Foster braced his hands on the arms of her Adirondack and leaned in so close she could feel his breath on her face. "You're not the one to be talking. At least my children showed up here today. You're reaping what you've sowed, Bella," he said viciously.

"I hardly think-"

"You sent those poor kids of yours off to boarding schools their whole lives while you partied your way around the world." He sneered down at her. "What did you expect? You treated them like dirt. They're just paying you back."

"That's quite enough," Bella said quietly.

Foster stood up, but he didn't step back. "I've barely gotten started, lady. You had to come here when you knew I was trying to mend things with my wife. You've been a bad seed from the start. You insinuated yourself between Bull and the woman he was courting. You teased him and taunted him and stole him away from the caring person-the lady-he should have married. It's a shame Bull couldn't see what I did."

"I loved your brother." I still love him! Bella wanted to cry. But that would be setting fire to gasoline, considering Foster's rage.

"You don't know what love is!" Foster said with a sneer. "You tricked my brother into marrying you. Christ, you threatened him with jail if he didn't."

"I had nothing to do with that," Bella protested. Her aunt, who'd stood in for her dead parents, had threatened to go to the police and have Bull charged with statutory rape if he didn't marry her. "Bull wasn't innocent," Bella pointed out. "He did have sex with a seventeen-year-old."

"But some other guy got there first, didn't he, Bella?" Foster snarled. "Because Oliver isn't Bull's son. For God's sake, his eyes are brown!"

Bella's face blanched. Both Bella and Bull had blue eyes. Which made Oliver's brown eyes a genetic impossibility. Some other man had to be his father. The truth had been there all along, but Foster had ever spoken it aloud. Until now.

"You love those detestable diamonds and rubies and pearls my brother lavished on you more than you ever loved him or any of those kids," Foster ranted. "You're a lying, cheating bitch, Bella. Just stay the hell away from me and my brother!"

Bella pressed a fist against her heart and leaned forward, struggling to breathe. "I won't bother you...for much..."

"It's her heart!" Emily cried, rising from her Adirondack.

Foster jerked his head around and searched the horizon. "Bull!" he yelled. "Get over here. Bella's having a heart attack!"

7.

"You had me worried, Duchess."

Bella sat up straighter in her Richmond hospital bed. "I'm sorry, Bull." The quiet apology should have been spoken years ago for the two great wrongs she'd done to the man standing beside her bed. Bella felt genuinely contrite, sorry enough to finally confess the lies she'd allowed to stand. If only she could find the courage to reveal the truth. About everything.

Yet, she put it off a moment longer. "You heard the doctor. It wasn't anything serious."

Bull snorted. "A panic attack? Horseshit. You've been an ice queen since the day I met you. What's really going on, Duchess? Is there something wrong with your heart?"

The use of her nickname-and Bull's pugnacious tone-suggested the gloves had come off. He was so close to the truth, Bella felt her weakened heart wrench with fear. She didn't want Bull taking her back because she was dying. She didn't want his pity. She'd sworn the doctor to secrecy and ordered him to give her husband a less serious reason for her fainting spell. He wasn't buying it.

"Bull, I-"

"You're awake," Foster said as he shoved open the door without knocking and entered Bella's hospital room. "Good."

Patsy followed him inside, smiling at Bella as they crossed to the opposite side of the bed from Bull. "Good morning, Bella. You're looking much better than you did on the ride to the hospital yesterday."

Since it would have taken the same time for an ambulance to arrive at The Seasons as it took for them to drive to Richmond, Foster and Patsy had sat in the front seat of Foster's Mercedes while Bull held Bella in his arms in the backseat. They'd made it to the emergency room at Levinson Heart Hospital, on the Chippenham Campus of CJW Medical Center, in record time.

Bella just wished she'd been awake for more of the trip.

"I don't think I've ever seen Bull in such a state," Patsy said with a teasing wink. "He didn't stop pacing at the emergency room door until the doctor told him you'd regained consciousness."

Bella shot a quick glance at Bull. Did that mean he still cared? Could he possibly still love her? The thought gave her pause. And hope.

"Bull was worried how the kids would feel if you kicked the bucket on Mother's Day when none of them had shown up to see you," Foster said.

Patsy shot her husband a look that expressed Bella's feelings about her brother-in-law's comment exactly.

"That was unkind, Foster," Patsy said.

To Bella's surprise, Foster responded to his wife's criticism by turning to Bella and saying, "Excuse me. That was uncalled-for."

Foster was rewarded with a smile from Patsy. Bella realized the two of them must have made up. It seemed Foster wasn't going to chance offending his wife again, even if it meant making nice with a woman he regularly wished to the devil.

"I wanted to be sure you were feeling better this morning," Patsy said, brushing a hand across Bella's shoulder. "We'll leave the two of you to talk."

Bella took another look at Bull and realized he must have spent the entire night at the hospital. He hadn't shaved. The gray and black stubble gave his face a rugged look. He was wearing the same docksiders, jeans and V-necked gray cashmere sweater over a white T-shirt that he'd worn to the picnic.

"Thank you, Patsy," Bella said. "I am feeling better. And thank you, too, Foster, for getting me to the hospital."

Foster didn't say you're welcome.

Bella was sure he would rather she'd expired on the spot. Or in the car on the way to the hospital. Or in the hospital after she'd arrived.

Instead, Foster said to Patsy, "We'd better get going, honey. The girls need to get back to school. The jet's scheduled to leave at noon." He turned to his older brother and said, "Should we wait for you, Bull? Or do you want to catch a cab to the airport?"

Bella felt a jolt of surprise. She hadn't realized the girls were going back to school so soon. Or that Bull might be traveling back to Europe with them.

"I'll get my own ride," Bull replied.

Bella noticed he hadn't said he wasn't returning to Paris with his nieces. It was time to confess. If she was ever going to confess.

She suddenly felt breathless, but not because her heart wasn't pumping enough oxygen.

Once Foster and Patsy were gone, Bull crossed and sat on the edge of her bed. "Are you going to tell me the truth, Duchess?"

"About what?" Bella asked warily.

"About what put you in that bed."

"The doctor already told you-"

"What you told him to tell me," Bull interrupted. "I want the truth, Bella. By God, I deserve the truth."

Yes, he did. There was no going forward without going back. It was time he heard the truth...about the night he'd found her in bed with another man.

"There's something I have to tell you, first," she said. "The night you found me in bed with-"

"Don't go there, Bella," he warned.

"You wouldn't let me explain then, or even later, but-"

"There's no excuse for what you did."

He was doing it again. Condemning her without allowing her to explain.

"The point is-" she began.

"The point is, you slept with another man. In our bed. End of discussion."

Bella felt her cheeks heating, felt her heart thumping and put a knotted hand against her painful chest. She was going to die of a broken heart, all right. Broken by this stubborn man who wouldn't listen. Who hadn't trusted. Who'd believed the worst and never allowed her to explain. She'd felt every bit as betrayed by his lack of trust as he had by what he thought he'd seen.

"Bull, you're going to listen to my explanation or-"

He stood abruptly and said, "Keep your damned secrets, then, Bella. I don't give a damn if your heart stops. I swear I don't. I thought...I hoped..."

He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, then dropped it and shook his head.

"Thought what?" she asked softly. "Hoped what?"

"I thought I could forget what happened. I hoped..." He looked up and met her gaze. "Damn it, I can't forget. Or forgive. I forgave you for Oliver. You promised you'd never betray me again. You lied, Bella. You cheated on me once too often."

He turned on his heel and was out the door while her mouth was still open to protest.

"You fool!" she cried as the door closed behind him. "It wasn't me! It wasn't me!"

Tears pooled in her eyes and slid down her cheeks as she made her explanation to the empty room. "It was my twin, you stupid man. It was Alicia. She tricked you into sleeping with her at the start of our marriage. When I found out, I told her to leave the Abbey, to get out of my life forever. She said she'd leave, but I'd be sorry for choosing you over her."

Her sister had wreaked a terrible vengeance.

"She made sure you found her-pretending to be me-in your bed with another man."

Bella had never been unfaithful to Bull. She'd loved him-still loved him-more than life. She'd never told him about Alicia's impersonation of her-and the fact he'd been duped into having sex with her jealous twin sister-because she'd been ashamed of, and appalled by, Alicia's behavior. So he'd believed he was seeing Bella impaled on another man's shaft.

Alicia had smirked in triumph when she'd admitted to Bella what she'd done. "Let's see if your precious husband will have anything to do with you now!" she'd taunted.

Bull was gone for three days before he'd returned to confront her. When she'd tried to explain what Alicia had done, he'd demanded, "Was that him? Was that Oliver's father? I have to know. Tell me the truth, Bella."

The problem was, somehow Alicia had chosen Oliver's father with whom to commit her supposedly adulterous act. It had been impossible to tell Bull the truth about Alicia without revealing the truth about Oliver's father.

And that was a story she would never, never, ever tell.

Bella moaned. Ruined. Everything was ruined.

Emily stuck her head in the doorway, then came hurrying across the room. "Your Grace? What's wrong?"

Bella quickly swiped the tears off her cheeks, then grabbed a tissue from a box on the side table and dabbed at the mascara that had smudged at the corners of her eyes. "Nothing that hasn't been wrong for a very long time. I have matchmaking to do and not much time to do it. Have you spoken with the appropriate parties in London?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Have you gathered all the information on the young woman?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Have you finished making our travel arrangements?"

"Your doctor said-"

"Yes or no. Have you made the arrangements, Emily?"

Emily sighed. "Yes, Your Grace. Our flight to Miami leaves first thing tomorrow morning."

"Good. It's time I started playing cupid."

8.

Kristin had just gotten the bad news from the Miami SAC. Rudy was sympathetic but there was nothing he could do. The Miami OPR-heavily influenced, Kristin was sure, by SSA Harrison-had decided Kristin should be suspended until SIRT came back with its recommendation for action on her second shooting incident.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked.

"Get your daughter into school," Rudy said. "Spend some time with your father. See the shrink, so you're ready to come back when the time comes."

"So you think I will be coming back?"

"Not my call," Rudy said. "What about that assignment with the CIA?"

Kristin frowned. "I thought you'd hate the idea."

Rudy lifted a brow. "I'm not crazy about loaning out my agents, but this is a serious threat, Agent Lassiter. How about it? I understand you're a world-class tennis player. Sounds like you're the right woman for the job."

At least it would be a job. The one she had seemed to be in jeopardy. "I'll think about it."

"Be sure to turn in your badge and gun before you leave the building," Rudy said.