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Chapter 15
“Why don’t you love me?”
“It’s not a matter of not loving you. An eighteen-foot-long flower wall isn’t in our budget.”
Stella suppressed the eye roll that would threaten her contract with the recently engaged couple sitting on the other side of her desk and interrupted.
“Perhaps we could come back to the decor later? Which cake flavour is your favourite so far?”
“I like the lemon,” the groom-to-be said, bravely ignoring the daggers his future wife was staring into his temple.
“Gina?”
“The lemon’s fine.”
“Fabulous.” Stella beamed at the couple and set down her own fork on the plate of cake samples. “So, a three-tier lemon cake with blueberry mousse and a white-chocolate ganache. And the chocolate cupcakes as an alternative to the groom’s cake. Shall we move on to the invitation suite?”
By the time her office door closed behind the bickering couple, Stella was exhausted. Some events were a walk in the park, but some she could tell from the outset would be trouble. Gina-and-Brandtly’s wedding was one, and she’d bet a reasonable chunk of her fee they’d be divorced within five years. Since her scare in Avali, she was having a harder than usual time keeping her own feelings under the surface. The reality of lying alone under the stark, assessing gaze of a doctor while he prodded at her before declaring the bleeding inconsequential had frightened her more than she’d realised at the time. She’d spent more than one night trembling with a head full of what-ifs and the dawning understanding that this would be what her entire foray into motherhood would be. Her and her baby, a team against the world. Lying her head on her desk she breathed deeply, resting a hand on her stomach. The firmness of her slightly swollen belly under her white silk blouse made her smile, and she gave it a gentle rub.
I’ll take care of you, little one. We’ll be fine.
“Hey, Stella? I’m going to lunch. Do you want me to grab you anything?” Her assistant, Jessie, popped her head around the door.
“Maybe a steak and cheese pie?”
“Done.” Jessie gave her a funny look on her way out of the office.
Stella shook her head a little and turned back towards her computer. Leaning back in her ergonomic chair, she flipped open the Gina-and-Brandtly’s Doomed Wedding binder and scanned the contents. Jessie had taken the booking while she was in the islands, and the March date gave Stella pause. She was due in March, and currently had no idea how she would manage an events business nine months pregnant, let alone post-partum. A partnership was the obvious solution, but rebranding would be a nightmare and it would only be successful if she could find the right colleague to help her juggle her work-life balance once the baby arrived. Especially if she’d be traveling to Avali regularly so her child could spend time with its father.
The thought of Aleki still stung, but in the fortnight since she’d fled Avali the pain had receded to a point where her breath no longer caught in her chest when she thought of him. Two weeks of deafening silence had done more to disillusion her to the idea that he might have feelings for her than any of the things he’d said during their final night together.
Her own stupidity though, in falling for a man who had quite clearly said and shown that he had no interest in romantic relationships, was still a sore point. One that she hugged to her chest in the dark at night, a gaping wound where hope used to reside.
On impulse, she picked up the phone and dialled his number.
“Malo?”
Just for a second, her heart stopped, the rich timbre of his accent pouring through her like sunshine.
“Aleki. It’s, uh, it’s Stella.”
A pause. “Stella.”
“Yes. I, um, I’m just calling about the baby.” She rolled her eyes, both at the lame excuse and her mangled delivery.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes. I just wanted to check in. Did you get the results email from the specialist?”
“I did.” He sounded… careful. As though her question might be a trap.
“So, the bleeding can be common in the first trimester. I’ve just entered the second now so there’s a much lower chance of miscarriage from here on out.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Giving up on all hope of dignity, Stella breathed out her next sentence in a rush. “I, um, I wanted to apologise for the way I left things. It was unfair to you and I should have waited to speak to you personally.”
A faint noise from the other end of the line - the slightest hitch of breath.
“Stel—”
She carried on, pushing through whatever he might try to say in her need to get the words out. “I really do want this to be fair for both of us. I’ve hired another lawyer to draft up a more equitable parental agreement since marriage is no longer on the table.”
There was a long pause.
“A parenting agreement.” Aleki’s voice was tight. “I see. If that’s what you want, of course I’ll sign. Have the documents sent to Lani. Is there anything else?”
The last vestiges of optimism withered inside her. Cold seeped through the hole it left, freezing her slowly from her bones out.
“Uh, no.” She shook her head slowly, tears pricking at the backs of her eyes. “No, I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Okay, take care.” The dial tone rang in her ear, a flat chord that sounded just like the final sound of a heart monitor. Ironic, she thought, as she lowered her phone to the desk, the pain in her own heart a nuclear explosion mushrooming out over the numbness of her surrounding body.
The sound of her office door brought her back to the present, and she fought through the fog in her head to say something, anything, that would sound normal and also ensure she was left alone.
“Can you grab me a chocolate milk too, Jessie?”
“Pardon?”
Startling at the unfamiliar voice, Stella swiveled in her chair.
“What are you doing here?”
Tala Tuila cleared her throat and shifted her weight between her feet.
“I’d like to speak to you.”
“I don’t know that we have anything to discuss.” The memory of Aleki’s broken confession following their televised interview broke through her own heartbreak and hardened her voice.
“Well, I’d like to apologise then.” Tala entered and sat in the chair Jessie had recently vacated. “I acted poorly towards you in Avali and I’m sorry for that.”
Suspicion kept Stella from replying. Tala’s eyes darted towards her left hand before returning to her eyes. “You’re not wearing your engagement ring.”
Stella let the silence swell into discomfort that hung thick in the space between them.
Tala closed her eyes briefly and exhaled.
“My job is not easy. I’m young and I’m a woman. In Avali, that means I have to work four times as hard to be taken half as seriously by the public and my colleagues. The interview with you and Prince Aleki was an opportunity to assert myself as more of a hard-hitting journalist, and I took it.”
“Was it worth it?”
“Yes.” Tala’s reply was quick and adamant. “I’m in Wellington today as a foriegn correspondent covering your election and the impact it will have on the relationship between our countries. It’s a trial assignment to gauge my potential for a shift to the evening news.”
A small smile twisted Stella’s lips. “That’s a great opportunity.”
“It is. I’m not sorry for trying to establish myself in my career, but I do want to apologise for ambushing you and for any problems that may have caused between yourself and His Highness. It wasn’t fair to you and it certainly wasn’t in keeping with the hospitality of our country.”
The small coil of anger unfurled in Stella’s stomach as she considered the younger woman. Wanting to succeed was certainly a familiar notion, and resenting Tala for taking the chance to further her career with their disastrous interview sat uncomfortably with her.
“Okay,” she said at last. “I accept your apology. Thank you for taking the time to come and deliver it in person. I wish you all the best in your career.”
Tala smiled briefly, a glint of determination evident in her dark eyes.
“Actually, Ms Warren, there is one other thing.”
* * *
