“All right.” She ran her tongue along her dry lips. “All right, I will.”
Her words faded away.
What could she tell him? That he was not Susanna’s father?
It would be like putting a knife into his heart.
And what would such a revelation do to Susanna’s life?
Roarke loved the little girl.
Jennifer knew him well enough to be sure he wouldn’t turn his back on the child—but would it change how he dealt with her?
She had already forfeited her right to raise her own child.
To deny her little girl Roarke’s love as well would be the cruelest act of all.
“I’m waiting,” Roarke said.
Jennifer looked at him. The tears that had risen in her eyes began spilling down her cheeks.
“I—I have no answers,” she whispered.
For a few terrifying seconds, she thought he might kill her.
His hands went from her shoulders to her throat; she felt the press of his thumbs in the hollow where her pulse leaped.
She wrapped her hands around his wrists.
“Roarke,” she whispered.
He stared at her, his gaze flat and cold. Then he flung her from him, reached for the intercom and punched in a number.
“John? You’re flying a passenger to San Juan. Yes. Immediately.”
Alexandra Campbell moved to her ex-husband’s side.
“It’s all right, darling,” she said softly. She touched his cheek, his shoulder, then his outstretched hand. Slowly, he reached for her and curved his arm around her, his fingers splaying just below the lush curve of her breast.
It was the last thing Jennifer saw before she flew from the room, and it was an image that she knew would be stamped on her soul for the rest of her life.
Chapter Eleven
It came as no shock to find that life was filled with unimaginable cruelty.
Things happened that seemed, at first, to be unbearable.
But you could survive.
You did survive.
Jennifer had learned that a long time ago.
She kept the thought as the helicopter carried her away from Isla de la Pantera.
She kept it as she took her seat in the plane that would carry her back to Chicago.
She would survive.