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At that moment, Nicky gave a chuckle of satisfaction. His big brown eyes looked up to his mother for approval and she told him what a beautiful boy he was. Anatalya, having firmly placed herself in Billie’s support camp, arrived with the day’s newspapers. While the housekeeper bent down to give Nicky her attention, Billie spread the papers across the dining table.
‘You shouldn’t look at them,’ Hilary warned her in the tone of a woman who knew her advice would be ignored. ‘They twist the truth and print lies, and it upsets you.’
‘I’m not upset and I won’t get upset,’ Billie vowed, only for the blood to drain from her features while she studied the latest photo of Alexei. There was no chance that what she was looking at was a lie, she reflected wretchedly. If only it had been. With a stunning lack of discretion for a married man, Alexei was seated at a fashionable pavement café on an elegant Parisian boulevard with a very beautiful blonde companion, a woman whom Billie had never expected to see in his company any more. ‘Alexei’s meeting up with Calisto again!’ she cried strickenly before she could think better of that revealing outburst.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Hilary breathed in disbelief, only to stare in dismay at the newspaper pages that her niece spread across her lap.
‘I told you that you should have chased after him when he left the yacht,’ Lauren sniped, staring over her sister’s shoulder, unmoved by that shocking photo. It was obvious that her cynical expectations of her son-in-law had just been fully vindicated. ‘Never let an angry man go if you want him back. Left to their own devices, they get up to all sorts of mischief!’
Billie was incapable of response. Just then, looking at Calisto with Alexei in Paris and thinking of them being together, she was living her every nightmare come true. Who had contacted whom first? Who had made that crucial first move? After being disillusioned by Billie, had Alexei turned straight back to the glamorous Greek divorcee for consolation? Was he already thinking that breaking off his relationship with Calisto had been a mistake?
A smart rata-tat-tat on the rarely used front door of her home made Billie jerk in surprise. ‘Who on earth is that?’ she muttered.
‘I’ll go and see.’ Hilary was already out of her seat, keen to bury any further discussion about Alexei and Calisto Bethune in Paris. A minute later, however, Billie’s attractive blonde aunt stuck her head back round the door and asked Billie to join her.
Billie was taken aback to find a trio of men standing in her hallway. Two of them were known to her and their appearance dismayed her a good deal: Baccus Klonis, the head of Alexei’s legal team, and his second-in-command. Her face coloured with embarrassment. The third man was the doctor entrusted with the task of taking a DNA swab from the mouth of Nicky. Billie was stunned by their arrival without prior notice and the clear expectation that she would agree to the testing being carried out. While Hilary moved ahead of her to shepherd Anatalya, Lauren and the dog into the small seating area off the kitchen, Billie showed her visitors into the spacious lounge.
‘Did Alexei ask you to do this?’ she prompted tautly.
‘Naturally I’m following Mr Drakos’ instructions,’ Baccus informed her with scrupulous politeness.
Billie felt as if she had just been slapped in the face and her cheeks reddened afresh. Even though Alexei might appear to be wandering without purpose around Europe he had still contrived to consult his lawyers and it cut her even deeper to learn that he had instructed them to have their baby son DNA tested in spite of the fact that he knew that Billie was against it. A tense silence settled while Billie considered her options. Of course she could withhold her consent to the test. Possibly Alexei even expected her to refuse and he would undoubtedly consider a negative response as yet more evidence that she was lying. It might be humiliating to agree to her son being tested, Billie conceded angrily, but at least it would prove his identity. That at least would force Alexei to accept that their intimate encounter had actually happened somewhere other than in her imagination.
The doctor explained the simple procedure. Billie scooped up Nicky. A swab was taken from inside her child’s mouth. Although it was accomplished in seconds and without causing her child the slightest annoyance or discomfort, the whole scene felt unreal to Billie and very much like a nasty invasion of their privacy. Had she and Alexei truly reached such an impasse that he had to treat her like this? And communicate with her only through his legal representatives? She watched the men leave and shivered as Hilary came up behind her and squeezed her taut shoulder in a quiet gesture of support and understanding.
‘It had to be done,’ her aunt said quietly. ‘When Alexei realises that that little boy is his, everything is sure to change for the better.’
It was typical of Hilary to cherish an optimistic outlook. Billie was less confident. Was Alexei ready to be a father? She didn’t think so. Would he begin to understand why she had behaved as she had? Or was she to be for ever condemned as a disgusting liar by a guy who had never had to adjust his black and white take on ethics for anyone’s benefit?
‘I think I’ll go for a walk on the beach—’
‘I’ll put Nicky down for his nap,’ Hilary cut in, well aware that her niece was eager to escape listening to what her mother would have to say about the DNA testing Nicky had just undergone.
A slender elegant figure in cropped brown trousers and a gold T-shirt, Billie paused at the roadside to allow a car to drive past. She gave a weak smile when the car stopped and Damon Marios lowered the window to greet her. ‘I was just about to call on you—’
‘I’m going down to the beach.’
With a nod as if she had issued an invitation, Damon parked his car on the broad verge and got out to join her.
‘I don’t think that us being seen together is likely to do either of us any good,’ Billie remarked, secretly squirming with the anxiety over her marriage, which was urging her to exercise a rare kind of extreme caution. But when Alexei was being seen out and about with Calisto, what was she worrying about?
Damon cupped her elbow to steady her as she stumbled on her descent of the sloping ground that led down to the beach. ‘Well, don’t worry on my behalf. I’m getting a divorce…’
Billie turned dismayed eyes on him. ‘But I thought you and Ilona were back together again.’
Damon released a rueful laugh. ‘Yes, we were, but only briefly. I’m afraid the reconciliation didn’t work out. Two years ago, Ilona fell for a colleague at work and had an affair and now that she’s finally prepared to come clean on that score with her family and mine, we are both free to move on.’
Taken aback by that frank explanation, Billie spun and rested a sympathetic hand on his sleeve. ‘I had no idea, Damon…I’m truly sorry.’
‘It’s most sad for our daughters. They don’t understand why their mother is now bringing another man into their lives,’ Damon replied heavily as he reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers. ‘Ilona and I tried really hard to make a go of our marriage for their sake but we failed.’
Billie squeezed his arm. ‘How are your family taking it?’
Damon rolled his eyes and grimaced. ‘Like it’s the end of the world, like nobody ever got a divorce before; like Ilona has suddenly become the most wicked woman on Speros.’
‘I thought that was me!’
‘Your husband’s reputation goes before him. Everyone suspects Alexei of double-dealing.’
‘In this case they would be wrong.’
‘But not if the rumour that your aunt’s child is in fact yours is actually true,’ Damon chipped in, curious dark eyes settling on her flushed face.
‘That is true,’ Billie confirmed, since she had insisted that that deception was dropped the day after her wedding when she travelled back to the island alone. She could see that Damon was dying to ask who Nicky’s father was and that only good manners were restraining him, but she dropped the subject. She had no intention of sharing her innermost secrets with the son of one of the biggest gossips in th
e village.
Forty-eight hours later, having stayed in London long enough to secure the purchase of several oil super-tankers at a fantastic price, Alexei flew home. The sun was going down over the island of his birth in a blaze of fire on the horizon. Full of all the splintering energy and impatience that characterised him, he sprang out of the helicopter and strode towards the villa whose many windows were reflecting the vivid skies. Most of his staff greeted him in the front hall. His keen gaze narrowed, for the one person he had expected to see was nowhere to be seen. He strolled down to the master suite to check out his suspicions and glanced into the dressing room. Thirty seconds later, he summoned Helios, his head of security, and asked a question. The answer he received infuriated him.
Billie was alone in her house when Alexei arrived. He walked straight through the back door, noting and disapproving of the fact that it was unlocked as it facilitated his entry. ‘Billie?’ he called out, frowning at the silence.
The kitchen was tidy, the living area empty. A black fluffy puppy peered out from behind a sofa at him, uttered a tiny tentative little bark and then hurriedly disappeared again, duty evidently done. Alexei’s attention dwelt briefly on the basket of colourful toys and arrowed away again. Hearing music playing, he glanced into a bedroom and then noted the triangle of light showing to the side of the bathroom door, which had been left ajar.
