AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And come hell or high water he’d be around to make sure she and the baby were fine.
His lean, strong features grim, he paused as he approached the room she had been given, ran his fingers through his already rumpled hair, over his stubble-roughened chin, and mentally cursed Irini and her problems. Problems she’d landed on him, gaining his reluctant promise to tell no one else, hysterically vowing that the only way she’d agree to taking the professional help she so obviously needed was on hearing his promise that no one else should hear about it.
It had been young Eleni who had found Maddie crumpled on the floor two days ago, who’d rushed to alert the housekeeper, who had then had the presence of mind to phone for an ambulance.
Two days. Forty-eight long hours while his Maddie had suffered. Waiting, alone, in a fever of anxiety through a whole slew of tests to discover if the tiny life inside her was safe.
Two unforgivable days since his aunt had seen fit to stir herself, lift a phone to reach his mobile and tell him of the emergency!
Two days while he’d been pandering to the needy Irini, convincing her that life was worth living, that her threatened overdose was foolish talk, eventually persuading her that at long last her parents must be told of the drug problem she had vowed was sorted.
Had he had the slightest idea that his Maddie was in danger of losing their baby he would not have answered Irini’s hysterical call for the help she’d always insisted he alone could give her.
His teeth clenched until his jaw ached.
Had he known what he knew now the wretched woman would have been left to sort her own problems out. But at the time—to his own deep shame—he had put what he had mentally named Maddie’s tantrum down to her mysterious jealousy of the other woman.
Cursing himself to hell and back, he dragged in a deep breath, expelled it slowly, relaxed his tautly held shoulders and opened the door.
Propped up against the pillows, Maddie had another stab at concentrating on the magazine one of the nurses had given her to look at. But she still felt a little drowsy from the mild sedative she’d been given yesterday, to help her relax, and the magazine—Greek language, but glamorous fashion shots—couldn’t hold her interest.
Besides, she couldn’t imagine herself ever trying to shoehorn herself and what she’d always considered to be her over-generous curves into any of the skinny garments so enticingly displayed. They all seemed to be designed to be worn by the models pictured—walking skeletons! Women
like Irini!
Despite her earlier good intentions, tears scalded her eyes. Dimitri hadn’t even bothered to phone her and see how she was doing, let alone visit. Too bound up with that dreadful woman to give a single thought to his second best wife. Had it come down to this? That Irini was even more important to him than the fate of their baby? It certainly looked like it!
A lump the size of a house brick formed in her throat. She swallowed it angrily and scrubbed at her eyes with a corner of the cotton sheet.
Enough!
What had she promised herself?
That he wasn’t worth a single tear and Irini wasn’t worth so much as a glancing thought. That she would think about only really positive things. Her hand moved to rest gently on her tummy. Her baby was safe. Nothing else mattered.
Certainly not a low-life like her husband, with his sordid obsession with a stick insect!
As soon as she felt able she would take the second option he’d offered back on the island. Leave him. But she would return to England, pass the waiting time at her parents’ new home, where her mother would pamper her and love her. And understand.
No way would she agree to his stipulation that she stay in Greece to enable him to have frequent and ongoing access to his child. Seeing him often would keep raw wounds open and bleeding. She wouldn’t do it. It would have to be a clean and total break.
By flying to Irini’s side when she, his wife, had pleaded with him to stay with her, he had forfeited any rights.
And if he decided to take her to court to challenge her right to custody she’d fight him down to the last breath in her body!
Oh, for pity’s sake, calm down! she told herself. Getting in a state over an unworthy slimeball would do nothing but harm. Sinking back against the pillows, she closed her eyes and tried to visualise peaceful things, like gentle waves lapping on a soft shoreline, or tranquil woodland carpeted with bluebells that swayed in an early May breeze.
But all she could see was his face!
When she heard the door open she opened her eyes, expecting to encounter a nurse, come to take her blood pressure. Again. And opened them wider when she saw the real thing, not the image that seemed indelibly printed on her retina.
Had she had a missile heavier than a mere magazine she would have thrown it at his head! As it was, she had to be content with muttering fiercely, ‘Go away!’
Dimitri had to summon all his reserves of self-control to stop himself striding over to her and enfolding her in arms that ached to do just that. Hold her close and never let her go.
She had every right to be angry. But she was overwrought, and it was imperative that she stay calm. There were dark smudges beneath the blue brilliance of her eyes, and a new fragility marked her delicate skin. His throat tightened as his hands made fists at his sides.
‘You have every right to be angry,’ he verbalised, his voice steady, much against his expectations. ‘I only learned of what had happened half an hour or so ago, when Aunt Alexandra decided she could be bothered to contact me. I have informed her that she has to make other living arrangements before the end of the month, if not sooner. Like today!’
