Page 58 of Surrender to the Ruthless Billionaire

She was looking at him, but he could tell that she wasn’t really seeing him, maybe not even hearing him. Incredibly her shock and distress outweighed his own.

He lowered his arm. ‘I didn’t know you had a sister—half-sister, I mean. You haven’t mentioned her. Are you not close?’

Cristina shook her head. ‘Actually, I’ve never met her.’

Looking up at him, she saw the confusion in his eyes and quickly looked away. What had possessed her to tell him the truth? It had been stupid—but she wasn’t thinking straight.

‘So why does she keep ringing you?’

Her heart began to thump, but there was nothing left now but the truth.

‘She’s been trying to get in touch with me because…well, because my father’s in hospital. In Madrid.’ She took a breath. ‘He’s dying.’

‘Dying—?’

He sounded not just confused now, but stunned.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ His eyes were wide with shock and remorse. ‘Look, take the helicopter—please. Tomas will fly you wherever you need to go—’

‘No, thank you,’ she said stiffly. ‘That won’t be necessary.’

‘Cristina, your father’s dying.’ He moved towards her. ‘Right now nothing matters more than you seeing him.’

‘I’m not going to see him.’

She couldn’t look at him any more.

‘Cristina.’

His voice was so gentle. Too gentle. It was making the ice in her heart melt.

‘It’s okay, cariño, I understand. You’re in shock…you’re not thinking.’

He reached out to her but she batted his hand away.

‘No, you don’t understand.’

She was almost shouting, and her body was shaking not with anger but despair—for his good opinion mattered to her, and whatever she said or did now he was going to end up thinking badly of her.

‘How could you? Your parents adore you. They are so happy just to be with you. I’m nothing to my father.’

Luis flinched inwardly. He couldn’t understand how this beautiful, vibrant woman should think something like that, and yet he could hear the lost note in her voice, could feel it piercing his heart.

‘You’re his daughter.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m his dirty little secret.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘Laura’s his real daughter. Her mother is his wife, and she always has been his wife—even when he decided to marry my mum.’ Her hand balled against her chest. ‘That makes him a bigamist and me illegitimate.’

Illegitimate and therefore grotesque to a man like Luis Osorio. A man whose ties to his family were sacrosanct. A man who could trace his family back hundreds of years. He even had a castle—and a crest.

Luis took a deep breath. The pain in her eyes was like a band around his chest, and automatically he reached for her. She tried to back away but he gripped her shoulders and held her still.

‘So what? I don’t care.’

Her eyes widened with shock but, ignoring the expression of blatant disbelief on her face, he pulled her closer.

‘Half the thrones of Europe have been filled by illegitimate children. My family’s just the same.’

Thinking back to her childhood, she bit her lip. ‘Your family is not the same as mine, Luis. My father led a double life for fifteen years. He lied to my mum, and to me, and when we found out, he just left us. He just disappeared. It was like he’d never existed. But then I suppose he hadn’t really.’

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