Was this some sort of elaborate game Caitlin was playing?

"And just who was I supposed to have asked for that kind of money?"

Caitlin glared at him.

How far was he planning to take this innocent act?

"My mother."

He was right.

The attack in the alley had completely unhinged her.

"I wouldn't ask your mother for the time of day, Caitlin."

Caitlin fisted her hands on her hips, her eyes on his.

How could he stand there and deny it?

"You didn't come to her eleven years ago and say that if she wanted to

be rid of you, she could, but that it would cost her?

He stared at her as if she was reciting some sort of fantastic fairy tale.

Her tone told him that she obviously believed what she was saying.

Graham's eyes darkened.

"What do you think?"

Face-to-face like this, she felt her conviction wavering.

But he had left, damn him.

Without her.

What else was she to think?

"I didn't want to think that," she cried, frustration and long-pent-up

hurt echoing in her voice.

"But if you didn't ask her for the money, if she didn't buy you off, why weren't you there?" she demanded.

Her eyes flashed as she came closer.

"Why was I the only one left standing at the station after the last

train for Las Vegas had left?

You said you'd meet me there.

I waited all night.

The details didn't make sense.

"How could you have been standing at the station when you called my

house and left a message with my.uncle that you had changed your mind?

That you were going away?

Her eyes were wide, like huge turquoise flowers, as she listened to him.

"I never called. I never left any message."

It was like trying to match two halves of a coin that refused to fit.

"I came looking for you, only to have your mother very smugly hand me a letter you had left behind."

As he spoke, he relived it all-the humiliation, and worse than that,

the pain.

The gut-wrenching pain of losing her.

"The letter said you'd changed your mind."

He took a breath, steeling himself.

"That you'd come to your senses and realized that this was wrong for

both of us."

He looked at her, challenging her to deny it.

"That you were leaving for Europe the next morning and I was to forget

all about you. The way you were going to forget about me.") Caitlin

blanched. What was he talking about? She hadn't written any letter.She hadn't even told anyone about her plans. Least of all, hermother." And you believed that?

He hadn't wanted to.

He'd turned on his heel with Regina Cassidy's jeers ringing in his ears and stalked out.

"I did after I called the airport, pretending to be your father. I

said I was looking for you, that you were a minor and you'd run away.

They told me you were booked on a flight for Paris leaving at nine the next morning."

Graham's eyes grew hard.

"Just like the letter said. So I figured the rest of the letter was

true, too."

She felt dazed.

This had to be some sort of horrible nightmare.

"Yes, I was booked on a flight to Paris."

She couldn't begin to fathom the expression on his face.

It was dark and frightening and sad at the same time.

A sob hitched in her throat.

Oh, God, had it all been a misunderstanding, orchestrated by her

mother?

"If you'd asked, you'd have found there were two seats in my name.

That was my surprise for you. A honeymoon in Paris, right after the

wedding."

She closed her eyes to keep the tears back.

Too many years had gone by to mourn now.

But she did.

She mourned for everything that might have been and wasn't.

"I went alone after my mother told me that you'd asked for a check for