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“No,” she shook her head, her heart twisting painfully now. “There’s nothing natural about that.”
“What did you presume we’d do?”
“I thought I’d raise our baby and you’d be… involved.”
“Like a holiday father?” He drawled, his contempt obvious. “Do you really believe that is how I would react?”
“Given that you threw me out of your office after all of ninety seconds…”
His cheeks slashed dark with colour. “I had no idea you were pregnant with my child.”
“Nor did you give me much of a chance to explain.”
“You should have needed no invitation. If you had to shout it as I walked to the door, so be it. In any event,” he changed the subject swiftly, before she could respond. “I know now that you are pregnant, and I am telling you I will settle for nothing less than fully shared custody. It is either we raise this child on separate continents, each enjoying fifty percent of the baby’s life, or we marry and truly raise the child together.”
Bella’s skin felt cold and clammy all over. “But surely you don’t want that? You’re not a … I mean… your lifestyle… you’re not exactly a family man, Vitalo.”
“Says who?” He prompted, roaming his eyes over her face.
“Says everyone and everything I know about you!”
“You know very little about me, I promise you,” he said darkly.
She clenched her jaw together. “I know you’re more at home in a five star hotel than a home, you have a revolving door on your bedroom and no doubt a billion notches on your gold-gilt bedpost. We both agreed this was just a one-night thing and my being pregnant changes nothing.”
“Don’t be so naïve, Bella. It changes everything. Everything. If you think I’ll walk away from my obligations, then you’re mad.”
She stared at him, her eyes huge, her mind at a loss for what she could say in that moment.
“I don’t want to marry you,” she muttered eventually.
His expression didn’t shift. “And marrying you wasn’t even remotely on my agenda,” he said, with such calmness it was almost insulting. “But here we are, about to become parents. Don’t you think we owe it to this baby to put aside our own selfish desires and act in his or her best interests?”
Bella wanted to strangle him, for how manipulative he was being. For their child’s best interest, she would do almost anything – what expectant mother wouldn’t? But marrying this man?
“I could fight you,” she said sipping her tea, glad to have the mug to grip to hide the way her fingers were shaking.
“Yes.” He nodded, moving his face infinitesimally closer to hers. “We could both spend millions of euro hiring expensive lawyers who would delight in dragging us through court battles to establish who gets which slice of our child’s life.”
Bella shivered at the picture he painted.
“Money is no object for me, nor is it for you.” His eyes roamed her face, his expression inscrutable. “And I would spend my entire fortune to fight for this child, Bella, make no mistake about it. I would fight with my dying breath to be a part of our baby’s future.”
Her heart turned over painfully in her chest.
“You can be a part of our baby’s future.”
A muscle throbbed at the base of his jaw. “No.”
“Vitalo…”
“You are a beautiful woman. A passionate woman. What happens when you meet a man you want to be with? Should I back off and let you raise my child with him?”
Her cheeks flushed pink, first at his praise, and then his deduction. “I could say the same of you,” she murmured. “You’re just as likely to meet someone and marry them…”
“And how would you feel about another woman playing mommy to our child?”
Her pulse tripped up a gear, and she glared at him, but in response, said only, “It happens all the time.”
