Free Maggie's Dad by Diana Palmer Page B

students.”
    â€œEspecially toward your daughter?” she asked.
    He nodded. “I see you understand.”
    â€œI won’t treat her unfairly, but I won’t play favorites, either,” she said icily. “She’s going to receive no grades that she doesn’t earn in my classroom. If you want to get me fired, go ahead.”
    â€œOh, hell, I don’t want your job,” he said abruptly. “It doesn’t matter to me if you stay here with your father. I don’t even care why you suddenly came back. But I won’t have my daughter persecuted for something that she didn’t do! She has nothing to do with the past.”
    â€œNothing?” Her eyes glittered up into his. “Sally was pregnant with that child when you married her, and she was born seven months later,” she said huskily, and the pain was a living, breathing thing. Even the threat of leukemia wasn’t that bad. “You were sleeping with Sally while you were swearing eternal devotion to me!”
    Antonia didn’t have to be a math major to arrive at the difference. He’d married Sally less than a month after he broke up with Antonia, and Maggie was born seven months later. Which meant that Sally was pregnant when they married.
    He took a slow, steady breath, but his eyes, his face, were terrible to see. He stared down at her as if he’d like to throw something.
    Antonia averted her gaze to the desk, where her hands were so tightly clasped now that the knuckles were white. She relaxed them, so that he wouldn’t notice how tense she was.
    â€œI shouldn’t have said that,” she said after a minute. “I had no right. Your marriage was your own business, and so is your daughter. I won’t be unkind to her. But I will expect her to do the same work Iassign to the other students, and if she doesn’t, she’ll be graded accordingly.”
    He stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. The eyes that met hers were unreadable. “Maggie’s paid a higher price than you know already,” he said enigmatically. “I won’t let you hurt her.”
    â€œI’m not in the habit of taking out my personal feelings on children, whatever you think of me.”
    â€œYou’re twenty-seven now,” he said, surprising her. “Yet you’re still unmarried. You have no children of your own.”
    She smiled evenly. “Yes. I had a lucky escape.”
    â€œAnd no inclination to find someone else? Make a life for yourself?”
    â€œI have a life,” she said, and the fear came up into her mouth as she realized that she might not have it for much longer.
    â€œDo you?” he asked. “Your father will die one day. Then you’ll be alone.”
    Her eyes, full of fear, fell to the desk again. “I’ve been alone for a long time,” she said quietly. “It’s something…one learns to live with.”
    He didn’t speak. After a minute, she heard his voice, as if from a distance. “Why did you come back?”
    â€œFor my father.”
    â€œHe’s getting better day by day. He didn’t need you.”
    She looked up, searching his face, seeing the young man she’d loved in his dark eyes, his sensuousmouth. “Maybe I needed someone,” she said. She winced and dropped her eyes.
    He laughed. It had an odd sound. “Just don’t turn your attention toward me, Antonia. You may need someone. I don’t. Least of all you.”
    Before she could say a word, he’d gone out the door, as quietly as he’d come in.
    Â 
    Maggie was waiting at the door when he walked in. He’d taken her home before he had his talk with Antonia.
    â€œDid you see her? Did you tell her off?” she asked excitedly. “I knew you’d show her who’s boss!”
    His eyes narrowed. She hadn’t shown that much enthusiasm for anything in years. “What about that homework?”
    She