
‘Obviously not,’ he rasped. ‘And to think I imagined myself a good judge of character,’ he added disgustedly.
Callie flinched as if he had hit her, knowing that the insult was meant for her—even though she had no idea why he had said it! In fact, half of this conversation was a puzzle to her.
‘This time you weren’t so clever, were you?’ she snapped.
‘No. And for once I have something to thank Charles for, although he doesn’t realise it.’
‘Because he knows the truth,’ Callie said angrily. ‘He knows you were the one who thought of marrying me to get those shares, that you were the one who decided to carry out that plan.’
Logan took a threatening step towards her, his expression savage. ‘I warned you—’
‘That you’d hit me?’ she faced him fearlessly. ‘Well, go ahead! But it won’t do anything but increase my contempt for you.’
‘Your contempt for me?’ he echoed scathingly. ‘And what about my contempt for you? God, I thought you were too young for me, but the thought of you with my uncle—It sickens me!’
Callie gasped. ‘Jeff and I—?’
‘Yes!’ Logan snapped. ‘Was it worth it, Call—Caroline? Did you enjoy being the mistress of a man old enough to be your father? Did you like it when he made love to you?’
She had gone a sickly grey colour, her breathing constricted in her throat. ‘I— You think that Jeff and I—’
‘Oh, I don’t think it—I know it. The whole family knew he’d been living with someone for the last four years.’
‘Obviously none of you were interested enough to find out who with,’ she said dully.
‘I hadn’t seen him since I was ten or eleven!’
‘Maybe if you had, if you’d ever spoken to him, you wouldn’t be such an arrogant bastard,’ she gritted with dislike. ‘I didn’t live with your uncle—’
‘You’ve already admitted that you did!’
‘But not in the way you mean—’
‘What other way is there?’ he derided. ‘Either you did live with him or you didn’t.’
‘I did. But—’
‘But you didn’t sleep together? Spare me that, Caroline—’
‘My name is Callie,’ she told him vehemently. ‘It’s always been Callie.’
‘Except on an official basis then you’re Caroline, like in a will.’ He shook his head. ‘Over the years, mainly because of my own experience with them, I’ve learnt not to trust women—any woman. But my uncle was certainly fooled by you. Was he very naïve, or just not very bright where you’re concerned?’
The colour came and went in Callie’s hollow cheeks. ‘About as bright as you, I would have said,’ she scorned, to hide her pain. Later she could allow herself to feel every stab wound Logan had given her. Now, at this moment, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how he had misjudged her—and his uncle. He could go on thinking these terrible things about Jeff and herself. Her love for him had died the moment she knew he was only using her, that his love meant nothing.
‘Yes,’ he rasped. ‘But then I knew about you all the time, didn’t I?’
‘Oh yes!’
‘Then I don’t think there’s any more to be said,’ he told her distantly. ‘I’m glad to say you haven’t succeeded in your plan.’
‘Haven’t I?’ she taunted coldly. ‘As you said, there’s always Donald. You and your uncle don’t seem—on the best of terms,’ she added mockingly.
‘So?’