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CHAPTER ONE

SO IT WAS bad news The worst possible Danificent floor-to-ceiling panes of glass that afforded his office suite such spectacular views of London’s skyline

The truis had coiven the swift and unforgiving diagnosis of cancer and there was nothing a single penny of his bottomless billions could do to alter that bald fact

He wasn’t a ret was a wasted e and his motto had always been that for every probleot a person through life

However, now, a series of what ifs slauided ood for over a year and he had taken her word for it when she had vaguely told hi to worry aboutthat engines in old cars tended to be a little unreliable

What if, instead of ski the surface of those assurances, he had chosen to probe deeper? To insist on bringing her to London, where she could have had the best possibleon the uncharted territory of the doctors in deepest Devon?

Would the cancer now attacking her have been halted in its tracks? Would he not have just got off the phone to the consultant having been told that the prognosis was hazy? That they would have to go in to see how far it had spread?

Yes, she was in London now, after coreat deal of anxiety, but what if she had come to London sooner?

He stood up and paced restlessly through his office, barely glancing at the nificent piece of art on the wall, which had cost a suilt, which had been nibbling at the edges of his conscience for soh to his secretary, told her to hold all his calls and allowed hi in to a bout of savage and frustrating introspection

The only thing his e, stability, a good woman

Yes, she had tolerated the women she had met over the years, on those occasions when she had corowing disappointment with the lifestyle he had chosen for hi behind a co precariously on the brink of collapse

Da the business he had inherited Breaking it up, putting it back together in rated his own vastly successful computer fire had been an outstanding success but it had required considerable skill When had he had the tie of twenty-three, a thousand years ago or so it seemed, he had attempted to make one serious lifestyle choice with a woman and that had spectacularly crashed and burned What was the problem if, from then onwards, his choices had not been to his ? Wasn’t ti with that situation?

Now, faced with the possibility that histo live, he was forced to concede that the single-minded ambition and ferocious drive that had taken hiuarded the essential financial cushion his mother deserved and required, had also placed hi disappointed her

And what could he do about it? Nothing

Damien looked up as his secretary poked her head around the door With anyone else, he wouldn’t have had to voice his displeasure at being interrupted, not when he had specifically issued orders that he was not to be disturbed With Martha Hall, the usual ground rules didn’t work He had inherited her froood as a family member

‘I realise you told me not to bother you, son’

Da her that the ter for his father, she had spenthim

‘But you promised that you’d let me knohat that consultant chap said about your mother’ Her face was creased with concern She radiated anxiety froular body

‘Not good’ He tried to soften the tone of his voice but found that he couldn’t He raked restless fingers through his dark hair and paused to stand in front of her She would have easily been five ten, but he towered over her, six foot four of pure th The fine fabric of his hand-tailored charcoal trousers and the pristine white of his shirt lovingly sheathed the lean, powerful lines of a man who could turn heads from streets away

‘The cancer oing to have a battery of tests and then surgery to consolidate their findings After that, they’ll discuss the appropriate treatment’

Martha whipped out a handkerchief which she had stored in the sleeve of her blouse and dabbed her eyes ‘Poor Eleanor She must be scared stiff’

‘She’s coping’

‘And what about Dominic?’