Page 27 of A Diamond Deal
Something died inside her.
He’d searched the world to find her, but he didn’t wantherto come back to him.
Had some part of her hoped he wanted her back?
No. But still, it stung. After everything they’d been through, he wanted her to play a part. Put on a show. Forhisreputation. He wanted her to lie to the world to restore his image. The thought of doing it—putting on a show of smiles and tiaras—and pretending her son, however briefly he’d been with her, hadn’t changed her. Changed everything.
He had.
She wouldn’t betray her son.
She would not forget him.
Not like…him.
‘I won’t lie.’ She shook her head. ‘Not even foryou.’
You’ve lied before.
Shame heated her cheeks. She’d done it for her father.For herself, she corrected. But she didn’t want to be that person any more. She wouldn’t be her.
A liar.
Konstantinos knew the vague truth about her family—her father’s adulterous ways—but he didn’t knowherpart in destroying two families. And she wouldn’t tell him.
She couldn’t.
‘Is it a lie to show them how we once were?’ he asked softly. A voice intended to soothe.To seduce.‘To show them how we couldn’t keep our hands off each other? How strong our connection—’
‘Stop it,’ she husked, because she didn’t want to think of the before.
It was done.
It was over.
Theywere over.
‘Is it so terrible to re-enact something that was once true?’ he asked. ‘We can jump back—rewind time to before—’
‘Isaak?’ His name flew from her mouth. She waited for him to say it back. His name. He never had after he’d gone.
Isaak’s name meantlaughter.
Konstantinos had chosen it. A name he now refused to speak. But she’d known when he’d walked into her room and announced it. She’d known why he’d chosen it. Their childhoods had been void of laughter.Of light.They both knew those truths about each other. Both knew their childhoods were why they’d needed a marriage set within boundaries.
They had been so similar in so many ways, and yet…
Shewas different now. Before Isaak, never would she have cried. Let herself…feel.But she felt. Felt too much. And she couldn’t stop them.Feelings.She didn’t want to stop. Her grief was her connection to Isaak. Her son. To the love she never knew she could feel this intensely—this achingly—for anyone. But she had loved her son.Loved him.
‘Wewill spend the week here,’ he responded, as if she’d never said his name out loud. As if he meant nothing.
He’d never wanted a baby, she reminded herself.
But you did.
She hadn’t. Not until she’d felt him growing inside her. And she’d sworn he would know everything she hadn’t.Stability.No one would threaten to yank her love away from her child. Her child would not have to keep secrets to earn her love. She’d love him.Unconditionally.And then her stomach had been as empty as her heart. And Konstantinos had just carried on. As if the death of their child meant nothing.
She closed her eyes briefly.Shut him out.
