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‘I can’t believe it.’
‘It’s online.’ There was a pause. ‘There. I’ve sent you a link.’
‘Gracias.’
She disconnected the call without knowing if the conversation was at an end. Her forehead was hot and clammy as she clicked into the text message link and the article expanded on her device.
Tycoon’s Marriage Merger! the headline screamed.
She read the article with a growing sense of panic and a lessening ability to breathe, then stared at her phone, the whole world seemingly made of shards of a broken mirror that she had no idea how to safely traverse.
‘Amelia.’ She hadn’t heard him come in and the sound of his voice startled her. She lifted her gaze towards him and saw the tightness in his expression. The wariness too.
‘You gave an interview?’ Her words were low and throaty, her sense of betrayal evident in each sore syllable.
A muscle throbbed low in his throat and she stared at it, then shifted her gaze sideways, to the corridor beyond the door. Their baby kicked against her ribs but she didn’t react.
‘A long time ago,’ he conceded, nodding, stepping into the room but pausing when she stiffened.
‘When?’ She looked at him, a plea in her features.
‘Before we were married,’ he said. ‘I had forgotten about the damned piece.’
‘Don’t.’ She shook her head, standing, nothing making any sense any more.
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t lie to me. Don’t act as though this wasn’t all a part of your plan.’
His brows knitted together as he stared at her, then he closed the gap between them, his stride long and purposeful. ‘I am sorry the article ran. I am sorry I couldn’t prepare you for it. I gave the editor an earful on the drive over here,’ he said with a shake of his head.
‘He’s just doing his job! What were you doing? Bragging to all and sundry about how clever you are to have acquired the company you’ve always wanted through this...marriage merger of ours! That’s all this is for you, isn’t it?’
‘I have never used those words to describe what we are,’ he contradicted fiercely. ‘And you know as well as anyone that the reason I married you is for our baby, not because of Prim’Aqua.’
She recoiled as though he’d slapped her and breath burned in her lungs. She did know the reason they’d married, but it still hurt to be reminded of how calculated this had all been for him. ‘And somewhere between my agreeing to marry you and us actually getting married, you had time to gloat to a journalist about the controlling stake in Prim’Aqua you’d scored?’
He ground his teeth together. ‘It is a statement of fact, not a gloat.’
‘And the hurt this article caused my family? Can you imagine how they felt, waking up to read this?’
His expression tightened, his eyes glistening black. ‘I do not care what your family felt,’ he said finally, coldly, and then, with a noticeable softening of his features, ‘I care about you. About any hurt this stupid journalism has caused you to feel.’
She bit down on her lip and turned her back on him. ‘Hurting my family does hurt me. You’ve known that all along.’
He was silent.
‘Nothing’s changed for you, has it?’
‘What do you mean?’ he queried from right behind her, so his breath was warm against her flesh and her stomach twisted at his nearness and the distance she felt growing between them.
‘You still hate my family—even though they’re a part of me, and our baby is a part of them.’
He made a growling sound of dissent. ‘Everything’s changed. We are married. When I gave that interview, I didn’t see you as much more than a means to an end, it’s true.’
She winced.
‘I have never hidden my feelings about your family.’
