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those chocolate cakes, please?” she asked before Abigail opened the door. “They’re the best thing you sell.”
    “Come back when you’re eighteen and tell me that,” Abigail retorted, putting a hand to the girl’s back and pushing her out of the office.
    At the front, Abigail boxed up a slice of chocolate cake. “Two pounds ninety-five pence, please.”
    Leila blinked. “I thought we were friends now.”
    Cheeky mare! They’d called a truce for all of two minutes and she wanted freebies? “Yeah. And friends don’t expect their friends to work for free. Nothing good in this world is ever truly free.”
    Reluctantly, Leila handed over three pound coins. “Suppose you should keep the five pee for a tip.”
    “Madam is generous today,” Abigail murmured, dropping the coin into the tips jar. Leila gazed at her with those large green eyes of hers. Ah. That there was all Liam. The searching gaze.
    “You wouldn’t mind if I came back?” Leila asked.
    “Not now you’re a paying customer,” she agreed. “Any time.”
    Sheila got up from the table she’d commandeered. “Well. Nice to see you two have made up. I’ll tell Liam that today was a success.”
    “Bye, Sheila,” Abigail said dryly. Leila sent her a more enthusiastic but shy wave on her exit. Messed-up kid. Her friends were right, it honestly wasn’t worth it. Maybe. Christ, she really wished Liam hadn’t kissed her. At least then she could have dismissed him altogether.

Chapter Six
     
     
    Abigail hadn’t replied to his call or text message. His disappointment was only slightly curbed by the marked improvement in Leila’s behaviour. She was suddenly back to her normal self. Polite and helpful. He asked her if everything was all right and she made a face. “You’re still here, so I guess it is.”
    The cryptic nature of what she said was somehow dispelled by his mother informing him that she had apologised properly to Abigail and the two had decided to be friends. Progress? Or a waiting game for Leila to change tactics and cause havoc down the line? Christ, he shouldn’t be so suspicious of his own child. She wasn’t her mother’s daughter. He hoped.
    His phone rang just as the doorbell rang. Picking up the mobile and heading for the door at the same time, he answered. “Hello?”
    “Liam?”
    “Letter for Mr. McNamara.”
    “Abigail,” he said into the phone, “hold on a moment.”
    “Um...sure.”
    He signed for the letter and closed the door. “Abigail? Still there?”
    She breathed out slowly. “I’ve been turning this over in my head and I should have called you the second I found out but... I wanted to leave you to it.”
    Walking back to the kitchen, he glanced at the letter, to see if there was a return address or anything written on it. “Leave me to what? I don’t understand.”
    “When Leila came to the café a few days ago... She told me...”
    “What did she say to you?” he prompted, his voice gentle. Abigail was silent. “Whatever it was,” he said with encouragement, “she trusted you to tell you.”
    Abigail exhaled. “She knows, Liam.”
    The breath caught in his throat. “What?”
    “She knows there’s a chance she might not be yours. She heard her grandparents talking. That’s why she’s been a nightmare. She’s scared.”
    He rested his hands on the kitchen counter, waiting until he felt connected to his body once more.
    “Liam?”
    “I’m... I don’t know. Thank you for telling me.”
    “What will you do?”
    His heart was breaking for what his poor baby girl knew, and it spoke volumes that she’d divulged her secret to Abigail. “I’m going to talk to her.”
    “You’re not going to...”
    “Kill the Ellis’s?” he said ruefully. “Prison’s not my thing. I don’t want a boyfriend called Nails and I certainly don’t want Leila suffering any more than she has done.” His former in-laws were lucky he had a conscience. Another man would be wiping their blood from his knife