Slowly and carefully, Billie read the letter. For all its startling opening, it was a remarkably sensible and far from dramatic communication in which its writer, Desmond Bury, explained that he had fallen in love with her mother, Lauren, when she'd come to work as a teenage receptionist at his father's vehicle-repair garage. An engagement had followed during which Lauren had fallen pregnant. Sadly, by then, Lauren had decided that she no longer wanted to marry Desmond and, having told him that she intended to seek a termination, she had dumped him for another man. He'd had no further contact with Lauren until he'd come upon a newspaper article about Billie's engagement to Alexei, which had also featured a picture of her with Lauren. Ever since he had been wondering if Billie could be his
