‘But your father objected.’

Her face lost its colour and he felt his shoulders tense. Was she really so afraid of her father?

‘He had other plans for me.’

‘And he didn’t think that you should be allowed to decide your future for yourself?’

‘That isn’t the way my father works, as you should know by now. He’s very controlling.’

Jago frowned. ‘Is he the same with Alex?’

‘He’s the same with everyone, but he has absolutely no influence over my brother.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘My father has met his match in Alex. They clash like herd bulls fighting over territory.’

‘And Libby?’

Katy gave a rueful smile. ‘We each handle him in a different way. Libby takes the confrontational approach and provokes him constantly so the atmosphere is pretty charged when they’re together.’

‘Whereas you go for the path of least conflict?’

She hesitated. ‘Let’s just say that over the years I’ve learned that it’s better not to antagonise him. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t stand up for myself on the big issues.’ She tilted her head to one side and her blonde hair shone under the lights. ‘What about you? Why did you go into medicine?’

Jago made a huge effort and dragged his eyes away from her hair. It was confession time. Just how honest did he dare be with her? For the first time since they’d met again, she seemed to be relaxing with him and he certainly didn’t want to destroy that. On the other hand, he was rapidly coming to the conclusion that having secrets definitely didn’t work. Especially not with someone as honest as Katy. ‘I’d been thinking about it for a while,’ he hedged, and then he caught her puzzled glance and let out a long breath. ‘You’re not going to like what I tell you, querida.’

Her blue eyes widened, and he reflected grimly that telling the truth certainly wasn’t the easy option.

‘After he showed me the photographs, your father suggested that it would be better for everybody if I left the company and started afresh somewhere else,’ he said curtly, aware that the facts looked uncomfortably incriminating. ‘You have to understand I was very hurt by the photographs. Had I stayed with the company it was inevitable that we would have run into each other again. I was only too pleased when your father encouraged me to leave.’

There was a long silence as she made the connection.

‘He paid you off, didn’t he?’ Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘He showed you the photographs and then he paid you to leave.’

She was obviously more attuned to her father’s tricks than he’d been.

‘At the time I thought of it as a generous severance package,’ he admitted not quite levelly, all too aware of the interpretation she would put on the facts.

Pale and taut, she slid off the bar stool and looked at him blankly.

‘I’d already decided to train as a doctor and he offered me a good package,’ Jago said, feeling the tension spread through his shoulders. ‘It’s standard practice in many companies. At the time I didn’t think it had anything to do with my relationship with you. It was a business issue.’