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With a flick of his finger on the remote the video came to life. The simple but clean walls of the hospital room in Kenya came into view before the camera swung over the machines to rest on my heavily pregnant form.
My breath strangled into nothing as the uniquely intimate and life-changing event unfolded on the screen, tugging at the very heart of me.
Beside me Ax caught his breath audibly as he watched a contraction hit me, and the hand that still held mine tightened. This footage had been taken about ten minutes before Andreos’s birth. Ax watched every frame without taking his gaze off the screen, his whole body rapt as Andreos was laid in my arms for the first time. He watched me kiss his wrinkled forehead, heard me murmur, ‘My little miracle,’ as tears of joy spilled down my face.
His throat moved in a swallow when the video ended, and he immediately hit ‘rewind’ and watched it all over again.
Then his gaze shifted to me.
‘Ax...’
He shook his head, raised my hand to his mouth, gently kissed the back of it. ‘It was a magnificent birth.’
Deep inside me something essential melted, pulling me into a dangerous spell I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to fight. Emotion clogging my throat, I smiled.
‘He’s a beautiful boy,’ he rasped, a throb of deep pride in his voice.
I blinked unbidden tears away. ‘Yes. He is.’
‘As beautiful as his mother.’
As my breath caught all over again, his thumb rubbed across my knuckles.
‘Again you have my thanks—especially since you had to go through that alone.’
‘I’d do anything for him,’ I replied, and I knew the fervent well of my emotion had registered with him.
For the longest time he simply stared, then his gaze returned to the screen, his vision going a little hazy. ‘The reality of him—’ He stopped. ‘He may be an unexpected arrival in my life, but I want the chance to do right by him. To do things differently—’
Again he stopped, prompting questions I couldn’t halt.
‘Differently from what? Your father? I noticed your stiff interaction at the wedding, then again at the family mixer, and assumed I was to blame.’
He shook his head. ‘Our issues go back a little further. I was still a teenager when my grandfather announced that I was to be his successor. In his eyes my father didn’t have what it took to make the tougher decisions.’ A muscle ticked in his jaw as his lips firmed. ‘My father disagreed. He attempted to prove my grandfather wrong.’
I frowned. ‘How?’
‘My grandfather temporarily handed him the reins of the company. Six months later my father suffered a breakdown brought on by extreme stress. He didn’t take the prognosis well.’
‘What did he do?’
‘He believed my grandfather had humiliated him. And when my grandfather made it known that he’d seen me as his successor all along, my father...didn’t take it well. His resentment festered irreparably.’ His lips twisted. ‘Which, in a nutshell, is the story of my whole family.’
‘But you all seem so...united—give or take the odd vibe or two.’
He shrugged cynically. ‘Self-interest, especially where wealth is concerned, has a way of binding even the most dissenting individuals. My father may not like the status quo but he’s had to accept it.’
‘Is there no way to repair your relationship?’
A hint of bleakness came and went in his eyes within a heartbeat. ‘We’ve accepted our strengths and our weaknesses. My father may resent me for seemingly usurping him, but he doesn’t want the role.’
‘You offered it to him?’
His lips thinned. ‘A few years ago I suggested a partnership. He refused.’
‘He wanted all or nothing?’
His lips twisted. ‘Don’t we all?’
