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had a chance to say anything, Benny got in first. ‘Angel, could your friends amuse themselves for a while? We need to talk.’
    She hated Benny issuing orders like that, but nonetheless turned to her friends. ‘D’you want to grab a drink and I’ll see you in a bit?’
    ‘Will you be okay?’ Gemma asked anxiously.
    Angel nodded and sat down on one of the sofas, as far away as possible from Benny. Even at that distance he made her feel uncomfortable. She was aware of his eyes raking over her body, vile man that he was. She folded her arms as if to shield herself from his leer. Benny was sitting on the opposite sofa, next to Ethan.Talk about Beauty and the Beast. Benny was easily as tall as Ethan but that’s where the similarities ended because Benny was definitely not one of the beautiful people. He had blonde, highlighted hair and a permatan that veered between orange and deep chestnut brown. He was obsessed with looking young and had regular Botox along with the odd nip and tuck, Angel was convinced. He was always blinged up to the max, too, but in spite of all the working out he did, his face was still pudgy, and he had small cold grey eyes and rather fleshy lips.
    She shook back her hair and tilted her chin, making herself appear far stronger than she felt inside. She had been here before and survived, she would survive this too.
    ‘So what do you want to talk to me about? Ella Richards claiming Ethan’s the father of her child?’
    That took the wind out of their sails. Ethan was the first to speak. ‘Angel, I swear I’ve not been unfaithful to you.’
    ‘And of course you’d tell me if you had.’ She couldn’t stop herself sounding sarcastic. ‘Men are always honest, aren’t they?’
    ‘Ethan would never lie to you,’ Benny put in. ‘He loves you Angel, you know that. The guy wants to marry you, for Chrissake. How’s that for commitment?’
    Ethan was not doing himself any favours in Angel’s eyes by having Benny do the talking. A fact which seemed to register with him as he got up and came and sat next to her.
    ‘I did have a one night stand with Ella Richards, but it was way before I met you. I’m not proud of my past, but it is what it is.’ His blue eyes looked pleadingly at her.
    ‘Yeah, right. Where have I heard that one before?’
    ‘Ella Richards is just a whore looking for an easybuck,’ Benny piped up again. ‘She told Ethan she was on the Pill . . . bitch got pregnant deliberately. But we’re not going to pay up. No fucking way! She can dream on.’
    Angel bristled on hearing Benny’s foul-mouthed description of Ella. She could now add ‘sexist’ to ‘vile’. She ignored him and turned to Ethan. ‘If she’s your child then you do have some responsibility to her.’
    Ethan sighed and run a hand over his short dark-blond hair. ‘Actually she
is
my child, we’ve done the DNA test.’
    Angel was stunned by this admission. And he hadn’t thought to tell her before? This was a big deal, how could he not see that she would want to know about it? Angel started to wonder if there were other secrets he had been keeping from her. ‘So how old is your daughter?’ she managed to ask. ‘And does she have a name?’
    ‘She’s called Megan and she’s one,’ Ethan said quietly.
    Angel sat there feeling numb with shock for a few seconds before asking, ‘So why has Ella waited until now to go public?’
    Ethan looked over to Benny as if getting his approval to carry on. ‘Benny was trying to see if we could come to an arrangement over money. Ella has just decided that the offer wasn’t big enough and has gone public.’
    ‘Bitch wants ten million dollars,’ Benny said. ‘We really want to avoid a court case. The adverse publicity could affect Ethan’s sponsorship deals.’
    Of course, that’s why Benny was so wound up! It was all about the money.
    Ethan looked intently at Angel. ‘Babe, please don’t judge me harshly. I’m not proud of this and I wanted you kept out of it