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       Bought for the Marriage Bed

      Melanie Milburne

      About the Author

      MELANIE MILBURNE says: “I am married to a surgeon, Steve, and have two gorgeous sons, Paul and Phil. I live in Hobart, Tasmania, where I enjoy an active life as a long-distance runner and a nationally ranked top ten Master’s swimmer. I also have a Master’s Degree in Education, but my children totally turned me off the idea of teaching! When not running or swimming I write, and when I’m not doing all of the above I’m reading. And if someone could invent a way for me to read during a four-kilometre swim I’d be even happier!”

      CHAPTER ONE

      NINA stared at her twin sister in shock. ‘You surely don’t mean to go through with it?’

      Nadia gave her a defiant look from beneath lashes heavy with thick black mascara. ‘I can’t cope with a baby. Besides, I never really wanted her in the first place.’

      ‘But Georgia is so young!’ Nina protested. ‘How can you possibly think of giving her away?’

      ‘It’s easy.’ Nadia pouted. ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If I don’t take it with both hands it might never come again.’

      ‘But she’s only four months old!’ Nina cried. ‘Surely you owe it to Andre’s memory to raise her.’

      ‘I owe him nothing!’ Nadia spat. ‘You seem to be forgetting that he refused to acknowledge her as his child. He wouldn’t even agree to a paternity test, no doubt because he didn’t want to upset that cow of a fiancée of his.’ She paced the room angrily. ‘I should’ve known he wasn’t to be trusted. The Marcello males are known for their playboy lifestyle; you have only to look at yesterday’s paper to realise that.’

      Nina was well aware of the photograph of Marc Marcello, Andre’s older brother, in the Sydney weekend broadsheet. It was rare for a week to go past without some reference to his billionaire fast-paced fast-women lifestyle. His dark good looks had been the first thing she’d noticed when she’d opened the paper.

      ‘Does Marc Marcello know about your intention to give his niece up for adoption?’ she asked her sister.

      Nadia turned back to face her. ‘I wrote to his father in Italy a few weeks ago but he flatly refused to acknowledge Georgia as his granddaughter. So this time I sent a photo of her. That should set the cat among the pigeons, when he sees how like Andre she is. I felt the need to twist the knife since it’s his precious son’s fault my life has been stuffed up.’

      ‘But surely—’

      Nadia gave her a bristling look. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I want nothing more to do with the Marcello family. I gave them a chance to claim Georgia but they brushed me off. That’s why I’m leaving now to get on with Plan B.’

      ‘Leaving?’ Nina stared at her in consternation. ‘Leaving to go where?’

      ‘America.’

      ‘But what about Georgia?’ she gasped, her heart tripping in alarm. ‘You’re surely not thinking of …’ She couldn’t even frame the rest of the words.

      Nadia gave a dismissive shrug of one shoulder. ‘You can look after her for a month or two—you do most of the time anyway. Besides, it’s clear she loves you more than me, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t hand her over to you temporarily. You can take care of her until someone adopts her.’

      Nina’s stomach rolled over painfully. It was hard for her to imagine her sister having so little regard for the tiny infant who lay sleeping in the pram near the window. How could she be so unfeeling as to walk away from her own baby?

      ‘Look—’ she tried to reason with her ‘—I know you’re upset; it’s only been a few months since Andre … went.’

      Nadia turned on her furiously. ‘What’s with the euphemism? Andre didn’t go somewhere—he died.’

      Nina swallowed. ‘I—I know.’

      ‘I’m just glad he took his stupid fiancée with him,’ Nadia added in a surly tone.

      ‘You surely don’t mean that?’

      Nadia’s features twisted in bitterness. ‘Of course I mean it. I hate the Marcello family and anyone connected to them.’ She tossed her mane of blonde hair over one shoulder and looked back at her sister. ‘I have a chance at a new life with Bryce Falkirk in America. He loves me and has promised me a part in one of his films. This will be my chance at the big screen. I’d be a fool to let it slip out of my hands. And if I play my cards right he might even ask me to marry him.’

      ‘Have you told him about Georgia?’

      Nadia rolled her eyes. ‘Are you nuts? Of course I didn’t tell him. He thinks Georgia is your child.’

      Nina stared at her in alarm. ‘How can you even consider the possibility of marrying the man without telling him of your past?’

      Nadia gave her sister a cutting look. ‘Bryce wouldn’t have considered being involved with me at all if I’d told him anything like that. He thinks the sun shines from my “childlike innocent” eyes, and I’m going to make sure he keeps thinking that way, even if I have to lie through my teeth every day to ensure he does.’

      ‘But surely if he really loves you—’

      ‘Look, Nina, I don’t want to have the sort of life our mother had, flitting from one bad man to another and shunting kids off into horrible foster homes whenever things got tough. I want to have money and stability and I can’t have that with a kid hanging off my hip.’

      ‘But surely you could—’

      ‘No!’ Nadia cut her off impatiently. ‘You don’t get it, do you? I don’t want that child; I never did.’ She dumped Georgia’s changing bag next to the pram, the soft thump as it hit the floor striking a chord of disquiet in Nina’s chest. ‘You were the one who talked me out of getting rid of the pregnancy, so I think it’s only fair you get to look after her now until I can find a private adoption candidate.’

      ‘Private adoption?’ Nina instantly stiffened.

      Nadia gave her sister a streetwise look. ‘There are people out there who will pay big money for a cute little baby. I want to make sure I get the best deal I can. With my connections with Bryce I might even be able to find a Hollywood actor who will want Georgia. Think of the money they would be prepared to pay.’

      Nina’s eyes flared in shock and her heart began to thump unevenly behind her ribcage. ‘How can you do this to your own child?’

      ‘It’s none of your business what I do,’ Nadia said. ‘She’s my child, not