Page 31 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
Silence hung between them as he stared down at her.
‘And you think my son will continue to be just fine growing up in a run-down tenement among thieves and pimps?’ One haughty eyebrow rose to a lofty height and Carys felt the weight of his disapproval push down on her.
‘You’re exaggerating,’ she countered, ignoring a twinge of guilt that she hadn’t been able to find somewhere better. ‘It’s not that bad. Besides, I’m planning to move.’
‘Really? And how will you find better premises on your wage?’
His supercilious tone made Carys bite her lip in frustration. It didn’t matter that her salary was the best she could get with her qualifications or that she worked hard for the money she earned. In the long term her prospects were good for promotion. But in the meantime…
‘I will provide for Leo. I always have.’
For a moment Alessandro’s gaze seemed to soften. ‘It must have been difficult, managing on your own.’
Carys shrugged. She didn’t dwell on that. On the fact that her siblings and father, scattered as they were around the globe, hadn’t found time to visit when Leo was born, or afterwards. They’d sent gifts instead. A money box from her advertising executive sister in Perth. A set of children’s books Leo couldn’t read for years from her physicist brother in New Zealand. An oversized fluffy rabbit from her brother at a medical outpost in New Guinea. And from her dad in Canada money to secure the bond on her flat.
They meant well and they cared in their distant, uninvolved way. But how she’d longed for one of them to make the effort to be with her when she’d felt so alone. When depression had vied with excitement and determination as she struggled on her own.
Defiantly Carys met the eyes of the one person who’d had the right to be at her side when Leo came into the world.
But that time was past.
‘I’m used to managing alone.’ Years younger than her siblings, the late child of parents engrossed in demanding careers, she’d virtually brought herself up. ‘Leo and I are OK.’
‘OK isn’t enough for my son. He deserves more.’
Carys compressed her lips, fighting the urge to agree. The doting mother in her wanted Leo to have the best opportunities. The sort of opportunities a working single mum couldn’t provide.
‘What Leo needs is love and a secure, nurturing environment. I give him that.’ She defied him to disagree.
‘Of course he does. And we’ll provide it. Together.’
Had Alessandro stepped closer? His eyes mesmerised and his persuasive dark coffee tone made the impossible sound almost sensible.
Carys gave herself a mental shake.
‘There’s no question of together. What we had is over.’
It died two years ago, when you betrayed me with another woman then accused me of being unfaithful. She didn’t say it out loud. There was no point in revisiting the past. Carys had to focus on the future, on what was best for Leo.
‘It will never be over, Carys.’ His voice dropped to a caress, like the stroke of velvet on bare, shivery skin. ‘We have a child together.’
She clasped her hands before her, horrified to find them shaking. His words conjured images that were too vivid, too enticing, of what it had been like when they’d been lovers.
‘But that’s no reason for marriage! You’ll have access to him, see him as he grows.’ It was a father’s right. Besides, despite the emotional turmoil it would cause her to see Alessandro regularly, it was a relief that Leo would grow up knowing his father. Every boy deserved—
‘Access?’ The word shot out like bullet. ‘You think that’s what I want? What my son needs?’
This time it wasn’t her imagination. Alessandro obliterated the space between them with a single stride. He loomed above her like an impregnable mountain citadel. Unmoving and unforgiving. Utterly forbidding.
She trembled at the impact of his powerful presence. Energy radiated from him. A dangerous undercurrent of power.
‘You have strange ideas about fatherhood. I’ve already missed the first year of my son’s life. I don’t intend to miss any more.’ His clipped words revealed gleaming white teeth as they bit out each word. Involuntarily Carys shrank a little.
‘I just meant—’
‘I know what you meant.’ He paused, scrutinising her as if she came from another planet. ‘Leo is my son. My flesh, my blood. I refuse to be a part-time visitor in his life while he grows up on the other side of the world.’
‘But marriage!’ Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth on the word. ‘The idea is absurd.’
Alessandro’s eyes darkened. His face stiffened and his lips thinned. ‘I assumed you’d prefer that to the alternative.’
