“Leonie?” came Flynn’s puzzled voice behind me. “Leonie? What are you doing here?”

But I was already gathering speed, blindly racing back along the office corridor as burning hot tears threatened to spill down my cheeks.

Chapter Thirty-Six

The hypocrite!

It shouldn’t have come as a shock, but it did. What else should I have expected?

First Miles and now Flynn.

Anger and pain charged up and down inside of me, spinning around and around like an out-of-control Ferris wheel. Flynn had the audacity to accuse me of deception with his grandfather’s street artist identity, compare me to a previous failed relationship and yet when I go to explain, he has a half-naked blonde in his arms!

I blundered out of the entrance to the office suite, my uneven boots slapping along the Glasgow cobbles. All the festive lights and decorations blurred and melted together in front of my tear-cluttered eyes. I found the next street and slumped against the cool white bonnet of Kerry’s parked car.

I had been putting myself through torture, agonising over how he was feeling and what his opinion of me was, now that he thought I’d betrayed him and his family. And there he was, grinning like a great white at a half-naked blonde?

How could I have allowed this to happen? After Miles, I had promised myself I wouldn’t put my heart out there at the mercy of anyone to trample on it again.

And now look! Here I go again!

I gulped back frustrated tears.

“Leonie?”

Kerry came puffing round the corner, her hair whipping against her flushed cheeks. “Wait up! Are you ok?”

I hoped my voice didn’t betray the dull ache inside me. “Let’s go, shall we? That man can stew in his own juice.” I blinked back fury and hurt. “If he wants to think that I was the one who went to Athena about his grandfather’s identity, then that’s up to him. What the hell do I care what he thinks anyway? What does it matter what he thinks of me?” I raised my wobbling chin. “He doesn’t deserve to know the truth.”

“Know the truth about what?”

Flynn emerged, the December sun casting a halo around his swept-back curls. Ironic really, I thought. Devil’s horns would be far more apt.

I could feel my mouth pinching in pain. “Nothing.” I knew I sounded petulant but I couldn’t help it, and that frustrated me even more.

How on earth had I allowed myself to get into this situation? To have my feelings hurt all over again?

Kerry stood between us in the middle of the cobbled side street, spectating with increasing frustration. She gathered herself up to her full height, which was only about five foot five. “If you don’t tell him the truth, Leonie, then I will.”

She gulped back any apprehension she might have had as I stared at her.